Why a ring instead of a list
Search launchers ask you to type a few letters and then read a list of results. That is the right design when the thing you want could be any of thousands. It is the wrong design for the handful of actions you repeat every hour, because typing and reading are both slower than moving.
In a radial menu, every item has its own direction. You are not aiming at a target that sits at a particular distance down a list, you are throwing the cursor one way or another. That is why the actions become muscle memory within a day or two, and why the ring holds a deliberately small number of items rather than everything on your Mac.
The five categories
The inner ring picks a category, the outer ring picks the item inside it.
- Apps holds up to eight favourites, shown as their real icons. Drag a wedge outward for New Window, Bring to Front or Quit without leaving the ring.
- Snippets holds the text you paste constantly. Pick one and it is copied, ready to paste with ⌘V.
- Clipboard holds your recent copies, so you can reach back a few items without opening a window.
- Automation holds items that open a URL or run one of your own Shortcuts by name.
- Tools holds Translate Clipboard, Scan QR on Screen, QR from Clipboard and Create QR. Translate needs macOS 15 and Scan QR on Screen needs macOS 14; on older systems they are hidden.
It adapts to what you are doing
With Adapt to Finder selection on, the ring notices when Finder is in front with files selected. The app wedges stop being plain launchers and become "open the selection with this app" instead, so the ring answers the question you actually have at that moment. Turn the option off and PowerClick stops reading the selection entirely.
Automations without a scripting language
The Automation category is deliberately thin, and that is the point. An item either opens a URL or hands off to a Shortcut you already built in Shortcuts.app. Real logic belongs in Shortcuts, where you can see and edit it. ShortClick is the fast trigger, not another automation tool to learn.
When you add a Shortcut automation, type the shortcut's name exactly as it appears in Shortcuts.app. PowerClick hands that name to Shortcuts through its shortcuts:// link, so running one needs no permission.
Setting it up
- Open the dashboard from the menu bar and go to the ShortClick tab
- Add up to eight favourite apps, and any automations you want
- Record your shortcut in Settings > ShortClick, or keep the default
The ShortClick tab shows a live preview of the ring, so you can see what each category will contain before you ever open it for real.
Permissions, kept narrow
The only permission ShortClick can ask for is Screen Recording, for Scan QR on Screen, and only the first time you use it. Opening the ring with the keyboard shortcut, launching apps, copying snippets and clipboard items, opening URLs and running Shortcuts need no permission at all. PowerClick does not ask for Input Monitoring, Accessibility or Automation access.
The privacy policy spells out exactly what Screen Recording is used for.
Alongside Spotlight, not instead of it
ShortClick is not trying to replace Spotlight, Raycast or Alfred. Those are search tools, and search is the right answer for the long tail. Keep using them for that. The ring is for the short list: the four apps you live in, the three snippets you paste, the link you copied a minute ago. Different job, different shape.