BunHotKey

Current Status: Not usable, available for public experimentation.

A linux desktop automation tool providing programmable macros using Bun, a fast JavaScript runtime. It exposes an API to define macro keys, as well as many functions to interact with your system and the various applications I use.

The demo below is not implemented and is more of a sketch of what I want to achieve

import { kb, ui, Keyboard } from "bhk";

// hotkeys on main keyboard, requires modifier
kb.macro("super + f1", () => {
  // `ui` contains live bindings to the current state of your desktop
  //    .activeWindow is a getter to fetch the active window
  //    .name is a getter to fetch the name of the active window
  console.log(`Macro activated in ${ui.activeWindow.name}`);

  // All getters are cached for one tick, meaning a second access will
  // not cause a second fetch, and is guaranteed to be the same value.
  console.log(`Macro activated in ${ui.activeWindow.proc.exe}`);

  // dispatch actions like typing a string
  ui.type("Hello world!");
});

// hook into external devices, for example adding an exclusive macro keyboard
// (linux version of Taren's 2nd keyboard stuff)
const kb2 = new Keyboard({ vendor: 0x1b1c, product: 0x1b13 });
kb2.macro("q", () => {
  // helper to focus or launch an application
  ui.focusOrLaunch("discord");

  // same as above but manual
  let window = ui.findWindow({ class: "discord" });
  if (window) {
    window.focus();
  } else {
    // launch returns a promise to the first window the process creates
    window = await ui.launch(["discord"]);
  }
});

Reference

Any and all of this may be changed at any time.

Desktop Automation API

BunHotKey exposes live bindings to your UI and window state.

• ui:
  • activeWindow -> WindowRef
  • hoveredWindow -> WindowRef
  • mouse
    • pos -> { x: number, y: number }
    • moveTo(x: number, y: number)
    • moveBy(x: number, y: number)
    • click(button: number)
    • down(button: number)
    • up(button: number)
  • findWindow(query: FindWindowOptions) -> ?WindowRef
• i3:
  • async exec(command: string)
  • workspaces -> WorkspaceRef[]
  • workspace(name: string) -> WorkspaceRef
  • on(event, cb)
    • workspace
    • output
    • mode
    • window
    • barconfig_update
    • binding
    • shutdown
    • tick

Device

WIP, JS binding for reading to event devices (/dev/input/event*)

import { Device } from "bhk";

const device = new Device({
  vendor: 0x1b1c,
  product: 0x1b3d,
  grab: true,
});
device.on("key", (key) => {
  console.log(key);
});

XKeyGrab

WIP, JS binding for X11's XGrabKey

Development

BunHotKey is developed in Zig and TypeScript. Run bun install to install dependencies and build the library. Zig is installed through npm.