Using macOS Shortcuts as Keyboard Maestro alternative or alongside

Hi, longtime lurker, registered after seeing the WWDC demo of Shortcuts running in macOS!

For those already running Monterey, is Shortcuts as good as Keyboard Maestro, and how well does it work if used together.

What do you mean exactly? As good at what? One is a newer app with deep integration and the other a more mature app with broader scope for things such as triggers and UI interaction. As automation tools, like comparing any two such tools they will have weak and strong areas when comparing feature and skill sets.

It is the same as ever. To compare the use of two tools you need to define the specific job to be done to get a “good” answer.

In terms of interoperability, Keyboard Maestro can be triggered by URLS and shell scripts, which Shortcuts can utilise. Shortcuts can be triggered by the same, which Keyboard Maestro can utilise. So in terms of interoperation, the potential to trigger and return information by standard output/file/clipboard is there.

I will note as my final caveat, the above is just based on the WWDC session info and developer discussions online, and my own use of Keyboard Maestro. I have not used them together as of yet.

Keyboard Maestro is very mature as you mention, and from what I have gathered in this past week Shortcuts is aiming at many or should we say most of the same features that the former can do

Well said. Will wait for a public beta to give a more well informed opinion and report back, thanks

One thing I’m not going to do is to rework my Keyboard Maestro macros as shortcuts. At least not in general. There might be cases where I do, but I expect those to be rare.

I’ve only used it a very little, but I’ve also listened to a lot of podcasts with people talking about it, so I feel pretty confident in saying… No, Shortcuts is not going to replace Keyboard Maestro. That’s not even its goal, but if it was its goal, it would come up far short.

Can Shortcuts do some of the same things? Yes, but only a few. Keyboard Maestro is going to be able to do a lot more.

Shortcuts may be easier for people who are trying to learn for the first time, but Keyboard Maestro, being a more complex tool, is going to have a higher learning curve. But Shortcuts is also going to run into far more situations where “You can’t do that (yet)” whereas Keyboard Maestro is going to be able to do nearly anything you can do, as long as it is repeatable in any meaningful way.

As far as working together, Shortcuts can execute AppleScript, which means that it can trigger Keyboard Maestro macros, and Keyboard Maestro should be able to trigger Shortcuts because Shortcuts has a command-line tool.

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@Tjluoma That is a great piece of information, after reading your comment searched for more information specially about the command line, it’s too early in the process to know about it, from the sound of it I would dare to say I can keep Keyboard Maestro and Shortcuts alongside, offload some functions according to their capabilities

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