Better Aliases

Better Aliases is an opinionated aliases and randomized snippets. Raycast in Raycast.

Features

• Auto-trigger aliases: When you type the alias, the expand alias command will automatically open url, application, or insert snippet.
• Batch Opening: Open all filtered aliases simultaneously with Opt + Shift + Enter, or use Opt + Shift + [1-9] to open a specific number of items. (They will be opened in reverse order.)
• Usage Statistics: Track how often you use each alias. View your most used aliases, total usage counts, and sort by frequency or name using the View Alias Usage Statistics command.
• Randomized snippets: Create text snippets with support for randomized variations. For example, you can create a snippet for "Hello!", "Hi!", "Hey!", and when you type the alias, it will insert a random variation automatically.
• Everything is a snippet: You can use a prefix to trigger snippet mode for any alias. For example, you can type rw to open https://raycastweekly.com/, or type ,rw To insert the link to the currently open application.
• Frecency sorting: The search command will use frecency sorting to show the most used aliases and snippets first.
• Leader key compatibility: If you've used Leader Key, the extension will automatically convert your Leader Key configuration to a format that can be used with Better Aliases.
• Export to Raycast: Export all your aliases (including Leader Key ones) as Raycast Snippets or Quicklinks for use in Raycast natively.
• Aliases Cheatsheet: Visualize your aliases in two formats: an interactive Keyboard Layout View (locked to brand-dark theme) to see your prefix keys at a glance, and a hierarchical Tree View for recursive navigation.

Configuration

This extension allows for deep customization via Extension Preferences:

• Snippet Prefix: You can use a prefix to trigger snippet mode (Default: ,).
• Randomized Separator: Separator used for randomized snippet values (Default: ;;).
• Config Paths:
• Better Aliases Config: Path to your aliases and snippets configuration. Defaults to Raycast's extension support folder ({supportPath}/config.json). Leave empty to use default location.
• Leader Key Config: Path to your leader key configuration file (external integration, defaults to ~/Library/Application Support/Leader Key/config.json).

Config File Locations

By default, config files are stored in Raycast's extension support directory for better portability and management:

• Better Aliases: {supportPath}/config.json
• Usage Stats: {supportPath}/usage-stats.json

Finding Your Config File

Need to manually edit or back up your config? Use the Open Config Folder command to instantly open the folder containing your configuration file in Finder.

Custom Config Paths

Advanced users can override default locations by setting custom paths in Extension Preferences. This is useful if you want to:

• Share configs across multiple machines via cloud storage
• Keep configs in a specific version-controlled directory
• Use a custom configuration management setup

Exporting Aliases

You can export your aliases to standard Raycast formats using the following commands:

• Export Better Aliases as Raycast Snippets: Generates a JSON file compatible with Raycast's "Import Snippets" command. All aliases are included, and keywords are generated using your configured Snippet Prefix (e.g., ,gh for alias gh).
• Export Better Aliases as Raycast Quicklinks: Generates a JSON file compatible with Raycast's "Import Quicklinks" command. Values are exported as-is.

Both commands include aliases from both your local Better Aliases configuration and your Leader Key configuration.

Roadmap

Want this feature or want to contribute? Let's chat!

• Import of Raycast snippets with alias auto-generation
• Import of Raycast quicklinks with alias auto-generation