How I Programed the Most Productive MacOS Keyboard Setup Ever: Karabiner Elements

Code: github.com/mxstbr/karabiner
Follow me on Twitter: mxstbr

[@soypablobernardo]

I got here going down the rabbit hole after your episode in the Raycast channel. This concept of the layers per app / scope is super cool.

[@NormCopeland]

yup, me too! Trying to decide if I should keep going down this rabbit hole... tempting 😆

[@sabianchase_]

how can we make this for none coders like me 😅

[@Pejatube]

@@sabianchase_ buy a customizable keyboard and/or learn how to use Karabiner/Kmonad. I use Autohotkey.

[@uw4nt]

That's where I come from too. The idea is awesome, but the implementation isn't that easy. Remembering all those combinations. Wow!

[@MichaelHHeng]

Same here 😜

[@ggascoigne]

I've been using Karabiner to get a hyper key, but then doing all of the config for window movement or running apps in hammerspoon. Seeing this, I might be able to do everything I currently do in the one app, and manage it all through a config generator. Very neat.

[@ER1C897]

great stuff man, def stealing some of this for my own karabiner config 👍

[@maxdzyubak]

Thank you very much for this video and setup! This is amazing and very cool! Good luck!

[@jrddp0]

Beautiful!! Thank you for open sourcing this

[@indethbed2546]

j nice video you are the epitome of efficiency and productivity benchmark for me

[@williamtcastro]

Great project, congrats

[@MultiMam12345]

Why not use the letters as modifiers? Then you don’t need to press hyperkey 1 + key 2 + key 3 for everything. Which does not seem ergonomic. You can turn any key into a layer/modifier by pressing down. O + app x y z. My caps lock is a hyperkey but sends f12 on single press to launch Alfred. All my modifier keys send F11-F19 if pressed alone. Shift left/right, command, option, control. 8 huge keys that can have a 2nd life.

[@WhiteSiroi]

awesome, very helpful, thank you

[@jammies701]

Nice vid mate

[@ElliotDeNolf]

Awesome to see! I have a very similar setup with karabiner and TypeScript using the deno_karabiner💪Very rare to run into another person with such an over-engineered solution 😆I may migrate to this to take Deno out of the equation.

[@TheMedjunior]

Karabiner elements , hyper key + layers and a column staggered keyboard might be a better choice for most devs in my opinion..

[@sumonsinha2174]

The best thing I discovered in a long time. Its just so cool. If only you could explain homerow part to me. How did you set the right control+f and right control+j as shortcuts for it. Also you used right modifiers for rectangle as well.

[@tonyjaradev]

Oh god here we go again hahaha thank you!

[@charlesstein2343]

I did something similar, but instead of only having caps as hyper, I put hyper on hold ; This way I can not force only one pinky

[@skorotone]

Great setup, thank for sharing! Now I’m curious what is your Ergodox layout looks like :)

[@yuyuchen579]

Hi Max, thank you for this great sharing! I would like to do what you did at @1:09 time. Can you please elaborate more on how you do that? I really your sharing! This is really changing my experience with my Mac! Thank you!

[@fabricedufilssiyapdje4317]

Hallo Sir. First, Thank You For the Great Work. I've tried to use you config and it does exactly what it suppose to do. My Issue whoever is the latency when I'm trying to use the "ESC" well as "ESC" key in vim for example. There is a latency which make it hard for me to use the config as is. Sure I can simply switch The layer key from "caps_lock" to "whatever_else_key" und continues using my "caps_lock" without interference as "esc" key. But I was wondering if there is a value in your params which allow to use the "caps_lock" as "esc" key without latency. Again thank you for the great work.

[@Pejatube]

movement keys should be on single key hold. Having combo (Hyper + V) is more tiresome and brings more tension in keyboard workflow.

[@RealDrumPyles]

Ah nice! I've done this on windows using autohotkey so I'm glad to see it can also be done on Mac. On windows I have j mapped to "left" when caps lock is held down and mapped to "home" when the space bar is also down. Now on windows I have capslock + alt triggering "enter". Going to see if I can do this with karabiner. (triggering something with just two modifiers, no regular keys)

[@dtigue]

I’ve used AHK for years on my windows machine but AHK is hard for users that aren’t programmers or highly technical people. I’ve not used this application yet but if it requires the same amount of coding involved as AHK does for the more advanced options then I’m not sure I’ll use it. Not because I can’t, but because I don’t have time to program just to make my work easier. Being an IT manager, I think I’d rather spend that time writing shell scripts to make the work required to do my job faster. I can spend extra time clicking on app icons or use CMD+TAB to switch apps as long as the time to configure a new user or fix DNS settings is faster through a command line script.

[@lorenz123123123]

Nice, vs code does something similar to this via command+k

[@JKnyp]

Coooolll!!

[@DaniLichti]

Hi Max, please make a video of how to set this up. I tried to follow the guide on github but didn't get it to work

[@uw4nt]

Any Ideas why Karabiner-Elements displays a "Z" instead a "Y" on a German Keyboard Layout?

[@diakritika]

Can it do "a", "t" -> "@"? I.e., with no modifier keys pressed?

[@filucian]

Hi Max, Your video opened my eyes to a new way of improving productivity. Many Thanks 🙏. However, I have a peculiar bug, I cannot figure out. All sublayer commands work on the internal Mac KB. But half the key combinations do not work with my BT KeyBoard (Dell) and another half do not work on Logitech MXKeys KB. I may be missing something trivial. If you have faced the same issue, I would really love to hear from you how to troubleshoot this.

[@richardwilliamsmusic]

are you able to use other keys besides normal modifier keys ? For example hold down S and J to do something or hold down A and R to do something etc?

[@MaxStoiber]

Yep, that's exactly what this is for. E.g. Hyper + S is my "System" hyperkey sublayer, so Hyper + S + L ("L"ock) locks my screen.

[@jadam42]

I would love to, but just can’t justify the effort. Also annoying that it will override what I’ve configured in Oryx for my ergodox. Just wish there were a program like Oryx that you could do this in, or if oryx could output compatible JSON to drop into karabiner. Though not sure how you get around the space-bar/thumb-keys issue there.

[@mahmoodalganadi8917]

Nice video, For me I am trying to make my number keys 0-9 to only type in English even if I switch input to another language I want it always to type numbers in English but still not figuring it out. So if you can guide me or send me something can lead me to achieve that I will be appreciated.

[@christianmagill3829]

I wonder how often cmd+opt+control would be used without shift. Then you could have whole other layer with shift and without.

[@MaxStoiber]

Ohhh, interesting idea! Love that.

[@naeo]

@@MaxStoiber How would one set this up inside your config? I can't see that shift + ctrl + option + cmd is defined as a hyper key anywhere in the files. Having the shift key work as a sublayer would be great since you only need one finger to press both shift and caps lock at the same time.

[@richardwilliamsmusic]

I downloaded Karabiner but noticed that it cancels my Keyboard Meastro hotkeys. Is there a way to run both, or can I only do one or the otherr?

[@MaxStoiber]

I have never used Keyboard Maestro, so I'm not sure.

[@knowitallproductions1178]

Karabiner gets the key presses 1st, but it is absolutely compatible with and can be used to enhance KM (& BTT for that matter)

[@dtigue]

What text editor is this guy using?

[@aksheshdoshi]

VS Code (based on the top left of the screen)

[@kubectlgetpo]

Vscode

[@iamhyrumharris]

just get space launcher, i think itll do all that much easier

[@user-ur9xe3zs4j]

As great as Karabiner is.... its pretty bullshit you need to go thru all this just to make macros and change keybindings.... MacOS is a pain in the ass....

[@rolandcucicea6006]

I'm so much more grateful that keyboard maestro exists. it's a lot more user friendly and supports running apple script/zsh scripts/apple shortcuts. macors. it's not free but there is a pirated version if price is an issue