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. With auto-paste on, the snippet lands straight in the app you were typing in.
- 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, picked from a list of their real names.
- Windows holds twelve window snapping actions. This one only appears once you turn it on.
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, PowerClick asks Shortcuts for the names of your own shortcuts so you can choose from a list rather than typing one exactly from memory.
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
- Optionally enable auto-paste, window snapping, or both
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 keyboard shortcut needs no permission. The mouse trigger needs Input Monitoring, and PowerClick's event tap watches only three event types: right mouse down, right mouse up and right mouse drag. It does not tap the keyboard. Auto-paste and Shortcuts need Automation, limited to two system helpers and nothing else. Window snapping needs Accessibility, and touches only the frontmost window's position and size.
Every one of those features is off until you turn it on, and each stays inert until the permission is granted. The privacy policy spells out exactly what each one reaches.
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 window layout you want back. Different job, different shape.