LeapdeckDownload

Recipes

Leapdeck Pro answers links like leapdeck://space/Work and adds actions to the Shortcuts app, so anything that can open a link or run a shortcut can take your Mac straight to a Space, full screen apps included. There is no plug-in to install. Each recipe is a few settings in an app you already use.

Links and Shortcuts actions are part of Leapdeck Pro. On a free Mac a link opens Leapdeck's Pro tab and switches nothing.

Names first

Most recipes name a Space. leapdeck://space/Work goes to the first Space, left to right, called Work: by the name you gave it with Name This Space… in Leapdeck's menu bar menu, or else by the name Mission Control shows, such as Desktop 2 or a full screen app's name. A name follows its Space when you drag it to a new place in Mission Control. A link that names no Space on your Mac says so on screen.

Stream Deck

A key for each Space.

  1. In the Stream Deck app, drag the Website action from the System category onto a key.
  2. Set its URL to the link for your Space, and leave GET request in background off.
  3. Give the key a title, and repeat for your other Spaces. A key set to leapdeck://back is a Jump Back key.
leapdeck://space/Work

Raycast

Type a Space's name.

  1. In Raycast, run Create Quicklink.
  2. Name it Space, set its Link to the line below, leave Open With empty, and save it.
  3. Type Space, press Tab, type a name such as Work, and press Return.
leapdeck://space/{argument name="Space"}

Raycast encodes what you type for a link, so a name with a space in it works. For one Space you visit all day, make a quicklink with the whole link, such as leapdeck://space/Work, and give it a hotkey in Raycast's settings.

Alfred

Type space, a name, and Return.

  1. Open Alfred's Preferences, choose Features, then Web Search, and click Add Custom Search.
  2. Set the Search URL to the line below, the Title to Switch to Space {query}, and the Keyword to space. Save it.
  3. In Alfred, type space Work and press Return.
leapdeck://space/{query}

Custom searches are part of the free Alfred, with no Powerpack. Leave Encode spaces as at its %20: a + in place of a space does not match a name.

Keyboard Maestro

Any trigger, any Space, full screen ones included.

  1. Make a new macro and give it a Hot Key Trigger, or any other trigger.
  2. Add the Open a URL action and set it to the link for your Space.
leapdeck://space/Work

A full screen app's Space goes by the name Mission Control gives it, which is the app's name, so leapdeck://space/Safari reaches Safari in full screen without a name of your own.

Keyboard Maestro reads % as the start of a token. For a name with a space in it, write %%20, or choose Process Nothing from the action's gear menu.

Shortcuts automations

Let a Focus or an app choose the Space.

  1. In the Shortcuts app, make a shortcut with Leapdeck's Switch to Space action and choose the Space from its list.
  2. In its editor, open Automation in the action library and add a trigger: Work, under Focus, or App, under Apps.
  3. Set it to when the Focus turns on or the app opens, and keep its Automation box ticked. The switch then happens on its own.

Switch to Space keeps the Space's place in Mission Control: drag Spaces around and it goes to whatever is in that place. Switch to Space Named takes a name instead and follows the Space wherever it moves.

Automations need macOS 26 or later, and the steps above are macOS 27's. Apple's guide, Add automations to Shortcuts on Mac, has them for your version. Leapdeck's other actions are Move One Space, Jump Back, Get Current Space, Get Spaces, Panic, Move Window to Space, Put Windows Back and Remember Window Arrangement.

The other way round needs no automation: a Space can start a shortcut of its own when it comes up. In Leapdeck's Settings, under Hotkeys, click the bolt beside the Space and choose the shortcut.

Claude Code

An agent that is waiting for you brings you to its Space.

  1. Keep Claude Code's terminal on a Space of its own, and name that Space Agents.
  2. Add a Notification hook to ~/.claude/settings.json. If the file already has "hooks", put the "Notification" entry inside it.
  3. When Claude Code needs your permission, or finished a minute ago and you have not typed since, your Mac goes to Agents. Jump Back takes you back to what you were doing.
{
  "hooks": {
    "Notification": [
      {
        "matcher": "permission_prompt|idle_prompt",
        "hooks": [
          { "type": "command", "command": "open leapdeck://space/Agents" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Claude Code sends these notifications only while you seem to be away from its terminal: a permission request after about six seconds without a keystroke there, a finished reply after about a minute. The switch happens wherever you are working, so keep only permission_prompt in the matcher if a finished reply can wait.

With an agent per project, put the hook in each project's .claude/settings.local.json and give each project's Space its own name.

A scratch Space

The i3 scratchpad habit, on the Spaces you already have.

  1. Pick a desktop for what you keep reaching for, such as a terminal, notes or a calculator, and name it Scratch.
  2. Give Jump Back a shortcut in Leapdeck's Settings, under Hotkeys. It has none until you record one.
  3. Go to Scratch with its hotkey, with the Quick Switcher (Command and 0, type scr, Return) or with its link from any recipe here. Jump Back takes you home, and pressing it again takes you back to Scratch.
leapdeck://space/Scratch

Scratch is a Space you visit, not a window floating over the others: Leapdeck does not pin windows. Jump Back remembers switches Leapdeck made, and a click in Mission Control is not one of them.

A plug-in?

There is no Stream Deck plug-in, Raycast extension or Alfred workflow for Leapdeck. If one would help you, with keys that show each Space's apps or a dial that steps through your Spaces, say so. Each click below opens an email to us, and we count them.

Leapdeck is free, with every hotkey. The links and actions these recipes use are Leapdeck Pro, $19.99 once, not a subscription.

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