Use `h:` to Hunt Hot Keys 🔎

Tips & Tutorials
1

I just discovered a very useful little Keyboard Maestro search trick:

h: = Hot Key Hunter :magnifying_glass_tilted_right::fire:

If you go to All Macros and type this in the search field:

h:

Keyboard Maestro shows macros that have Hot Key triggers.

This is super useful when you want to quickly check which macros already have shortcuts assigned, without manually opening every macro one by one.

Even better, you can search for a specific shortcut like:

h:⌃⌥⇧⌘D

That helps you check whether a specific hot key is already being used by another Keyboard Maestro macro.

Very handy when making lots of Finder / Logic / app-specific shortcuts and trying to avoid conflicts.

Important note: this checks Keyboard Maestro macros, not every shortcut inside macOS or other apps. But for KM conflicts, it is very useful.

Here are two screenshots from my discovery:

Screenshot 2026-06-15 at 11.22.38 PM
Screenshot 2026-06-15 at 11.22.38 PM548×132 4.85 KB

Screenshot 2026-06-15 at 11.22.48 PM
Screenshot 2026-06-15 at 11.22.48 PM208×442 12.5 KB

3 Likes
2

You'll find the other available qualifiers listed on the Search String Wiki page. You can also use multiple terms in the Search box -- they AND together -- so to find all your macros that

"Have a hot key using = but not using ⌥ and has been used in the last 4 weeks"

...you'd put:

h:= -h:⌥ used:4w
5 Likes
3

Thanks, I think the “app” is useful …

4

Another useful discovery is the Keyboard Maestro Wiki:

https://wiki.keyboardmaestro.com/Search

In the editor, matching actions and triggers will be highlighted with blue stripes:

Search Matched Action

Note that the Trigger Macro by Name action only searches among active macros.

Search Qualifiers:

The qualifier can generally be shorted to its shortest unique name, as shown in the Short Form column.

Qualifier Short form Definition Example
(Otherwise the empty search string matches nothing)
word: w: Match that must be at a word boundary
(Use quotes if Word contains spaces) word:amp
(Matches “Turn on amp” and not “example”)
group: gr: Match any macro within the named macro group
(Use quotes if Name contains spaces) group:"Forum Examples"
— — — —
name: n: Match any macro that has a name matching the specified string n:PDF
(aka universal:)
— — — —
application app: Match any macro that is specific to (or excluded from) the specified application app:Finder
(not necessarily active)
— — — —
deprecated: dep: Match anything that uses deprecated features dep:
(Typed String of “=sig=”)
action: act: Match an action with the specified action ID action:1234
(Action ID of “1234”)
hotkey: h: Match any macro with specified HotKey
Match any macro with any HotKey if no HotKey is specified.
Modifier Keys must be one of these: ⌃⌥⇧⌘ h:⌘⌃C
(CMD CTRL C)

h:
(Matches any HotKey) |
created: cre: Match any macro that was created less that the specified time ago cre:1w
modified: mod: Match any macro that was modified less that the specified time ago mod:1d
used: use: Match any macro that was used less that the specified time ago use:1m
size: siz: Match any macro that has a storage size more than the specified size size:10000
note: not: Match any action that contains the text in a Note note:custom

For the created:, modified:, used:, the parameter is a number followed by a letter (s for seconds, m for minutes, h for hours, d for days, or w for weeks).

You can use a negative sign (-) to negate any match (for example, “-name:PDF”).

2 Likes
5

Also note that in the search field, if you tap a modifier (eg ⌘) it will insert the command symbol.

2 Likes
6

For any others just now learning this, that's a quick tap of a modifier key. A long press or a press and hold will not insert the modifier key's symbol.