FastScripts is a macOS menu-bar application from Red Sweater Software that lets you assign keyboard shortcuts to AppleScripts and shell scripts, triggering automation instantly from anywhere on your Mac.
What is FastScripts?
FastScripts is a scriptrunner and shortcut manager that lives quietly in your menu bar, giving every script in your library a direct keyboard shortcut. Unlike macOS's built-in Script Menu — which requires you to click through menus — FastScripts puts automation one keystroke away, whether you're in Safari, Xcode, Mail, or a terminal window.
Developed by Daniel Jalkut at Red Sweater Software, FastScripts has been a staple of the power-user toolbox for well over a decade. It handles both AppleScript and shell scripts, organizes them per-application or globally, and updates your menu the moment you drop a new script into the right folder.
What does FastScripts do best?
FastScripts excels at getting out of the way. Once you assign a shortcut to a script, the friction of automation essentially disappears — there's no launcher to open, no palette to summon. You press the keys, the script runs. That immediacy changes how you think about repetitive tasks.
The app-aware organization is quietly brilliant. Scripts placed inside an application-specific subfolder only appear and fire when that app is frontmost. So a script that reformats selected text in BBEdit won't accidentally fire in Slack. I keep a handful of Mail-specific scripts for filing messages and composing templated replies, and a separate set for Finder that batch-rename files. FastScripts keeps them completely separate without any configuration beyond folder placement.
- Per-application shortcuts — different scripts surface depending on which app is active
- Instant menu updates — drop a new .scpt or shell script into the folder and it appears immediately
- Keyboard-first access — up to 10 shortcut assignments in the free tier; unlimited in the paid license
- Shell script support — not just AppleScript; bash, Python, Ruby, and any executable work fine
- Low overhead — a native Cocoa app that uses negligible CPU and memory between script runs
How much does FastScripts cost?
FastScripts is free to download and free to use for up to ten keyboard shortcuts. That limit is generous enough to cover the most common workflows for many users. If you need more than ten shortcuts — and once you've lived with FastScripts for a week, you will — a one-time paid license unlocks unlimited shortcuts with no subscription.
Red Sweater has historically offered very fair upgrade pricing for returning customers, and the app is available directly from the developer's site as well as the Mac App Store.
Who should use FastScripts?
FastScripts is built for the kind of Mac user who has already written a few AppleScripts but hates digging through Script Editor or Apple's menu to run them. Developers, writers, system administrators, and anyone who performs the same multi-step action more than a handful of times a day will feel the return on investment almost immediately.
If your automation needs are simpler — or if you prefer a visual, drag-and-drop approach — Automator or the Shortcuts app on Ventura and later might be a better starting point. But if you're comfortable writing scripts and want them firing on a keystroke rather than a click, FastScripts has no serious rival on the Mac.
How does FastScripts compare to Keyboard Maestro and Alfred?
Keyboard Maestro and Alfred are broader automation platforms; FastScripts is a focused specialist. Keyboard Maestro can run scripts too, but its strength is macro recording, window management, and clipboard history — it's a Swiss Army knife that costs more and takes longer to master. Alfred's workflow system can invoke scripts via its Powerpack, but the trigger model is search-bar-first rather than shortcut-first.
FastScripts does one thing and does it without compromise: it runs scripts on a keypress, app-aware, with zero latency. I keep Keyboard Maestro for complex multi-step macros and FastScripts for any task that's already a script file. They coexist happily.
What are the best FastScripts alternatives?
The closest native alternative is Apple's own Script Menu, activated in Script Editor's preferences. It's free and built in, but offers no keyboard shortcuts and no per-application filtering. Automator and Shortcuts handle simpler workflows without any scripting knowledge required. If you're already deep in the Alfred or Raycast ecosystem, both can run scripts via their respective extension systems, though neither matches FastScripts' folder-drop simplicity and app-aware context.
