Notice

I've rewritten this tool using Swift (sendkeys) and can be installed using homebrew:

brew install socsieng/tap/sendkeys

It includes expanded support for mouse commands.

I am no longer maintaining this library and encourage you to use the Swift version instead.

SendKeys for macOS

This is a CLI tool to send keys to a given app to simulate typing at a given speed.

This tool was originally created to make it easier to enter keystrokes for a smooth screen recording of code being typed in.

Includes experimental support for mouse operations.

Installation

npm install sendkeys-macos --global

CLI usage

Basic usage:

sendkeys -a "Notes" -c "Hello<p:1> world<c:left:option,shift><c:i:command>"

Providing input from a file:

sendkeys -a "Visual Studio Code" -f example.txt

Receiving input from stdio:

cat example.txt | sendkeys -a "Notes"

Refer to the help command for more options:

sendkeys --help

Node usage

Programatic usage:

const sendKeys = require('sendkeys-macos');

sendKeys('Notes', 'hello<c:a:command><c:c:command><c:right> <c:v:command>', { delay: 0.1, initialDelay: 1 });

Markup instructions

Basic markup is supported to control the pause between keystrokes and to apply additional keystroke combinations.

Inserting a pause

A pause can be inserted with the <p:seconds> sequence.

By default, the delay between keystrokes is set with the -d or --delay option where the default is 0.1 seconds. A one-off pause of 1 second can be applied between characters by inserting <p:1>.

<P:seconds> (note upper case P) can be used to modify the default delay between subsequent keystrokes.

Special key combinations

Special key combinations including non-printable character sequences can be applied using the <c:key> or <c:key:modifiers> markup.

key can include any printable character or, one of the following key names: f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8, f9, f10, f11, f12, esc, return, enter, delete, space, tab, up, down, left, right, home, end, pgup, and pgdown.

modifiers is an optional list of comma separated values that can include command, shift, control, and option.

Example key combinations:

• tab: <c:tab>
• command + a: <c:a:command>
• option + shift + left arrow: <c:left:option,shift>

Mouse commands

Experimental support for mouse commands, including:

• Mouse move: <m:x1,y1,x2,y2:duration_in_seconds>
• Mouse click: <m:button:number_of_clicks>
  • button supported values left, center, right.
  • number_of_clicks defaults to 1
• Mouse drag: <d:x1,y1,x2,y2:duration_in_seconds:button>
  • button supported values left, center, right. Defaults to left.

Continuation

A continuation can be used to ignore the next character. This is useful to help with formatting a long sequence of character and inserting a new line for authoring purposes.

Insert a continuation using the character sequence <\>. The character following the sequence will be skipped over.

Prerequisites

This script only works on macOS as it has a dependency on the macOS Automator application.

When running from the terminal, ensure that the terminal has permissions to send keystrokes. This can be done by navigating to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and adding your terminal application there.