I’ve been using alfred on my macs for quite a number of years. I don’t remember how I first found out about it, but it’s nearly always the first thing I install on new machines. Should I move to Linux, I am certainly going to need to find an equivalent and onagre looks like it might be one potential replacement. Inspired by a random comment on mastodon, I thought it would be interesting to write about my most commonly used workflows.

alfred-repos

I was originally using deanishe/alfred-repos though it seems like harrtho/alfred-repos is a more actively maintained version.

{
  "app_cmd": "Gitup",
  "app_default": "Visual Studio Code",
  "search_dirs": [
    {
      "depth": 2,
      "path": "~/Projects"
    },
    {
      "depth": 2,
      "path": "~/References"
    },
    {
      "depth": 2,
      "path": "~/Documents"
    }
  ]
}

I use a ~/References folder for projects that I depend on, and sometimes look at the code, but do not actively contribute to. I often keep some git repos in my ~/Documents folder which are not code, but are otherwise documents I might want to keep in git.

By having a few paths configured in alfred-repos, I can quickly open a project in my default editor or using a modifier key, open in a different app. Having a workflow that is scoped to just my project folders makes it very easy to open any of my projects.

Dash

dash is a documentation browser that pairs well with Alfred. This allows me to quickly type a query to look up documentation. Each dockset automatically becomes a keyword search in Alfred so I can quickly lookup the documentation.

Examples I might look up

• python3 <modulename> to quickly look at Python documentation for a specific module I’m using
• django <app> to quickly look up how to use one of the built in Django contributor apps.
• bootstrap4 <component> to quickly look at the Bootstrap documentation for a specific component.
• http <status code> to quickly look up the correct HTTP status codes

and many, many other docsets and cheetsheets. Having a way to quickly look at just the documentation I need, reduces the chances that I might go off on a tangent and get distracted.

Ohayou (custom)

I wrote a simple keyword action ohayou (Japanese for Good Morning) to help start my day.

• Using the launch apps I can launch a number of applications that I use every day.
• Using run script action, I run a few other actions and use the open shell command to open various websites that I check in the morning.

It’s a simple workflow that only applies to me, but it’s nice to have something simple like this that I can trigger every morning in a consistent way.

Worklog (custom)

Though I am recently experimenting with both NotePlan and Obsidian , I also have an older note keeping system where I basically open a new note for each date (YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD.md).

I wrote a script filter that will give me a list of recent workflow file as well as shortcuts for Today,Tomorro, and Yesterday. This makes it very quick to open my Today note whenever I need to write down notes. Combine with alfred-repo I can also easily open my entire worklog repository in a full code editor if I need to modify more pages at once.