Open-source Keyboard Maestro alternatives

AutoHotkey is free, open-source software for Windows that creates macros and automates repeated tasks. It is driven by its own scripting language, which has built-in support for defining keyboard shortcuts, known as hotkeys, so repetitive tasks can be reduced to a keystroke or a short script.

The project is written in C++ and licensed under GPL-2.0. The current line is AutoHotkey v2, while v1 is no longer maintained and only receives community help. Support is handled mainly through the community forum, which has separate help boards for v1 and v2 scripts, a bug report board and a development board. The README also notes that official downloads are sometimes flagged as suspicious by antivirus programs and provides a page for reporting false positives.

The source builds with Visual Studio 2022, and version 2 can additionally be compiled and debugged from VS Code. As a desktop tool it is installed locally on Windows and has nothing to host. It suits power users, administrators and developers who want custom shortcuts, text expansion and small automations on their own machines.

Hammerspoon is a free automation tool for macOS that links the operating system to a Lua scripting engine. By itself it does nothing; you create an init.lua file in a .hammerspoon folder in your home directory and fill it with scripts that tell your Mac what to do.

Its flexibility comes from a large set of extensions that expose pieces of system functionality to Lua, such as window management, application control, keyboard shortcuts and reactions to system events. People use it to build custom hotkeys, tile windows, automate repetitive tasks and wire apps together in ways the stock system does not allow. A Discord server and shared configurations help newcomers get started.

Hammerspoon is MIT-licensed and installs either by dragging the app into Applications or with the Homebrew cask. It runs locally on macOS only, so there is no server to manage and no hosted version, and it suits power users and developers who like to script their desktop.

AutoKey is a desktop automation utility for Linux and X11. It lets users define abbreviations that expand into text, assign hotkeys to actions and write Python scripts that control the keyboard and perform other desktop tasks, which saves time on repetitive typing and routine operations.

The documentation describes an introduction and glossary, how settings are organized and moved to a new computer, common actions such as adding abbreviations, and an API reference that includes a keyboard interface with different send modes. The application is written in Python and offers both Qt and GTK front ends, according to the repository topics. The project seeks contributors, as the help-wanted topic suggests.

AutoKey is licensed under GPL-3.0 and runs locally on your own machine, with no cloud component. It suits Linux users on X11 who want something similar to text expanders and scripting tools available on other platforms.