Everything Nubble can do

Getting started

Nubble is a search bar that opens over whatever you're doing. Press a key, type a few letters, press Return.

1. Press ⌥Space anywhere. The bar opens near the top of whichever screen your pointer is on.
2. Type. Results update on every keystroke: apps, files, answers to sums, web searches and tools. Type / for commands, or /help for everything Nubble can do.
3. Use ↑ and ↓ to move, then ↩ to open or run the selected row. ⌘1…9 picks a row by number.
4. Press ⇥ to see what else you can do with the selected row, like quitting an app or converting a file. esc steps back and closes the bar.

Changing the shortcut

Click the Nubble icon in the menu bar and choose Shortcut. You can pick ⌥Space, ⌃Space, ⇧⌘Space, ⌥⌘Space or ⌘Space. To use ⌘Space, first turn off Spotlight's own shortcut in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Spotlight.

Slash commands

Type / in the bar to see every command. Each one opens its own list, and nothing runs until you press Return.

/help

/help lists everything Nubble can do, grouped like this page. Press ↩ on a feature to see examples; press ↩ on an example and it's typed into the bar for you. Type after it to narrow the list, like /help clipboard. esc goes back a step.

All commands

How they behave

• Type just enough: /po finds /ports, and /p finds the commands that start with /p.
• Press ↩ on a command to open it. The list keeps working as you type more, so /ports 30 narrows the ports to those starting with 30.
• Commands that act at once, like /clip and /settings, run when you press ↩ on them.
• A path such as /Applications still works as a path.

Apps and files

Type part of a name. Nubble matches apps from memory and files through macOS's own Spotlight index, so results appear as you type.

How names are matched

Case and accents are ignored. Nubble learns as you go: things you open often rise, and whatever you picked for a given bit of typing comes first the next time you type it.

Apps

Nubble finds apps in /Applications, /System/Applications, ~/Applications and the folders inside them, plus Safari and Finder. Apps that are running show Running. Press ⇥ on an app to Open, Quit, Force Quit, Hide, Show in Finder or Copy Path.

Files and folders

Nubble keeps a list of your file names in memory, so results appear as you type and a file you've just made or saved is found straight away. It covers your Desktop, Documents, Downloads, iCloud Drive and cloud storage (like OneDrive), Pictures, Movies, Music and your other folders. Spotlight fills in anything outside those, such as other drives.

• Type part of a name, or several words in any order: tax return 2025 finds Tax Return 2025.pdf. From two letters Nubble finds names that start with them, or have a word that does. From three letters, any part of a name matches.
• Apps come first, then files. Among files, ones you've used or changed recently, that live in your Desktop, Documents or Downloads, and that sit near the top of a folder rank higher. What you open from Nubble rises too.
• Nubble leaves out hidden files, the Library folder (apart from iCloud Drive and cloud storage), node_modules, build folders and caches, and the insides of app bundles.
• The first time, macOS asks whether Nubble may see your Desktop, Documents and Downloads. Choose Allow. If you said no, files there can't be found: Nubble says so in the results, and /permissions shows where to switch it on.
• Rows show a Quick Look thumbnail. Drag a file row straight into another app or a Finder window.

Paths, addresses and the web

Web search keywords

Type a keyword, a space, then what to look for. Nubble opens the results in your browser.

As soon as the keyword is recognised, the bar shows that site's own icon on the right and a thin outline in its brand colour, so you can see where the search will go before you press ↩. Typing just the keyword (like yt) offers the search; press ↩ to start typing it.

AI answers

Ask a question and get the answer right in the bar, from the AI service you choose, using your own API key. Nubble has no AI server of its own.

Set it up (about a minute)

1. Open Settings: press ⌘, in the bar, or choose Settings… from the menu bar icon.
2. Under AI Answers, pick a Service. Use the link under the key field to get a key from that service.
3. Paste your key. Press Load Models to see what's available, then Choose a model (Claude is preset).
4. Press Test. A green message means you're ready.

Asking

• Once a key is set up, every search includes an Ask row for what you typed, just above the web search row. Select it with ↓, or press its ⌘ number.
• Start with ai , ask or ? and the Ask row is the only result, so ↩ sends it.
• The answer streams in with formatting: bold, lists and code blocks. The bar grows to fit it.
• Type a follow-up and press ↩. The conversation carries on from where it was.
• Press ↩ with an empty field, or ⌘C, to copy the answer. ⌘N starts a new chat. esc stops an answer in progress, or goes back.

While you're in an AI chat, the bar shows the service's icon and model name on the right, with an outline in its colour.

Services

Calculator

Type a sum anywhere in the bar. The answer appears at the top; press Return to copy it.

Return and ⌘C copy the answer without thousands separators, so it pastes cleanly into a spreadsheet or a line of code. Trigonometric functions use radians.

Unit converter

Write a number, a unit, then in, to or as, and the unit you want. Full names work too, like miles or celsius.

Clipboard history

Everything you copy is kept, so you can search it and paste it back later.

Open it

Press ⌃⌥V anywhere, or open the bar and type clip. You can change this shortcut to ⌥⌘V or ⇧⌘V, or turn it off, from the menu bar icon → Clipboard Shortcut.

• Left: your copies, newest first, with the app each came from. Pinned items sit at the top.
• Right: a preview of the selected item: the full text (in a code font if it looks like code), the image, or the list of files.
• Type to search what you've copied.

What's kept

• Text, links, images and files (as file references).
• The most recent 300 items, plus any you've pinned. Copying something again moves it to the top rather than making a duplicate.
• Passwords are never saved. Password managers mark what they copy as concealed or temporary, and Nubble skips anything marked that way.
• Copies you make from Nubble itself are ignored.

Where it lives

On your Mac only, in ~/Library/Application Support/Nubble/Clipboard. In Settings → Clipboard History you can switch it off or clear it.

File tools

Convert, compress and zip files without leaving the keyboard. Originals are never changed; results appear next to them.

Two ways in

• From Finder: select one or more files, open Nubble and choose File Actions for Finder Selection. It's the first row when Finder is in front and the bar is empty. Or just type convert or compress.
• From a search result: find a file, then press ⇥.

Type to narrow the list of actions, like jpg or pdf, then press ↩. A progress bar runs for longer jobs, then the new files appear in the list so you can open them, reveal them in Finder, or drag them out.

What you can do with each kind of file

What Compress does

Nubble picks the sensible method for each kind of file, and keeps the result only if it's actually smaller.

Where results go

Next to the original, named like photo.jpg (or photo 2.jpg if that name is taken). Compressed files end in (compressed). If the original's folder can't be written to, results go to Downloads. When some files in a batch can't be converted, the rest still are, and Nubble says how many failed.

Window management

Snap the window you're in to a half, third or quarter of the screen, or maximize it, by typing what you want.

Two more: Move Window to Next Display sends the window to the next screen, keeping its place and proportions, and Restore Window puts it back where it was before Nubble last moved it.

Keyboard shortcuts for windows

Optional and off by default. Turn them on in Settings → Windows & Pasting → Window shortcuts.

Screenshots

Type /screenshot and Nubble takes the bar off the screen first, so it's never in the picture.

• Screenshots go to the folder you've chosen in macOS's Screenshot options, which is the Desktop unless you changed it, named like Screenshot 2026-11-12 at 20.31.05.png.
• With more than one display, it captures the one the pointer is on.
• There's a shutter sound when it's done. Then it's an ordinary file: search for it, convert it or compress it from the bar.

Quit and hide apps

Start with quit, force quit or hide and Nubble lists your running apps. Keep typing to narrow it down.

You can also find the app by name, press ⇥, and choose Quit, Force Quit or Hide.

Ports

See what's listening on your Mac, such as a dev server on port 3000, then open it or shut it down.

Each row shows the port, the program, its full command, the folder it's running from and its process ID, for example :3000 node · node next dev · ~/Developer/website · PID 4242.

Stop Process asks the program to quit, so it can tidy up first. Force Stop ends it straight away. The list refreshes afterwards.

System commands

Type what you want to do to your Mac. These are matched by name and by words you'd naturally use.

Nubble's own commands

Keyboard shortcuts

Everything in one place. In the bar, type /shortcuts to browse these, or /shortcuts paste to filter them.

Anywhere on your Mac

In the bar

In clipboard history

In an AI chat

Window shortcuts (optional, in Settings)

Settings and menu bar

Nubble lives in the menu bar. There's no Dock icon and no window until you ask for one.

The menu bar icon

The Settings window

Permissions and privacy

Nubble asks for as little as it can, and does its work on your Mac.

Permissions

Nubble doesn't need Full Disk Access. Type /permissions in the bar to see which of these are on. After an update, macOS may ask again, because the app isn't signed with an Apple developer certificate yet.

What stays on your Mac

• Your file list: kept in memory only, rebuilt each time Nubble starts. It's never saved to disk or sent anywhere.
• Clipboard history: ~/Library/Application Support/Nubble/Clipboard. Never uploaded.
• AI settings and key: ~/Library/Application Support/Nubble/ai.json, readable only by your account.
• What you open most: a small count kept in Nubble's preferences, so frequent picks rise.
• Site icons for web keywords: cached in ~/Library/Caches/com.crooli.nubble.

When Nubble uses the internet

• Update checks to nubble.crooli.com, a small file listing the latest version.
• Site icons: it fetches each site's public icon once, asking only for the site itself.
• AI answers, only if you set up a key, and only to the service you chose (or your own Mac, for Ollama).
• Web searches open in your browser. Nubble doesn't see the results.

Nubble has no accounts and no analytics.

Updates

Nubble keeps itself up to date, so you'll usually have the latest already.

• It checks shortly after it starts, and again every six hours.
• A new version downloads quietly in the background and is checked before it's used: the app's identity, its version and its code signature must all match.
• With Update Automatically on (the default), Nubble restarts into the new version when the bar is closed and nothing is running.
• Prefer to choose? Turn that off, and use Check for Updates… in the menu bar menu. It then shows Restart to Update when one is ready.

See what changed in each version, or the FAQs for quick answers.