Install for alpha testers (macOS)

You need macOS 14 or newer on an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later). Intel Macs are not supported in this alpha. It takes about five minutes.

Download. Open release v0.1.0-alpha.1 and download keychord-macos-arm64-alpha.1.zip from Assets. Optional: compare it with SHA256SUMS.txt (shasum -a 256 keychord-macos-arm64-alpha.1.zip).

The repository is private during the alpha. If the release page shows a 404, ask in the tester group to be added to the repo.
Unzip it (double-click in Finder). You get keychord.app.
Move it to Applications. Drag keychord.app into the Applications folder. Run it from there, not from Downloads: macOS ties the permissions below to the app’s location.
Open it the first time. The alpha is ad-hoc signed and not notarized, so macOS stops the first launch. Pick the way that matches your macOS:
- macOS 14 (Sonoma): in Applications, right-click (or Control-click) keychord.app › Open, then Open again in the dialog.
- macOS 15 (Sequoia) and later: the right-click route was removed. Double-click the app, click Done on the warning, then open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, click Open Anyway next to “keychord.app was blocked”, and confirm with your password.
- Either version, from Terminal (removes the download quarantine flag):
  Terminal window
```
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/keychord.app
```
You only do this once per download.
Grant Accessibility. System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility › turn keychord on. If it isn’t listed, click +, pick /Applications/keychord.app. Why: keychord types the expansion into the app in front and hides the chord keys from it.
Grant Input Monitoring. System Settings › Privacy & Security › Input Monitoring › turn keychord on (same + if missing). Why: keychord has to see the keys you type while the super keys are held. macOS may ask you to quit and reopen keychord; do so.
Optional: Screen Recording, only for the presenter captions (test 6). System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording › turn keychord on. (On macOS 14 it is called Screen Recording.) Chords work without it.

Add the keychord command (used by Doctor, the test plan and your AI agent). In Terminal:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
ln -sf /Applications/keychord.app/Contents/MacOS/keychord-daemon ~/.local/bin/keychord
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc
keychord --version

Run Doctor. Menu-bar icon › Doctor… (or keychord doctor in Terminal). Every row should be green, except Screen Recording, which shows limited until you grant step 7. A row that isn’t green has a Fix button next to it.
Start at login (recommended). Doctor’s Start at login row turns it on. Check System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions: there must be exactly one keychord entry.

Why opening an unnotarized app is safe here

Notarization means Apple scanned the build and a paid Developer ID signed it. The alpha skips that step for speed: the app is ad-hoc signed, so macOS can check that the bundle hasn’t been changed since it was built, but not who built it. That trust comes from where you got it: our private GitHub release, reachable only by invited testers over HTTPS.

What keychord does with its permissions: it reads keys only while the super keys are held, keeps the last typed line (200 characters at most) in memory for ${last} and clears it when you switch apps, never logs what you type, never sends anything over the network unless you turn on Drive sync, and stops reading entirely in password fields (macOS Secure Input).

Removing the quarantine flag (xattr above) only skips the first-launch prompt for this one app. It doesn’t change any system setting.

Updating to a new alpha build

Quit keychord, replace /Applications/keychord.app with the new one, open it. Because each ad-hoc build has a new signature, macOS may treat it as a new app: if chords stop working, open Accessibility and Input Monitoring, select keychord, click −, then add it again with +. Run Doctor to confirm.

Uninstall

Quit keychord from the menu bar, turn off Start at login in Doctor, then move keychord.app to the Bin. Your config stays in ~/.config/keychord/ until you remove it.