I love keyboards and I super love keyboard shortcuts.

The #1 reason that I use a Mac is due to a single piece of software: Karabiner. I’ve been using Karabiner for many years now and it’s something that you set once and expect it to work every day that you open up your computer.

A 2242 Line Config File

Karabiner does provide a GUI for setting some simple keyboard shortcuts, but when you get advanced, you have to dive into the karabiner.json file located at ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json

The JSON quickly gets very verbose and hard to manange. A simple example for only 2 shortcuts looks like the code below:

{
        "description" : "symbols",
        "manipulators" : [ {
          "from" : {
            "key_code" : "u",
            "modifiers" : {
              "optional" : [ "any" ]
            }
          },
          "to" : [ {
            "key_code" : "9",
            "modifiers" : [ "left_shift" ]
          } ],
          "conditions" : [ {
            "name" : "symbols",
            "value" : 1,
            "type" : "variable_if"
          } ],
          "type" : "basic"
        }, {
          "from" : {
            "key_code" : "i",
            "modifiers" : {
              "optional" : [ "any" ]
            }
          },
          "to" : [ {
            "key_code" : "0",
            "modifiers" : [ "left_shift" ]
          } ],
          "conditions" : [ {
            "name" : "symbols",
            "value" : 1,
            "type" : "variable_if"
          } ],
          "type" : "basic"
        }

While this is very powerful, it’s CRAZY how long your karabiner.json file can get.

Enter Goku

Let’s compare that json to an .edn file we can create with Goku:

{:des "symbols"
         :rules [:symbols
                 [:##u :!S9]
                 [:##i :!S0]

Setup

You probably won’t believe it, but that tiny snippet expresses what is written in that huge chunk of json above. The tool you’ll need to make this happen is called Goku

1. First, add a Default profile in your Karabiner preferences.

2. Then, installation is easy with brew:

brew install yqrashawn/goku/goku

3. Create a karabiner.edn file in your ~/.config/karabiner.edn

4. Finally, run gokuw and Goku will automatically watch for file changes in the karabiner.edn file and add them to the Default profile of your ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json file.

I struggled a bit figuring out the syntax of everything, but once I did, creating everything I needed has become way easier. I’m absolutely in love with it.

For reference, here’s my karabiner.edn file in all its glory:

{:layers {:homerow {:key :caps_lock :alone {:key :escape}}
          :symbols {:key :tab}}
 :main [{:des "multitouch"
         :rules [:multitouch_extension_finger_count_total
                 [:spacebar :button1]
                 [:f :button1]
                 [:d :button2]
                 [:s :button3]
                 [:z [:button1 :!Cz]]
                 [:x [:button1 :!Cx]]
                 [:c [:button1 :!Cc]]
                 [:v [:button1 :!Cv]]]}
        {:des "homerow"
         :rules [:homerow
                 [:##f :left_option]
                 [:##d :left_shift]
                 [:##s :left_command]
                 [:##n :delete_or_backspace]
                 [:##period :delete_forward]
                 [:##y :home]
                 [:##o :end]
                 [:##h :left_arrow]
                 [:##j :down_arrow]
                 [:##k :up_arrow]
                 [:##l :right_arrow]]}
        {:des "symbols"
         :rules [:symbols
                 [:##u :!S9]
                 [:##i :!S0]
                 [:##o :equal_sign]
                 [:##p :!Speriod]
                 [:##j :!Sopen_bracket]
                 [:##k :!Sclose_bracket]
                 [:##l :open_bracket]
                 [:##semicolon :close_bracket]]}
        {:des "macros"
         :rules [:homerow [:spacebar [:spacebar :equal_sign :spacebar]]
                 :symbols [:q [:equal_sign :!Squote :!Squote]]
                 [:w [:equal_sign :!Sopen_bracket :!Sclose_bracket]]]}
        {:des "taps"
         :rules [[:##left_shift :left_shift nil {:alone :delete_or_backspace}]
                 [:right_shift :right_shift nil {:alone :delete_forward}]
                 [:z :left_shift nil {:alone :z}]
                 [:slash :right_command nil {:alone :slash}]]}
        {:des "shortcuts"
         :rules [;expand selection
                 [:!Fj :!TSCright_arrow]
                 ;shrink selection
                 [:!Fk :!TSCleft_arrow]
                 ;command T
                 [[:f :j] :!Ct]
                 ;command P
                 [[:f :k] :!Cp]
                 ;autocomplete
                 :homerow [:semicolon :!Tspacebar] [:return_or_enter :!Creturn_or_enter]]}
        {:des "apps"
         :rules [:homerow
                 ;alfred
                 [:a :!Ospacebar]]}
        {:des "colemak"
         :rules [[:##e :f]
                 [:##r :p]
                 [:##t :g]
                 [:##y :j]
                 [:##u :l]
                 [:##i :u]
                 [:##o :y]
                 [:##p :semicolon]
                 [:##s :r]
                 [:##d :s]
                 [:##f :t]
                 [:##g :d]
                 [:##j :n]
                 [:##k :e]
                 [:##l :i]
                 [:##semicolon :o]
                 [:##n :k]]}]}
    ;; !  | means mandatory
    ;; #  | means optional
    ;; C  | left_command
    ;; T  | left_control
    ;; O  | left_option
    ;; S  | left_shift
    ;; F  | fn
    ;; Q  | right_command
    ;; W  | right_control
    ;; E  | right_option
    ;; R  | right_shift
    ;; !! | mandatory command + control + optional + shift (hyper)
    ;; ## | optional any