What is mackey?

MACKey is a free, open-source macOS menu-bar application for managing and discovering keyboard shortcuts. It sits quietly in your menu bar and gives you a three-column panel to look up built-in system shortcuts, assign custom hotkeys to any application, and launch your most-used apps with a single keypress. The app ships with your first 10 Dock apps already bound to Control+1 through Control+0, so you can switch between your most-used programs without any initial setup. Beyond those defaults, you can assign any key combination to any installed app you choose. MACKey checks for conflicts in real time while you record a new combo and shows a named warning, such as "taken by the system's Screenshot," so you know immediately what is already claimed. The shortcut reference panel shows macOS system shortcuts ranked by how commonly they are used in practice, which saves hunting through Apple's System Settings. Your own customizations appear in a live-synced middle column alongside that reference. A third column covers the Dock-order bindings and lets you click any field to reassign it. MACKey runs entirely on your Mac with no network connection required. There is no account to create, no tracking, and no data leaves your machine. It launches at login and supports both English and Chinese. It requires macOS 13 or later and runs natively on Apple Silicon, which the README notes as a successor to an older Intel-era tool called Snap. Installation is a standard drag-to-Applications process from a downloaded DMG file. Because the app is not notarized through a paid Apple Developer account, macOS will block the first launch, a right-click and a one-time confirmation bypasses this. The app also needs Accessibility permission in System Settings to register global hotkeys.