Ferrocast Install Search, calculate, paste and ask AI from the keyboard. Drag any file, tap a key, and convert, compress, crop, trim or redact it on your Mac. Open source, free, nothing leaves your disk.
MIT · Apple Silicon and Intel · no account · 275 conversions
Hold a file, tap a key, drop it on a segment. The wheel stays open until you drop it, and everything runs on your Mac.
A wheel of the formats this file can become.
Windows and presets for the file: crop, trim, compress, organize pages…
AirDrop, shelf, copy, move, copy path, Terminal, zip.
An interactive picture built from the same lists the app uses.
Sample: a PDF. Drag a file, tap Shift.
Sample: an MP4 video. Drag a file, tap Command.
Sample: any file or folder. Drag a file, tap Control.
This is a picture of the wheel built from the same lists the app uses, not a recording of the app. Hover or focus a segment, press Shift, ⌘ or Ctrl, and use the arrow keys. Segments marked with a dot need an optional tool installed.
275 pairs across 46 formats. macOS tools first; ffmpeg, LibreOffice, cwebp, unrar and Ghostscript are optional.
Windows and presets: edit photos, crop, redact, trim video and audio, organize PDF pages, make collages. 26 in all.
The 7 file actions, from the Control wheel.
Results are written next to the original, never over it.
Record a screen, an area or a window. The editor zooms toward your clicks, and you export an MP4 or a GIF.
Docs →
A floating window you open with a hotkey. Type Markdown and it becomes formatting, and you can paste or drop images. Changes are saved as you stop typing.
Start a line with # a heading- a bullet[] a task**bold** bold textClick a box or press ⌘ ↵ to check a task.
Apps, commands and files in a single field, with math and currency conversion on the same line.
Press ⌘K for actions: aliases, a hotkey for any command, favorites and more.
Text, links, colors, files and images. Pin what matters; password managers are ignored.
Type a keyword and it expands as you write, with placeholders like {date}, {clipboard} and {cursor}.
Chat with Ollama, LM Studio, OpenAI, the Anthropic API or Claude Code. Answers stream in; keys stay in the Keychain.
Drag a file onto the launcher, tap ⇧ and drop it on the format you want. The result lands next to the original.
Nine sliders with a live preview; ↵ writes a full-size copy, never over the original.
Record a screen, area or window, then edit it: auto zoom follows your clicks, and the export is an MP4 or a GIF.
A floating window above your other apps. Markdown as you type, pinned notes on ⌘1 to ⌘9.
Six tabs, plain-language descriptions, and an AI tab that tests the connection to your model server.
Every frame is a screenshot the app took of itself while a query was typed.
Footprint and speed of Ferrocast, measured on one Mac. It is a single app, it draws its first frame in under a fifth of a second, and once it is running the launcher answers a hotkey in about two milliseconds.
Method: MacBook with Apple M3, macOS 27, 2026-10-17. Memory is resident size from ps -axo rss, summed over every process the app runs, with the app idle and its window shown. Hotkey to frame is the time from the show call to the next frame the app draws (1.6 to 2.6 ms; the display adds its own refresh on top). Keystroke to results is how long the list takes to recompute for queries like “100 usd in eur”. Cold start is process launch to first rendered frame over five launches (136 to 167 ms), almost all of it macOS creating the window. Your numbers will differ.
Out of the box it talks to Ollama on your own Mac. Point it at another provider if you prefer; keys go in the Keychain.
ChatGPT sign-in follows the flow of OpenAI’s Codex CLI; it works, but OpenAI has not blessed third-party apps doing that, so the API with a key is the by-the-book route.
The OpenAI-compatible provider, Claude Code and the Anthropic API (with your own key) are supported.
Read about Ask AI →These are the ones worth learning first. Press ⌘ K on anything and it shows you the rest.
All keyboard shortcuts →Download Open the DMG, drag Ferrocast to Applications, and choose “Open Anyway” in System Settings the first time you open it.
Runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs (Intel not tested on real hardware yet). Prefer Homebrew? It is in the installation guide. Installation guide →
Press ⌥ Space from any app. You can change the shortcut in Settings.
Yes. MIT licence, no account, no Pro tier. If it saves you time, star the repo.
Yes. Nothing is uploaded: conversions run on your Mac. macOS tools come first; ffmpeg, LibreOffice and Ghostscript are optional and used only when they are installed. Pairs that need one say so on the Files page.
Images, audio, video, PDF, documents, slides, spreadsheets, subtitles and archives: 46 input formats and 275 conversion pairs. The explorer on the Files page lets you search them.
Not for many pairs: macOS tools come first (sips, afconvert, avconvert, textutil, ditto). ffmpeg, LibreOffice, cwebp, unrar and Ghostscript are optional and used only when installed; pairs that need one are marked.
No. The result is written next to the original with the same name and the new extension. If that name is taken it adds 2, 3 and so on.
Yes, through ffmpeg: the bitrate is computed from the size you ask for. The size estimate is rough, and PDF compression needs optional Ghostscript.
Yes, on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. The download is universal; Intel is not tested on real hardware yet.
No. Download the DMG, drag Ferrocast to Applications and open it. The first time, macOS asks you to confirm it in System Settings.
Because moving windows, pasting for you and expanding snippets all need it. Search, the calculator and AI work without it. A welcome screen walks you through it.
It stays on your Mac unless you turn on Sync with iCloud (Settings → Advanced, off by default), which copies it to your iCloud Drive for your other Macs. It sits in a JSON file in Application Support, and anything copied from a password manager like 1Password is skipped on purpose.
Only if you tell it to. Out of the box it talks to Ollama on your own Mac. Point it at LM Studio, OpenAI or the Anthropic API if you prefer; keys go in the Keychain.
Yes, with caveats we spell out in the app. Claude: if Claude Code is installed and signed in, Ferrocast uses it as a provider, since it is Anthropic’s own tool. ChatGPT: Ferrocast can sign in with your account the way OpenAI’s Codex CLI does; it works, but OpenAI has not blessed third-party apps doing that, so the API with a key is the by-the-book route.
Your Script Commands run as they are, and snippets import from a JSON export. Quicklinks you recreate in a minute. Extensions you already installed with Raycast can run if you turn that on: it is partial, off by default, and Ferrocast has no store of its own. Sync between Macs is opt-in through iCloud Drive.
No. A recording is a folder on your Mac with the video and a log of your mouse, and the transcript is made on your Mac too. It needs macOS 14 or later and the Screen Recording permission.
Recordings are folders in ~/Movies/Ferrocast Recordings and screenshots go to ~/Pictures/Ferrocast Captures. Notes are stored as Markdown in notes.json in the data folder. Images you paste or drop are copied into an attachments folder and linked from the note. Exports go to Downloads.
An extension store of its own, Search Menu Bar Items, and AI context from the selection or the screen. Raycast extensions are only the ones you already installed with Raycast, and not every part of them. Sync between Macs is opt-in through iCloud Drive.
English, plus Spanish, German, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. It follows the macOS language order, or Settings → General → Language. The choice stays on that Mac and is not synced. Anything not translated yet shows in English. Names you type and what Raycast extensions show are never translated.
Press ⌥ Space from any app. You can change the shortcut in Settings.
Latest release: 0.10.1 · 2026-11-11
Download it, drag it to Applications, and ⌥ Space is yours. If it does not stick, move it to the Trash.
