Download Butler · macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon
Butler is a Spotlight replacement for people who live on the keyboard. Press a hotkey, type a few letters, hit return. It stays out of the way until you need it, and updates itself.
What the launcher does
- Open apps and files, ranked by what you use most
- Search clipboard history, including images and files, and pin entries
- Calculate, and convert units and currencies
- Search the web with your own shortcuts and engines
- Pick emoji from their own hotkey
- Lock, sleep, empty the trash and other system commands
- Ask Claude, with your own API key
Settings in a file
Everything you change in Settings is stored in
~/.config/butler/butler.conf, and edits to it apply right
away.
How is it different from Alfred or Raycast?
Butler is smaller. It is free, needs no account, has no extension store, and is built only for current macOS on Apple silicon, so it starts fast and uses little memory.