Settings → Extensions → Install offers four ways to install extensions.

Search extensions

Search… searches the Raycast Store and installs the extension it has already built. This is the usual way to install, and it doesn't need Node or a package manager.

The Install buttons on the Raycast Store website open the same search in Tinycast, on that extension. Nothing installs until you click Install. If Raycast is also installed, macOS decides which app receives those links.

Install from GitHub

Install… builds one extension from its source on this Mac. Enter owner/repo, or paste the link your browser shows for one extension's folder, such as a folder inside raycast/extensions. Tinycast only downloads that folder, not the whole repository.

Building needs Node and a package manager. Tinycast runs <package manager> install --ignore-scripts, then builds the extension. Install scripts are skipped, because they run code you didn't choose to run. If an extension doesn't build, it fails at the build step instead of being installed half-broken.

Only the build is kept. The source and its dependencies are deleted once the extension installs. Closing the panel cancels a build in progress, and nothing is left behind.

Import from Raycast

Copy the extensions you already have in Raycast on this Mac.

This doesn't need Node, a package manager or a network connection, because the extensions are already built.

Tinycast checks both ~/.config/raycast and ~/.config/raycast-x, and an extension found in both is only listed once. You can use Import All to import everything. The pane checks again each time you open it and tells you when Raycast has extensions that Tinycast doesn't.

Add from folder

Choose any folder that contains a manifest and built command files, like a project you just built yourself.

Tinycast only copies package.json, the built commands, assets/ and any packages the build bundled in node_modules. It never copies source maps.

Updates

Each time you open Settings → Extensions, Tinycast checks the Raycast Store for newer versions of the extensions you installed from it or imported from Raycast. An extension with an update shows Update on its row, and Update All above the list updates every one. Updating keeps the extension's preferences, storage and icon.

Extensions installed from GitHub or a folder are never checked. To update one, install it again.

Package managers

The Install from GitHub panel has a Package manager menu.

Automatic (default) uses the first one you have from this list: pnpm → Bun → Yarn → npm. The fastest and most disk-efficient come first, and npm, which is almost always installed, comes last.

Apps opened from the Dock don't get your terminal's PATH, so Tinycast checks the usual install locations itself: Homebrew, Volta, asdf, mise, fnm, nvm and Yarn. The panel shows what it found, like "Found pnpm at /opt/homebrew/bin/pnpm.", or tells you that none is installed.

Custom search paths

For other locations, like Nix, the same panel has Custom search paths: a list of folders separated by colons, like PATH, that Tinycast checks before the usual locations.

~/.local/share/mise/shims

/etc/profiles/per-user/you/home-path/bin

Once you set it, every future install uses it.

What isn't backed up

Two settings are left out of backups because they're specific to this Mac:

The package manager choice
Custom search paths

Storage

Everything is stored in Tinycast's Application Support folder, and uninstalling an extension removes all of it: the extension, its storage and cache, its preferences and sign-ins, its support folder, its icon choice, and its command shortcuts, favorites, aliases and learned ranking.

Settings → Extensions → Storage → Leftover files shows the size of leftover build folders, like those a crashed install can leave behind, and Clean Up… removes them. It works even while extensions are off, and it's normally empty.

Tinycast never touches your own ~/Library/pnpm or ~/.npm.

Installing extensions