iandol

When writing workflow instructions, it helps to enumerate what the various modifiers do. For example, you may write:
↩ Open file.
⌘↩ Copy file path to clipboard. ⌥↩ Reveal file in the Finder. ⌃↩ Delete file. ⇧↩ Upload file. Command, Option, Control, and Shift all have obvious symbols to pick. But what about Return? There are a litany of symbols to choose from which look like they could all do the job, including:
↩ Leftwards Arrow with Hook ⏎ Return Symbol ↵ Downwards Arrow with Corner Leftwards ⮐ Return Left ↲ Downwards Arrow with Tip Leftwards For Alfred workflows (anything macOS, really) I recommend sticking to the first one, Leftwards Arrow with Hook. The second, Return Symbol, is acceptable though suboptimal. All others should be actively avoided. I have personally agonised over this choice more than anyone should over the years and will present you with the rationale for what I currently feel is the best choice, along with some caveats.

The simplest argument for using ↩ to represent the Return key on macOS software is “that’s what Apple does”. To verify, navigate to System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts… and search for or set any shortcut that includes Return. The weight of this point will be clear to anyone who has spent any significant amount of time developing for Apple platforms and has dealt with the inevitable frustration of trying to deviate from their path.

A stronger argument is accessibilty. Apple’s operating systems include a capable screen reader called VoiceOver which is tremendously useful for people with vision impairments. Let’s see how it handles the different symbols with modifiers. You can enable VoiceOver in System Settings → Accessibility → VoiceOver and select each line to have it spoken back, or watch the screen recording I made. Here’s how each group is read, with added commentary.
⌘⌥↩ Command Option Return. Perfect. ⌘⌥⏎ Command Option Return Symbol. Return Symbol makes it weird and suboptimal. ⌘⌥↵ Command Option Downwards Arrow with Corner Leftwards. Awful and confusing. ⌘⌥⮐ Command Option. Doesn’t even read the symbol.  ⌘⌥↲ Command Option Downwards Arrow with Tip Leftwards. Awful and confusing. As you can attest, the symbol Apple uses for their interfaces sounds the best when read by VoiceOver. No surprise there.

Nevertheless, there are caveats.

If a user highlights just the ↩, VoiceOver reads it as Right Arrow Curving Left. Not great. In that case even Return Symbol would be preferable. But that’s an outlier case, and because ↩ is favoured by Apple it has a better chance of getting attention and being improved.

Another minor issue is that on iOS the symbol can be rendered as an emoji, which is arguably a bit uglier. But it remains perfectly readable and in situations where some HTML is rendered (including GitHub READMEs) you can force it to show as text by using the Unicode Variation Selector-15. In other words, by writing it as ↩︎ (yes, it looks like a mess, but you won’t see it when it’s rendered).

Are those deal breakers? That’s everyone’s individual choice to make. I would argue they are not and that the inclusivity is worth it.

I mentioned at the top that the Return Symbol ⏎ is also acceptable though suboptimal. I can make a couple of arguments in its favour, but ultimately can also formulate resposes to them:
“It’s called Return Symbol, it’s in its name”. Yeah, but ⌘ is truly Place of Interest Sign, ⌃ is Up Arrowhead, and ⇧ is Upwards White Arrow. Only ⌥ is Option Key. Interestingly, it’s Option Key but Return Symbol. If it were Return Key there would be a stronger argument in favour of this symbol. “In the San Francisco font, Apple made it look exactly like the Return key printed on its keyboards”. Yeah, and I agree it looks good in that specific case, but everywhere else it looks chunky, heavy, a different family from the other icons. It’s a similar tradeoff to the emoji situation. Like so many things in life and computing, there isn’t one perfect solution. But there are a few which stand out above the alternatives, and the best coice may depend on context and careful consideration of the tradeoffs. For describing macOS software, including Alfred workflows, I have settled on ↩. At least for now.

Yep!

Feedback: the extension mechanism work's perfectly! My Primary is Local LM but as I also use Mistral (via Proxy) and Gemini sometimes, so use two blocks:
 

 
I assume most variables could be passed this way?
 

I haven't, it seems a workable solution to my issue, thank you!

brew.sh/pandoc
 
pandoc -s file.html -o file.md pandoc --wrap=preserve -s file.html -o file.md

Just to be all fanboy-ish, but your interface to customise the options for each conversation (press tab) is just wonderful! And using AI to generate title summary is the :chefs-kiss: 🧑‍🍳

You can just edit actions.json. That file will only be generated when the pkl is manually evaluated. Just make sure to backup your changes before next updating the workflow.
 
And keep in mind the latest addition: cf. directly above here 😄
 

I wasn't even aware of LM Studio's CLI yet! From skimming the documentation, it looks like it can't be an easy drop-in replacement for the Ollama CLI. 
There's no way to search for compatible models, or to pull them directly from the registry / huggingface. However, there are some similar features that could be used to refactor the workflow to achieve some limited local model management:
List installed models List loaded models Unload models Deleting models might be as simple as sending the blobs to the trash, but this would need to be confirmed and tested.
 
 
Nah, it's the same approach I use with the Nexus and there they are also available for LMS – it's something built-in to the workflow 😄
 
 
Thanks for the kind words, and you're welcome!
 
 
Btw., Alfred Ollama is featured on the official Ollama repo 🥳 
 

BTW, totally awesome icon!!! I just downloaded to look, your workflows are so beautifully laid out and clear, and this workflow should lay a useful foundation to make something more specific to LMS, so thank you!!!

v1.0.0-alpha.8
 
This is a big one.
 
New Added File Attachments Document Attachments Supporting: PDF, docx, plain text, source Requires pandoc to extract text from docx. Otherwise a crude workaround will be used that loses formatting. Image Attachments Supporting: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude Added "Sticky Preview" ad hoc GUI applet (persistent floating window) Requires pandoc Migrated to Conversations (reworked chat history) The chats (array of messages) will be migrated to a new conversation struct with richer metadata. Better safe than sorry: backup your archive. Added conversation detail view Added favorites, pins, indicators for attached files and images Added !bang filters: !fav, !doc, !img, !key Added keyword / tag system (access via !key) Keywords are generated together with Summary Titles and can be manually configured via the conversation detail view. Added automated summary title creation Added configuration option "Create Title Summaries" Added environment variable shared_chat_title_summary_override_service Added environment variable shared_chat_title_summary_override_model Added sound and HUD notification to inference actions completions that were copied to the clipboard Improvements Inference Actions now accept instructions or questions directly from the ScriptFilter, i.e. when no preset matches the user input. If the query is suffixed with a question mark, the answer.question inference action will be used as template, otherwise follow.instruction. Added configuration option to show model info in chat @Floating.Point Added the model to the accessibility description of the assistant icon, i.e. hover over the name with your cursor to see the model that was used. Added token counting for Gemini Added token counting for Claude Added token counting for Proxy: Groq Added token counting for Proxy: OpenRouter Added token counting for Proxy: Fireworks.ai Added token counting for Proxy: Together.ai Added token counting for Proxy: DeepInfra Added truncation to message preview slices in history when searching Chat history filtering: purge all obvious markdown markup Extensive internal refactoring Updates Rewritten conversation history Migrated utility user actions into the main executable Migrated archive handling into the main executable Made all relevant external triggers available via URL handler Models Added Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B Updated to claude-3-5-haiku-latest Updated to claude-3-5-sonnet-latest Updated to claude-3-opus-latest Removed Gemini 1.0 Pro Fixes Adjusted HUD for macOS Sequoia  
[!IMPORTANT] 
Back up your customized Inference Actions before updating or your changes will be lost.
 
Also: Added example configuration for DeepInfra to the wiki.
 
 



 
FYI, the previews also work with the extra pane.
 

 
 
This is a proper "alpha" release. It introduces some significant changes that can potentially break your chat history. Although they should be migrated smoothly, it's better to be safe than sorry: make a backup of your archive (located in the workflow data folder). 
 
Moreover, while haphazardly testing some things, I nuked my info.plist recently and had to rebuild on a 2 week old backup 😂. Everything should be back in place, but it's possible that something is still missing. Let me know if you notice anything weird.
 
 
 

@iandol The pause is while Alfred is trying to load a custom workflow icon. Do you have synced prefs? If so, it's likely they aren't stored locally:
 
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/advanced/sync/#always-offline
 
If you are syncing your prefs, and they are already marked as available offline, try temporarily moving the prefs to a local folder.
 
Cheers,
Andrew

Wow, amazing set of supported interfaces, thank you @zeitlings -- beautiful icon too!!!
 
On github, alpha.1 is newer than alpha.2, I assume alpha.2 is the better one to download though?
 

Alfred has been regularly updated, and the new features are always so well polished. Honestly there are few apps with a miniscule 17MB disk footprint that are so beautifully designed, so carefully thought out, and so featureful. The Alfred developers carefully consider features, but unless they are convinced they don't just keep adding features. I call this Artisan software. Single developer and small support team = razor sharp focus. Bookends and Scrivener are other examples of this Artisan approach. Better than all the flashy publicity that VC hot air conjures up, whose apps are invariably designed by committee and a rolling set of corporate employees with a passing interest in the tool they are developing.
 
No shares in the company or personal relationships 😉, just admiration and respect from a paying customer for a beautifully crafted tool...

TLDR From Claude 3.5
 
Alfred Setup: System and App-Specific Hotkeys
 
Overview
Two main hotkeys: ‘System’ and ‘App Specific’ System hotkey: Invokes Alfred (when pressed alone) or acts as Hyper Key (when held) App Specific hotkey: Launches workflow for current app Key Setup (using Karabiner Elements)
Caps Lock: When held: Hyper Key (Command+Control+Option+Shift) When pressed alone: Hyper Key + Spacebar Command: When held: Remains Command When pressed alone: F19 Steps:
Install Karabiner Elements Go to ‘Complex Modifications’ and click ‘Add rule’ Add the following custom complex modifications as separate rules. For each: Click ‘Add rule’ Copy and paste the Gist content into the field Click ‘Save’ Rules to add: Hyper Key Implementation for Alfred Command to F19 when pressed alone Alfred Configuration
Set main Alfred hotkey to Hyper Key + Space (⌃⌥⇧⌘+Space) Workflow Setup
System workflows: Use Hyper Key + [letter] for system-wide functions App-specific workflows: Create a workflow for each app Set Hotkey Trigger to F19 Add app to ‘Related apps’ in Hotkey Trigger Object Implement desired app-specific actions using Alfred’s various tools and features Benefits
Easier to remember commands across different apps Customizable to user’s needs Utilizes rarely used keys (Caps Lock, Command alone)

TLDR
In the next post is a TLDR generated by LLM Claude 3.5 and tweaked a little manually
 
Introduction
I use a combination of Alfred and Karabiner Elements to control my system and applications with 2 main hotkeys. I have a ‘System’ hotkey that performs system-wide tasks, and a ‘App Specific’ hotkey that will perform tasks unique to the currently focussed application.
 
System-wide Tasks
The System Hotkey
The System hotkey has two main functions:
Open Alfred Instantly: Press the System hotkey alone to open Alfred. Hyper Key for Shortcuts: Hold the System hotkey to use it as a Hyper Key, letting you combine it with other keys for various system-wide tasks. Some examples:
Hyper + H: Opens Alfred to your home folder. Hyper + C: Accesses Alfred's Clipboard Manager. Hyper + S: Shows your snippets. Hyper + V: Manages your audio settings. Hyper + P: Returns you to your last used path in Alfred. Hyper + R: Opens your recent files workflow. By limiting these to commands useful across all applications, you maintain a clean, efficient system.
Customized App-specific Commands
The App Specific Hotkey
Remembering all the hotkeys and commands for different applications can be difficult. My solution is to create app-specific Alfred workflows. When I need a specific function in an app repeatedly, I add it to a tailored Alfred workflow.
With the App Specific hotkey, you can launch a workflow that presents a list of commands tailored to the current application. This can include:
Issuing hotkeys Launching scripts Choosing menu items Running complex macros built with Alfred's nodes This allows you to personalize workflows to fit how you use each application.
 
Choosing the right keys
 
System hotkey
I use Karabiner Elements to create a 'Hyper Key' (Command+Control+Option+Shift simultaneously). Using the Caps Lock key for this is ideal because it's easy to press and not often used otherwise. Regular Caps Lock functionality is still accessible by pressing Shift + Caps Lock.
 
App Specific hotkey
This one is nifty. As a modifier key, Command only ever functions when combined with another key (Command+N for ‘new’ etc). So we can use Karabiner Elements again, this time to remap the Command key to ‘something else’ when it is pressed alone. That ‘something else’ becomes the hotkey to launch our App Specific Alfred Workflows (I use F19 for this)
 
System setup
 
Karabiner Elements config
Set up the following rules in Karabiner Elements
Caps-Lock, when held, becomes Hyper-Key Caps-Lock, when pressed alone, becomes Hyper-Key + Spacebar Command, when held, remains Command Command, when pressed alone, becomes F19  
Follow these steps to configure Karabiner Elements:
Install and open Karabiner Elements Go to ‘Complex Modifications’ Click ‘Add your own rule’ Copy and paste one of the below Gists into the field and click save Repeat for the second rule.  
Github Gist’s for each rule
Karabiner Elements - Hyper Key Implementation for Alfred
Karabiner Elements - Command to F19 when pressed alone
 
Alfred Config
Set the main Alfred hotkey
Open Alfred Preferences Go to General Set Alfred Hotkey to ⌃⌥⇧⌘+Space. If you’ve already set up Karabiner, you can just press your Hyper-Key here.  
Alfred Workflows integration
 
System Hotkey Example
Perhaps you have an Emoji Picker workflow. If you’re like me, Emoji selection is an often used system-wide function. So within Alfred’s preferences, open your Workflow and edit the existing (or create one if required) Hotkey Trigger Object. Open the object, enter the Hotkey field and press Hyper-Key + E.
System hotkeys don’t have to be Alfred specific of course, anything on your system that has system-wide hotkeys can be set to use the Hyper-Key.
 
App Specific Workflows
Here we make use of Alfred's Hotkey Object's Related Apps feature.
From Alfred’s documentation:
 
So we:
1) Create a new workflow for each app we want to control.
2) Set the Hotkey Trigger to our App Specific hotkey,
3) Add the app to the ‘Related apps’ filed within the Hotkey Trigger Object.
4) Use Alfreds tools to create a list of actions specific to that app.
 
And that's it. In the end you have two hotkeys. One you invoke to adjust systems settings, the other when you need to do something in-app. The hotkeys are easy to reach, and one-hit. It's great!
 
Since implementing  it has really become a joy to use. the clear distinction between system and app related interactions works really well for me. Cheers! 

I use BetterTouchTool for my hyper key (I used to have both karabiner and BTT and Alfred, so chose to simplify), and there is also a dedicated hyperkey app. I'd be interested in your workflow process too...

Alfred has been regularly updated, and the new features are always so well polished. Honestly there are few apps with a miniscule 17MB disk footprint that are so beautifully designed, so carefully thought out, and so featureful. The Alfred developers carefully consider features, but unless they are convinced they don't just keep adding features. I call this Artisan software. Single developer and small support team = razor sharp focus. Bookends and Scrivener are other examples of this Artisan approach. Better than all the flashy publicity that VC hot air conjures up, whose apps are invariably designed by committee and a rolling set of corporate employees with a passing interest in the tool they are developing.
 
No shares in the company or personal relationships 😉, just admiration and respect from a paying customer for a beautifully crafted tool...

Alfred has been regularly updated, and the new features are always so well polished. Honestly there are few apps with a miniscule 17MB disk footprint that are so beautifully designed, so carefully thought out, and so featureful. The Alfred developers carefully consider features, but unless they are convinced they don't just keep adding features. I call this Artisan software. Single developer and small support team = razor sharp focus. Bookends and Scrivener are other examples of this Artisan approach. Better than all the flashy publicity that VC hot air conjures up, whose apps are invariably designed by committee and a rolling set of corporate employees with a passing interest in the tool they are developing.
 
No shares in the company or personal relationships 😉, just admiration and respect from a paying customer for a beautifully crafted tool...

@iandol I think this thread is what you are looking for.

Alfred has been regularly updated, and the new features are always so well polished. Honestly there are few apps with a miniscule 17MB disk footprint that are so beautifully designed, so carefully thought out, and so featureful. The Alfred developers carefully consider features, but unless they are convinced they don't just keep adding features. I call this Artisan software. Single developer and small support team = razor sharp focus. Bookends and Scrivener are other examples of this Artisan approach. Better than all the flashy publicity that VC hot air conjures up, whose apps are invariably designed by committee and a rolling set of corporate employees with a passing interest in the tool they are developing.
 
No shares in the company or personal relationships 😉, just admiration and respect from a paying customer for a beautifully crafted tool...

Alfred has been regularly updated, and the new features are always so well polished. Honestly there are few apps with a miniscule 17MB disk footprint that are so beautifully designed, so carefully thought out, and so featureful. The Alfred developers carefully consider features, but unless they are convinced they don't just keep adding features. I call this Artisan software. Single developer and small support team = razor sharp focus. Bookends and Scrivener are other examples of this Artisan approach. Better than all the flashy publicity that VC hot air conjures up, whose apps are invariably designed by committee and a rolling set of corporate employees with a passing interest in the tool they are developing.
 
No shares in the company or personal relationships 😉, just admiration and respect from a paying customer for a beautifully crafted tool...

Alfred has been regularly updated, and the new features are always so well polished. Honestly there are few apps with a miniscule 17MB disk footprint that are so beautifully designed, so carefully thought out, and so featureful. The Alfred developers carefully consider features, but unless they are convinced they don't just keep adding features. I call this Artisan software. Single developer and small support team = razor sharp focus. Bookends and Scrivener are other examples of this Artisan approach. Better than all the flashy publicity that VC hot air conjures up, whose apps are invariably designed by committee and a rolling set of corporate employees with a passing interest in the tool they are developing.
 
No shares in the company or personal relationships 😉, just admiration and respect from a paying customer for a beautifully crafted tool...

As @Tsunami's response highlighted, Alfred releases have always been very carefully considered. We consistently remain true to our ethos: Fast, effective and long-life software. How many apps have been ruined by rushing to chase the latest trend or buzzword just for those features to evaporate when the buzz moves on?
 
While we could do updates with artificially bigger numbers, e.g. we could've made the Alfred 5.5 release an Alfred 6, this would make the update a paid upgrade for anyone with a single-version license. Instead, we choose to release this huge update free to all existing Alfred 5 license holders.
 
Don't worry about numbers, and instead take the time to discover the broad range of features already available to you. For example, workflows have Automation Tasks, to which @vitor is regularly adding new tasks. 
 
What do you want to create? What would boost your productivity? Share ideas and fellow community members will be able to help you create what you have in mind.
 
We have so much good stuff planned for Alfred, just wait and see
 
Cheers,
Andrew

Thanks 🤗
 
 
Is it? I noticed that the sorting looks wrong when viewing all releases, do you mean this? But alpha.2 should be set as the latest release. So yes, alpha.2 has some fixes and changes over alpha.1. However, mind that the problem with the data directory not being created is not fixed yet.

Fixed and it is working well with LM Studio!!!