KeyRaycast

Show keystrokes on screen. A modern KeyCastr alternative as a Raycast extension.
Great for screen recordings, live demos, presentations, and bug reports.

Features

• Three display modes — All Keys, All Modified Keys, or Command Keys Only
• Mouse click visualization — Shows modifier+clicks and right-clicks
• Multi-monitor support — Overlay follows your cursor across screens
• Appearance themes — Dark, Light, Auto (match system), or Liquid Glass (macOS 26+)
• Configurable position — Six positions (top/bottom, left/center/right)
• Adjustable timing — Display duration from 0.5s to 5.0s
• International keyboard support — Correct character display for all layouts
• Smart pill grouping — Continuous typing collapses into one pill, shortcuts get their own

Setup

1. Install the extension from the Raycast Store
2. Run Toggle Keystroke Overlay from Raycast
3. Grant Accessibility permission when prompted (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility)
4. Toggle again to start the overlay

Accessibility Permission

KeyRaycast uses a macOS CGEventTap to capture keystrokes. This requires Accessibility permission. The first time you run it, macOS will prompt you to grant access. If the overlay doesn't appear, check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and make sure Raycast (or the KeyraycastHelper) is enabled.

Settings

Change settings in Raycast preferences. Toggle the overlay off then on to apply changes.

Setting	Options	Default
Display Mode	All Keys, All Modified Keys, Command Keys Only	All Keys
Display Duration	0.5s, 1.0s, 1.5s, 2.0s, 3.0s, 5.0s	2.0s
Appearance	Auto, Glass (macOS 26+), Dark, Light	Auto
Font Size	Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large	Medium
Position	Bottom/Top + Center/Left/Right	Bottom Center
Force Uppercase	On/Off	Off
Show Space Symbol	On/Off	On
Show Mouse Clicks	On/Off	Off

Preview

Toggle command in Raycast	Typed text with light theme
Liquid Glass on macOS 26	Shortcuts with dark theme

How It Works

The Raycast extension launches a native Swift helper binary that runs independently in the background. The helper captures keystrokes via CGEventTap and displays them in a floating overlay window. Toggling off sends SIGTERM to the helper process.

The overlay runs in a separate long-lived Swift process (KeyraycastHelper) with its own NSApplication loop, so swift/keyraycast-helper/ is a plain SPM executable. The directory layout (swift/<target>/) follows extensions like color-picker, but we don't link extensions-swift-tools/@raycast macros — they're meant for short-lived Swift functions called via swift: imports, which would add a heavy swift-syntax build for no benefit here.

KeyraycastHelper is not committed to git. Build it with:

• npm run build-helper — fast, host arch only (good for npm run dev, runs automatically before it).
• npm run build-helper-universal — universal arm64 + x86_64, used by npm run build for distribution.