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Comment by packetslave | Hacker News Reader

Keyboard Maestro is fantastic, and it's even better when combined with an Elgato StreamDeck. There's great integration for "run this KM macro" directly from a button (without eating up a keyboard shortcut), so I have 32 handy buttons on my StreamDeck XL for things like

    * open Obsidian and switch to my daily journal page"
    * type my password" (which reads securely from Keychain)
    * find the hamburger menu on the wiki, move the mouse to it, then select 'Translate to English" from the menu that pops up

That last one is an example of one of Keyboard Maestro's superpowers: search for an image anywhere on screen, then take an action on it (move the mouse there, click it, etc.). Very very handy for automating things that can't easily be otherwise automated.

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StreamDeck and Keyboard Maestro are a great pair. w With KM’s ability to update the keys on StreamDeck I use it as dashboard for items in addition to actions. A key displays next upcoming meeting and changes color as it gets close. Another key shows the current VPN IP in case I need to target internal services back to my development instance. For Teams, I have button that toggles the resolution of second Studio Display to share desktop with lower resolution.

Do you need to use the Stream Deck's own software at all, then? I'm allergic to janky manufacturer-provided config apps (I'm looking at you, Logitech), and the Stream Deck app's screenshots aren't awe inspiring. I'm also uneasy about running a driver app in the background at all times to monitor which apps I'm using. That seems ripe for abuse, either by attackers who find a vulnerability in it or by the manufacturer ("hey, you seem to spend a lot of time in Drafts.app. Would you like to buy a JavaScript manual?").

Unfortunately, the StreamDeck doesn't emulate a standard USB HID device, so it needs a driver running in the background to detect button presses and do things like generate keystrokes or call Keyboard Maestro macros.

There's streamdeck-ui (https://timothycrosley.github.io/streamdeck-ui/), which is an open-source alternative, but it at first glance it seems to be only for Linux.

There are a bunch of other macro/launcher pads like the StreamDeck that DO act as standard USB HID keyboards, though, and those should work fine with Keyboard Maestro using keyboard shortcut triggers.

> Unfortunately, the StreamDeck doesn't emulate a standard USB HID device

But it does expose itself as a custom HID device! This project uses connects to all the StreamDeck models over WebHID. https://github.com/petele/StreamDeck-Meet

So I think the driver paranoid are actually in a decent spot.

Ah, that makes sense.

Those other controllers are neat, but I want the pretty pictures, darn it!

You must use it, but it’s not that bad tbh

If we say that Logitech app is 10 on a scale good to, well, Logitech, then Streamdeck’s software is ~3

I haven't felt the need to change from bettertouchtool to KBM but this... I don't think I can do via BTT type my password" (which reads securely from Keychain)

Mind sharing your Obsidian workflow? As someone who installed Keyboard Maestro for the first time 3 hours ago it's not immediately apparent how to do this :D

You can create a keyboard shortcut on Obsidian that pulls your daily note page (I use cmd+D). You can then create a KM workflow that opens Obsidian and hits that hotkey for you.

Yup. I already had a shortcut bound in Obsidian to pull up the daily page, so the KM workflow is just

    * switch to Specific Application -> Obsidian
    * pause until... application "Obsidian" is at the front
    * type keystroke -> Cmd+Option+D   ; go to daily page
    * type keystroke -> Cmd+DownArrow  ; move cursor to the bottom
    * type keystroke -> Return         ; start new bullet in existing list

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