Aliases

An alias is your own name for a launcher entry. Type ps and get Photoshop. Type sh and get the shell script you run every morning.

Aliases work on any entry: apps, System Settings panes, commands, Quick Actions, quicklinks, snippets, system actions, window commands and layouts, and extension commands.

Setting one

Aliases live in Settings, in an alias field on the item's row. Every pane that lists launcher items has one, including Applications, System Settings, System Actions, Commands, Quicklinks, Quick Actions and each feature's own command list. For an extension, it sits beside each command's shortcut in Settings → Extensions.

One alias per entry. The field has a clear button.

This is on purpose not in the ⌘K menu. Naming something is a setting you choose once, not something you do in the middle of a search.

How an alias ranks

• Typing the whole alias exactly always wins, whatever you picked before and whatever else has that name.
• Typing the start of an alias ranks just above names that start the same way. Something you pick very often can still move ahead of it.
• A match in the middle of an alias ranks like the other names an app is known by.
• Scattered letters never match an alias. ps will not match an alias of Pixelmator Studio by skipping letters, because that would make short aliases useless.

The first rule is the point: a two-letter alias should win outright, or it is not worth setting.

In the list

An entry with an alias shows it as a small tag after the name, so you can see at a glance which entries you have named.

Backups and cleanup

Aliases are included in backups.

An alias goes away with the thing it names. Uninstall the app, delete the quicklink or remove the extension, and the alias goes too, instead of lingering and matching nothing.

Raycast exports carry an alias per command. The importer brings the ones for apps across.