Release notes

0.10.21

• The web simulator adds Global settings → Mode badge, with live placement, offset, font, color, and border editing. Optional per-mode overrides remain available in Appearance, and changes export to TOML.

• Mode badges support per-mode placement at any of the four pointer corners, signed offsets, and independent font/color overrides, preserving the original default location. See mode-badge-style-and-position for configuration.

0.10.20

• Added Text Input for temporary typing from Normal. Ordinary typing passes through, and standard bindings configure entry, exit, and editing shortcuts.
• Supports borrowing Normal with primary and optional binding inheritance. Fixed screen-switch commands such as screen next delivering their results to the base mode instead of the temporary mode.
• Text Input hides its text badge by default. Arrow, Backspace, Delete, Insert, Home/End, and Ctrl/Shift mappings are provided as commented, opt-in examples.

Enable and use

With the new default configuration, press \ in Normal. For an existing profile, add the entry to your current [normal.bindings] and merge the other settings into their corresponding tables. Do not create duplicate tables or replace your existing bindings.

[normal.bindings]
'\' = "text_input"

[text_input]
inherits = []
temporary_mode = "normal"
temporary_mode_keys = ["primary"]

[text_input.bindings]
'enter \ esc' = "normal"

# Optional: send Enter to the app before returning to Normal.
# Replace the grouped binding above with these two lines:
# '\ esc' = "normal"
# enter = ["send enter", "normal"]

[mode_indicator.modes.text_input]
enabled = false

1. Save and reload the configuration from the tray/status-bar menu.
2. Press Primary+E to enter Normal, then \ to type. Press Enter, \, or Esc to return to Normal.
3. Hold Primary while typing to borrow Normal, for example H/J/K/L to move the pointer. Release it to continue typing. Primary follows your existing key_aliases configuration.

Exit keys are consumed by default: Enter does not submit to the application. Use the commented sequence above to submit and return. For multiline editing or IMEs that need Enter, change the exit binding to '\ esc' = "normal". Editing mappings remain commented out until you enable them. See temporary text input.

0.10.19

• Improved window adjustments, maximization, layouts, and undo/redo on Windows and macOS with batched asynchronous confirmation, reducing interference from slow windows.
• Optimized Normal-mode pointer calculations and reused window snapshots and card text to reduce repeated queries and memory allocations.
• Improved background workspace saves, cancellation and recovery, deduplicated error logs, and refined key release during error recovery and native resource management.

0.10.18

• Improved cross-display window detection and switching on Windows and macOS, supporting more windows while reducing wrong selections and unintended window moves caused by multiple displays, title changes, or pointer warps.

0.10.17

• Temporary modes now resolve full chords first and support temporary_mode_passthrough_keys so selected keys can fall through to the active mode, reducing shortcut conflicts.
• Quick Switch triggers now execute their original binding immediately and show the switcher only after being held for hold_ms, keeping normal key response fast.
• Fixed macOS multi-display overlay positioning so panels and window indicators are no longer incorrectly constrained to a single screen.

0.10.16

• Improved overlapping-window switching (window_overlap_next / window_overlap_previous) with less repeated work.

0.10.15

• Added configurable window_overlap_next / window_overlap_previous actions to switch between overlapping windows from Normal mode and center the pointer on the selected window.

0.10.12

• Added configurable window_activate_next and window_activate_previous actions to switch between windows from Normal mode and center the pointer on the target without entering Window mode.

0.10.11

• Window Move now supports Grid and Recursive Grid targeting, so you can precisely place windows across displays with your configured keyboard shortcuts.

0.10.10

• Improved resource cleanup in Window mode on Windows and macOS.

0.10.9

• Improved keyboard mappings on Windows and macOS so shortcuts no longer accidentally inherit held Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or Command keys and feel smoother and more reliable.

0.10.8

• Fixed premature passthrough of custom chord prefixes.

0.10.7

• Fixed oversized quick-switch panels and misaligned mode names on macOS Retina displays.
• Refined quick-switch panel width and balanced side padding based on mode-name lengths for better visual centering while keeping names left-aligned.

0.10.6

• Added quick switching by mode usage: hold Q in an operating mode and press a number to switch, with usage statistics, a blacklist, and configurable panel styling.
• Fixed overlapping text and unwanted borders in the quick-switch panel at high DPI; Recursive Grid now uses large automatic font sizing by default.
• Added window card guide-line visibility, width, color, and opacity settings, also available in the web editor.

0.10.5

• Split window maximization and minimization into separate toggles: F maximizes/restores, while Shift+F minimizes/restores, replacing the three-state cycle. Both shortcuts remain on one help row.
• Customize window card colors, fonts, borders, and percentage positioning, with an independent Editor position override and automatic collision avoidance.
• Added visual card editing in the simulator, including drag positioning, live style previews, and configuration export.

0.10.4

• Configure the initial key-help visibility with mouse_key_help for pointer modes and window_key_help for window modes. Press ? to show or hide either panel regardless of its default.

0.10.3

Fixed window layout, maximization, and key hint issues on macOS.

0.10.2

Fixed an issue where borders, window numbers, and other window state could remain after closing a window.

0.10.1

Improved window movement and closing

• Steadier movement: continuously moving or resizing a window no longer repeatedly repositions the pointer. Small movements accumulate across frames instead of being lost to rounding at high refresh rates.
• Cleanup after closing: fixed an issue where borders and window numbers could remain after closing a window with X.

0.10.0

Major feature update: from pointer control to a complete keyboard-driven workspace. KeySteer now includes a full window-management workflow for moving, splitting, tiling, grouping, and reusing layouts.

• Window management: press Alt+W (Option+W on macOS) to move, resize, center, maximize/minimize, move between displays, or close windows. Control application and system volume, mute, and audio output devices too.
• Choose how to arrange your workspace: Quick provides split layouts; Editor automatically tiles windows and lets you swap, split, and resize regions; Tabs groups windows from the same application or combines your own selection. Restore reuses saved layouts and tab templates. Notes are optional when saving; templates preserve arrangements, not application identities. Every mode's bindings and entry points are configurable.

For users upgrading from older versions, two configuration features available since 0.9.20 are also worth trying:

• Live key_help hints: open a panel to see the current mode's keys and actions. Add "?" = "key_help" to your existing [normal.bindings], reload the configuration, then press ? to toggle it.
• Shift-layer symbol bindings: bind characters such as ?, !, and + directly. Bindings match the character you type, giving frequently used actions more convenient shortcuts.

See the window management guide for instructions and videos, and the configuration reference for hints and symbol bindings. If you use custom binding tables, compare them with the latest defaults and add the new bindings you want.

0.9.21

Added keyboard-triggered mouse side-button clicks on Windows and macOS. Add these bindings to your existing [normal.bindings], reload the configuration, then tap T / Y in Normal mode:

t = "mouse_x1"
y = "mouse_x2"

Side buttons usually navigate Back / Forward, depending on the application. Use actions such as press mouse_x1, release mouse_x1, and toggle mouse_x2 to press, release, or latch a side button.

0.9.20

• Added a live key-help panel showing available keys and actions, with customizable styling.
• Added mouse side-button bindings with chord and hold support.
• Added direct symbol bindings such as ?, !, and +, plus all shifted symbol keys and a key-help preview in the web configuration simulator.

0.9.19

• Window Mover now defaults to Primary+D. Bindings remain configurable, and Primary+S independently switches the pointer display.
• The web configuration simulator now supports importing, editing, and exporting window-movement actions and precision_toggle, slow_toggle, and fast_toggle.

0.9.18

Fixed lost key routes after Reload Configuration, so saved settings take effect without quitting.

0.9.17

Added tap-to-toggle speed actions: precision_toggle, slow_toggle, and fast_toggle latch a speed on the first press and clear it on the next press. The active speed appears below the mode indicator. Parameterless toggle is decoupled from speed state, so both n+Shift and Shift+n preserve the existing combination-key behavior without re-running or clearing the speed action.

0.9.16

Improved Window Mover: maximized windows now move directly to another display while staying maximized, without a restore/maximize flicker.

0.9.15

Added the Window Mover plugin: point at an application window and press Primary+S+D to move both the window and pointer to the next display while preserving the pointer's relative position. Primary+S alone still switches the pointer display. Configure move_window previous or move_window <display number> for other destinations.

0.9.13

Reorganized the internal configuration, mode, and runtime boundaries and optimized large UI Hint label batches without changing matching, occlusion, or display-layer switching semantics. Signed Windows releases can now verify the same publisher, replace and restart automatically after downloading, and restore the previous version if startup fails.

0.9.12

Fixed UI Hint visual recognition failures, missing top status icons, and hints appearing for off-screen list items on macOS.

0.9.11

Improved input and UI Hint responsiveness, reduced OCR scan waits, and strengthened cancellation and resource cleanup on Windows and macOS for smoother, more reliable repeated use.

0.9.10

Fixed held-mouse text and pressed colors sometimes remaining after automatic drag release, while reducing temporary allocations and duplicate work in shared indicator and input-state handling.

0.9.9

Added optional automatic release for modifier-assisted dragging: after holding a mouse button, any modifier combination can pass through and the button is released when pointer movement stops; disabled by default.

0.9.8

Fixed the keyboard toggle state issue caused by the same kind of input transition as the earlier mouse long-press bug: multiple modifiers can now latch immediately in either order, remain held after their physical keys are released, and no longer pass the toggle activation chord to the focused window.

0.9.7

Fixed Issue #1, where a click could be triggered accidentally before a mouse button entered its held state, and upgraded the Rust toolchain to 1.98.

0.9.6

UI Hint now uses a reusable session workspace, an exact X-axis sweep, and a fast path for two-label overlap groups in the common 129–256-label range while preserving the inline path through 128 labels.

0.9.5

Windows UI Hint now scans the window group under the pointer at submission time. Window-context changes immediately clear stale hints and retarget without consuming retries, while Hybrid shares one scan plan and fully cancels recognition and releases generation resources when returning to Normal or Idle.

0.9.4

Cross-platform UI Hint now shares allocation-free text analysis and exact prefix highlighting, with corrected final visual-layer cycling.

0.9.3

UI Hint labels now use tighter spacing and improved cross-platform vertical centering. Exact typed-prefix colouring on macOS uses fewer native layers to prevent incomplete or overflowing highlights.

0.9.2

Windows UI Hint now defaults to Hybrid, merging UI Automation and visual results in parallel to cover window controls. Labels are more compact, readable, and slightly higher; tiled OCR shows its first results earlier, overlays respond faster, rescan position races are fixed, and cleanup and safety boundaries are tighter.

0.9.1

Windows system OCR now tiles by CPU and image size, streams completed regions, and skips unavailable OCR resources entirely.

0.9.0

Windows UI Hint adds on-demand dual OCR with lower capture latency, lower peak memory, and immediate cleanup after scanning.

0.8.14

Further reduce input and UI Hint tail latency and temporary allocations while tightening native thread and unsafe boundaries on Windows and macOS.

0.8.13

UI Hint now consumes scan results without cloning, chord injection avoids temporary allocations, and cross-platform unsafe boundaries are tighter.

0.8.12

Fix update checks on Windows and macOS, open the simulator in the Windows browser, and clean up update workers reliably.

0.8.11

Open the current configuration safely in the web simulator from the Windows tray or macOS top status icon, and fix macOS update-check crashes and worker cleanup on exit.

0.8.10

UI Hint now cancels stale scans immediately on exit, keeps repeated entry fast, and fixes a potential hang when macOS Accessibility permission is revoked.

0.8.9

UI Hint scanning and overlap switching are more reliable, startup and input are faster with lower memory use, and native resource and unsafe boundaries are tighter.

0.8.8

Input response and UI Hint scanning are faster with lower memory use and a smaller package.

0.8.7

Cursor and indicator movement is smoother on Windows and macOS, while key combinations and hold actions are faster and use less memory.

0.8.6

Fixed n = "toggle": hold n alone to keep it pressed, use it with keyboard or mouse keys in either order to lock them correctly, and tap n to release everything.

0.8.5

Windows and macOS now feel faster and use less memory for movement, display, keyboard input, and UI search, with no changes to existing configuration or controls.