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Espanso – Cross-Platform Text Expander Written in Rust

Espanso – Cross-Platform Text Expander Written in Rust

39 comments

·May 14, 2025
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n8henrie

I love espanso! The cross-platform support is huge (I use it on macOS, windows, and X11 and Wayland-based Linux systems).

Moreover, the original creator (Federico) and the current head maintainer to whom he has handed most of the day-to-day (AucaCoyan) are two of the kindest people I have ever come across in open source. All issues and contributors are treated with respect, it really is refreshing to feel so welcome when trying to contribute.

rendaw

Being willing to listen and engage with people on a project goes so far!

majkinetor

Autohotkey is go to on Windows for stuff like this, and its called hotstrings [1]. Hotstrings are much more powerfull. Trigger can for example run arbitrary function. AFAIK on linux, you can run it using wine.

[1] https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v2/Hotstrings.htm

nixpulvis

IIUC they can also run arbitrary scripts with Espanso.

majkinetor

Arbitrary scripts, yes. AHK has a dedicated language which has a lot of hotkey stuff in it (hence the name). Other types of scripts are incomparable.

behnamoh

I found Espanso very useful, but some bugs made me move on to Raycast, BetterTouchTool, etc. for similar functionality. For example, if Espanso config file is on a cloud drive, it doesn't automatically sync or read the file upon reboot.

I'm planning to move back to Espanso though, as Raycast is moving in the wrong direction with all the AI non-features.

KetoManx64

Can't you just write a startup script that waits 1 minutes after a reboot and then restarts the Espanso service to apply the freshly downloaded config?

bryanrasmussen

that seems less than optimal, the whole service needs to restart 1 minute after a reboot?

on edit: changed system to service

henriquemaia

Have been using it for some years now. On Linux at least, it's easy to install and maintain.

The size of my snippets list is now a testament of its usefulness. On the appropriate context (an online meeting, for instance), it feels like a superpower.

lamg

I think the problem Espanso is trying to solve should be addressed by GUI toolkits, like GTK, QT, etc. Otherwise, living with an authorized keylogger in our system in order to introduce unicode characters seems overkill.

ndegruchy

Yeah, I don't have my KDE setup in front of me right now, but I feel like there is something in the keyboard settings that could emulate at least a subset of Epsanso's features. I know on macOS/iOS there is text replacements which are a simple replacement mechanism, without the ability to insert variables.

I agree, though, seems like a ripe piece of low-hanging fruit that could be better integrated and safer. Even if the lower level stuff just hands it off to a dedicated tool that handles the replacement text, at least the OS/WM should be the one watching the keys.

Wolfbeta

Also works with Android

https://github.com/lochidev/Expandroid

tathagatadg

Just installed it and started using. It is timely as I have to fill a number of forms today on government sites so looking forward to using it. What are some best practices you have come up with for reducing the cognitive load for the trigger lifecycle - that is detect the need, come up with one that fits an easy to retrieve mental model? Namespacing obviously comes to mind, and some trigger design should be as conflict free as possible, yet brief:

  :i.a - address
  :i.n - name
  :i.p - phone
Debating if I should feed my zsh history to chatgpt and as it to come up with some. Any other advice from the power users?

mk4p

I was using `,.` as the trigger, as I don't think there are any real-life uses of that simple combo.

  - ,.a.macro
  - ,.b.macro
etc.

atkailash

[dead]

bayindirh

I’m using it on KDE for quite some time now. It’s very useful, but sometimes types too fast and eats keystrokes. Other than that it’s flawless. Can recommend to anyone.

stavros

Can you not configure the text speed?

bayindirh

Looks like it can add some delays. Currently testing the new configuration.

hypertexthero

Anyone know how to change the default :date output to YYYY-MM-DD instead of MM/DD/YYYY on macOS?

I’ve tried the following in default.yml and reloading the config, but it’s not working and Claude, Gemini, and myself are stumped :)

  matches:  
    - trigger: ":date"  
      replace: "{{mydate}}"  
      vars:  
        - name: mydate  
          type: date  
          params:  
            format: "%Y-%m-%d"

hypertexthero

Solution: Edit the # Print the current date section in…

  /Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/espanso/match/base.yml
…to read:

  # Print the current date
  - trigger: ":date"
    replace: "{{mydate}}"
    vars:
      - name: mydate
        type: date
        params:
          format: "%Y-%m-%d"

kemitchell

I shell out to POSIX `date` on Linux and I believe also on Windows:

    - trigger: ";tod"
      replace: "{{mydate}}"
      vars:
      - name: mydate
        type: shell
        params:
          cmd: date --iso-8601

dorian-graph

I know it's not perhaps helpful, but I have the _exact_ same code, and it's worked for ages on macOS. Do other matches work correctly?

I have it in `~/.config/espanso/match/base.yml`.

Wolfbeta

Put it in match/base.yml

thangalin

My cross-platform, FOSS text editor, KeenWrite[1], does something similar[2]. Pressing Ctrl+Space inserts the nearest matching variable into the text.

[1]: https://keenwrite.com/

[2]: https://youtu.be/CFCqe3A5dFg?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9KWzP...

frellus

I love espanso. I use it daily. Simplicity is perfect, it does one thing and does it well.

kamranjon

This is how you do a Readme / went in having no clue what a text expander was and within 5 seconds understood what it was from a small gif.