Calling non-standard runtimes from Alfred

[vitor]

When configuring a Run Script or Script Filter, Alfred provides a Language dropdown listing the runtimes which have historically been included with macOS. But what if you want to run a script from another language which you have installed on your system? Be it Node.js, Lua, or something else, it’s dead-simple to call them. Either:

• Save your script with a proper shebang (examples: #!/usr/bin/env node; #!/usr/bin/env lua) and use External Script as the Language, pointing to your script.
• Use /bin/zsh (or /bin/bash) as the Language and tell the runtime to call your script (examples: node MY_SCRIPT.js; lua MY_SCRIPT.lua).

The first executes (marginally) faster but the second allows you to send preset arguments to your script. They work as they are assuming the languages were installed with Homebrew, as Alfred includes its directories in its PATH.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by vitor