System actions

System actions are things you do to your Mac rather than to a file. Each one is searchable, and each one can have a global shortcut.

They have their own System Actions section in the launcher, and their own pane in Settings → System Actions.

The full list

Session · Lock Screen · Sleep · Sleep Displays · Restart · Shut Down · Log Out · Show Screen Saver

Media · Play / Pause · Next Track · Previous Track

Volume · Toggle Mute · Turn Volume Up · Turn Volume Down · Set Volume… · Set Volume to 0% · 25% · 50% · 75% · 100%

Desktop · Show Desktop · Toggle System Appearance · Toggle Stage Manager · Hide All Apps Except Frontmost · Unhide All Hidden Apps · Quit All Applications · Dismiss Notifications

Files · Open Trash · Empty Trash · Eject All Disks · Toggle Hidden Files

Hardware · Toggle Bluetooth

Confirmation

Five actions ask first, because running them by accident is costly:

Restart · Shut Down · Log Out · Empty Trash · Quit All Applications

return runs and esc cancels. Each dialog shows that action's own icon, so you can see at a glance what you are about to do. Quit All Applications tells you how many apps it will quit.

The same question comes up when you use a shortcut. There is no way around it, and holding a shortcut down cannot stack up dialogs.

What you see afterwards

Actions with no visible effect tell you where they landed: Trash Emptied, Hidden Files Shown, Dark Appearance, Bluetooth Off, 3 Disks Ejected.

A green check means something changed. A plain dot means there was nothing to do. Trash Is Already Empty is an answer, not a failure, and so is the same kind of message from Eject All Disks, Dismiss Notifications and Unhide All Hidden Apps.

A few details

Volume. Up and Down move along a 5% grid: from 37%, up goes to 40% and down to 35%. Tinycast shows its own volume display, because macOS only shows one for the real media keys. It shows the level as a number, says Muted instead of 0%, and fades after 1.6 seconds.

Eject All Disks ejects external and removable drives, including a dock's hard drive, and never touches internal or network volumes.

Hide All Apps Except Frontmost and Quit All Applications, run from a shortcut with the palette closed, work on the app that is actually in front. Quit All leaves Finder and Tinycast running, and quits politely, so apps with unsaved work still ask you to save.

Toggle System Appearance changes macOS itself, not just Tinycast. Tinycast follows along only while its own theme is set to System.

Permissions

Some actions need Automation, Accessibility or Bluetooth access. Each is asked for the first time you run the action that needs it, never up front. If you say no, you get a message with a link to the right System Settings pane instead of nothing happening.

Settings

Settings → System Actions has Enable System Actions at the top, and a row per action with a launcher checkbox, a shortcut recorder and an alias field. A filter field at the top helps with 31 rows.

Enable System Actions off takes every action out of search and turns off their shortcuts. A single row's checkbox only hides it from search, and ⇧⌘H in the launcher does the same.