docs » hs.application

Manipulate running applications

Submodules

hs.application.watcher

API Overview

Variables - Configurable values

menuGlyphs

Functions - API calls offered directly by the extension

applicationForPID
applicationsForBundleID
defaultAppForUTI
enableSpotlightForNameSearches
frontmostApplication
infoForBundleID
infoForBundlePath
launchOrFocus
launchOrFocusByBundleID
nameForBundleID
pathForBundleID
runningApplications

Constructors - API calls which return an object, typically one that offers API methods

find
get
open

Methods - API calls which can only be made on an object returned by a constructor

activate
allWindows
bundleID
findMenuItem
findWindow
focusedWindow
getMenuItems
getWindow
hide
isFrontmost
isHidden
isRunning
kill
kill9
kind
mainWindow
name
path
pid
selectMenuItem
setFrontmost
title
unhide
visibleWindows

API Documentation

Variables

menuGlyphs

Signature	`hs.application.menuGlyphs`
Type	Variable
Description	A table containing UTF8 representations of the defined key glyphs used in Menus for keybaord shortcuts which are presented pictorially rather than as text (arrow keys, return key, etc.)
Notes
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

Functions

applicationForPID

Signature	`hs.application.applicationForPID(pid) -> hs.application object or nil`
Type	Function
Description	Returns the running app for the given pid, if it exists.
Parameters	pid - a UNIX process id (i.e. a number)
Returns	An hs.application object if one can be found, otherwise nil
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

applicationsForBundleID

Signature	`hs.application.applicationsForBundleID(bundleID) -> list of hs.application objects`
Type	Function
Description	Returns any running apps that have the given bundleID.
Parameters	bundleID - An OSX application bundle indentifier
Returns	A table of zero or more hs.application objects that match the given identifier
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

defaultAppForUTI

Signature	`hs.application.defaultAppForUTI(uti) -> string or nil`
Type	Function
Description	Returns the bundle ID of the default application for a given UTI
Parameters	uti - A string containing a UTI
Returns	A string containing a bundle ID, or nil if none could be found
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

enableSpotlightForNameSearches

Signature	`hs.application.enableSpotlightForNameSearches([state]) -> boolean`
Type	Function
Description	Get or set whether Spotlight should be used to find alternate names for applications.
Parameters	`state` - an optional boolean specifying whether or not Spotlight should be used to try and determine alternate application names for `hs.application.find` and similar functions.
Returns	the current, possibly changed, state
Notes	This setting is persistent across reloading and restarting Hammerspoon. If this was set to true and you set it to true again, it will purge the alternate name map and rebuild it from scratch. You can disable Spotlight alternate name mapping by setting this value to false or nil. If you set this to false, then the notifications indicating that more results might be possible if Spotlight is enabled will be suppressed.
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

frontmostApplication

Signature	`hs.application.frontmostApplication() -> hs.application object`
Type	Function
Description	Returns the application object for the frontmost (active) application. This is the application which currently receives input events.
Parameters	None
Returns	An hs.application object
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

infoForBundleID

Signature	`hs.application.infoForBundleID(bundleID) -> table or nil`
Type	Function
Description	Gets the metadata of an application from its bundle identifier
Parameters	bundleID - A string containing an application bundle identifier (e.g. "com.apple.Safari")
Returns	A table containing information about the application, or nil if the bundle identifier could not be located
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

infoForBundlePath

Signature	`hs.application.infoForBundlePath(bundlePath) -> table or nil`
Type	Function
Description	Gets the metadata of an application from its path on disk
Parameters	bundlePath - A string containing the path to an application bundle (e.g. "/Applications/Safari.app")
Returns	A table containing information about the application, or nil if the bundle could not be located
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

launchOrFocus

Signature	`hs.application.launchOrFocus(name) -> boolean`
Type	Function
Description	Launches the app with the given name, or activates it if it's already running
Parameters	name - A string containing the name of the application to either launch or focus. This can also be the full path to an application (including the `.app` suffix) if you need to uniquely distinguish between applications in different locations that share the same name
Returns	True if the application was either launched or focused, otherwise false (e.g. if the application doesn't exist)
Notes	The name parameter should match the name of the application on disk, e.g. "IntelliJ IDEA", rather than "IntelliJ"
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

launchOrFocusByBundleID

Signature	`hs.application.launchOrFocusByBundleID(bundleID) -> boolean`
Type	Function
Description	Launches the app with the given bundle ID, or activates it if it's already running
Parameters	bundleID - A string containing the bundle ID of the application to either launch or focus.
Returns	True if the application was either launched or focused, otherwise false (e.g. if the application doesn't exist)
Notes	Bundle identifiers typically take the form of `com.company.ApplicationName`
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

nameForBundleID

Signature	`hs.application.nameForBundleID(bundleID) -> string or nil`
Type	Function
Description	Gets the name of an application from its bundle identifier
Parameters	bundleID - A string containing an application bundle identifier (e.g. "com.apple.Safari")
Returns	A string containing the application name, or nil if the bundle identifier could not be located
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

pathForBundleID

Signature	`hs.application.pathForBundleID(bundleID) -> string or nil`
Type	Function
Description	Gets the filesystem path of an application from its bundle identifier
Parameters	bundleID - A string containing an application bundle identifier (e.g. "com.apple.Safari")
Returns	A string containing the app bundle's filesystem path, or nil if the bundle identifier could not be located
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

runningApplications

Signature	`hs.application.runningApplications() -> list of hs.application objects`
Type	Function
Description	Returns all running apps.
Parameters	None
Returns	A table containing zero or more hs.application objects currently running on the system
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

Constructors

find

Signature	`hs.application.find(hint) -> hs.application object(s)`
Type	Constructor
Description	Finds running applications
Parameters	hint - search criterion for the desired application(s); it can be: - a pid number as per `hs.application:pid()` - a bundle ID string as per `hs.application:bundleID()` - a string pattern that matches (via `string.find`) the application name as per `hs.application:name()` (for convenience, the matching will be done on lowercased strings) - a string pattern that matches (via `string.find`) the application's window title per `hs.window:title()` (for convenience, the matching will be done on lowercased strings)
Returns	one or more hs.application objects for running applications that match the supplied search criterion, or `nil` if none found
Notes	If multiple results are found, this function will return multiple values. See https://www.lua.org/pil/5.1.html for more information on how to work with this for convenience you can call this as `hs.application(hint)` use this function when you don't know the exact name of an application you're interested in, i.e. from the console: `hs.application'term' --> hs.application: iTerm2 (0x61000025fb88) hs.application: Terminal (0x618000447588)`. But be careful when using it in your `init.lua`: `terminal=hs.application'term'` will assign either "Terminal" or "iTerm2" arbitrarily (or even, if neither are running, any other app with a window that happens to have "term" in its title); to make sure you get the right app in your scripts, use `hs.application.get` with the exact name: `terminal=hs.application.get'Terminal' --> "Terminal" app, or nil if it's not running`
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

get

Signature	`hs.application.get(hint) -> hs.application object`
Type	Constructor
Description	Gets a running application
Parameters	hint - search criterion for the desired application; it can be: - a pid number as per `hs.application:pid()` - a bundle ID string as per `hs.application:bundleID()` - an application name string as per `hs.application:name()`
Returns	an hs.application object for a running application that matches the supplied search criterion, or `nil` if not found
Notes	see also `hs.application.find`
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

open

Signature	`hs.application.open(app[, wait, [waitForFirstWindow]]) -> hs.application object`
Type	Constructor
Description	Launches an application, or activates it if it's already running
Parameters	app - a string describing the application to open; it can be: - the application's name as per `hs.application:name()` - the full path to an application on disk (including the `.app` suffix) - the application's bundle ID as per `hs.application:bundleID()` wait - (optional) the maximum number of seconds to wait for the app to be launched, if not already running; if omitted, defaults to 0; if the app takes longer than this to launch, this function will return `nil`, but the app will still launch waitForFirstWindow - (optional) if `true`, additionally wait until the app has spawned its first window (which usually takes a bit longer)
Returns	the `hs.application` object for the launched or activated application; `nil` if not found
Notes	the `wait` parameter will block all Hammerspoon activity in order to return the application object "synchronously"; only use it if you a) have no time-critical event processing happening elsewhere in your `init.lua` and b) need to act on the application object, or on its window(s), right away when launching a "windowless" app (background daemon, menulet, etc.) make sure to omit `waitForFirstWindow`
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

Methods

activate

Signature	`hs.application:activate([allWindows]) -> bool`
Type	Method
Description	Tries to activate the app (make its key window focused) and returns whether it succeeded; if allWindows is true, all windows of the application are brought forward as well.
Parameters	allWindows - If true, all windows of the application will be brought to the front. Otherwise, only the application's key window will. Defaults to false.
Returns	A boolean value indicating whether or not the application could be activated
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

allWindows

Signature	`hs.application:allWindows() -> list of hs.window objects`
Type	Method
Description	Returns all open windows owned by the given app.
Parameters	None
Returns	A table of zero or more hs.window objects owned by the application
Notes	This function can only return windows in the current Mission Control Space; if you need to address windows across different Spaces you can use the `hs.window.filter` module if `Displays have separate Spaces` is on (in System Preferences>Mission Control) the current Space is defined as the union of all currently visible Spaces minimized windows and hidden windows (i.e. belonging to hidden apps, e.g. via cmd-h) are always considered to be in the current Space
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

bundleID

Signature	`hs.application:bundleID() -> string`
Type	Method
Description	Returns the bundle identifier of the app.
Parameters	None
Returns	A string containing the bundle identifier of the application
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

findMenuItem

Signature	`hs.application:findMenuItem(menuItem[, isRegex]) -> table or nil`
Type	Method
Description	Searches the application for a menu item
Parameters	menuItem - This can either be a string containing the text of a menu item (e.g. `"Messages"`) or a table representing the hierarchical path of a menu item (e.g. `{"File", "Share", "Messages"}`). In the string case, all of the application's menus will be searched until a match is found (with no specified behaviour if multiple menu items exist with the same name). In the table case, the whole menu structure will not be searched, because a precise path has been specified. isRegex - An optional boolean, defaulting to false, which is only used if `menuItem` is a string. If set to true, `menuItem` will be treated as a regular expression rather than a strict string to match against
Returns	Returns nil if the menu item cannot be found. If it does exist, returns a table with two keys: enabled - whether the menu item can be selected/ticked. This will always be false if the application is not currently focussed ticked - whether the menu item is ticked or not (obviously this value is meaningless for menu items that can't be ticked)
Notes	This can only search for menu items that don't have children - i.e. you can't search for the name of a submenu
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

findWindow

Signature	`hs.application:findWindow(titlePattern) -> hs.window object(s)`
Type	Method
Description	Finds windows from this application
Parameters	titlePattern - a string pattern that matches (via `string.find`) the window title(s) as per `hs.window:title()` (for convenience, the matching will be done on lowercased strings)
Returns	one or more hs.window objects belonging to this application that match the supplied search criterion, or `nil` if none found
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

focusedWindow

Signature	`hs.application:focusedWindow() -> hs.window object or nil`
Type	Method
Description	Returns the currently focused window of the application, or nil
Parameters	None
Returns	An hs.window object representing the window of the application that currently has focus, or nil if there are none
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

getMenuItems

Signature	`hs.application:getMenuItems([fn]) -> table or nil \| hs.application object`
Type	Method
Description	Gets the menu structure of the application
Parameters	fn - an optional callback function. If provided, the function will receive a single argument and return none.
Returns	If no argument is provided, returns a table containing the menu structure of the application, or nil if an error occurred. If a callback function is provided, the callback function will receive this table (or nil) and this method will return the application object this method was invoked on.
Notes	In some applications, this can take a little while to complete, because quite a large number of round trips are required to the source application, to get the information. When this method is invoked without a callback function, Hammerspoon will block while creating the menu structure table. When invoked with a callback function, the menu structure is built in a background thread.
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

getWindow

Signature	`hs.application:getWindow(title) -> hs.window object`
Type	Method
Description	Gets a specific window from this application
Parameters	title - the desired window's title string as per `hs.window:title()`
Returns	the desired hs.window object belonging to this application, or `nil` if not found
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

hide

Signature	`hs.application:hide() -> boolean`
Type	Method
Description	Hides the app (and all its windows).
Parameters	None
Returns	A boolean indicating whether the application was successfully hidden
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

isFrontmost

Signature	`hs.application:isFrontmost() -> boolean`
Type	Method
Description	Returns whether the app is the frontmost (i.e. is the currently active application)
Parameters	None
Returns	True if the application is the frontmost application, otherwise false
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

isHidden

Signature	`hs.application:isHidden() -> boolean`
Type	Method
Description	Returns whether the app is currently hidden.
Parameters	None
Returns	A boolean indicating whether the application is hidden or not
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

isRunning

Signature	`hs.application:isRunning() -> boolean`
Type	Method
Description	Checks if the application is still running
Parameters	None
Returns	A boolean, true if the application is running, false if not
Notes	If an application is terminated and re-launched, this method will still return false, as `hs.application` objects are tied to a specific instance of an application (i.e. its PID)
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

kill

Signature	`hs.application:kill()`
Type	Method
Description	Tries to terminate the app gracefully.
Parameters	None
Returns	None
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

kill9

Signature	`hs.application:kill9()`
Type	Method
Description	Tries to terminate the app forcefully.
Parameters	None
Returns	None
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

kind

Signature	`hs.application:kind() -> number`
Type	Method
Description	Identify the application's GUI state
Parameters	None
Returns	A number that is either 1 if the app is in the dock, 0 if it is not, or -1 if the application is prohibited from having GUI elements
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

mainWindow

Signature	`hs.application:mainWindow() -> hs.window object or nil`
Type	Method
Description	Returns the main window of the given app, or nil.
Parameters	None
Returns	An hs.window object representing the main window of the application, or nil if it has no windows
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

name

Signature	`hs.application:name()`
Type	Method
Description	Alias for [`hs.application:title()`](#title)
Parameters
Returns
Source	extensions/application/init.lua

path

Signature	`hs.application:path() -> string`
Type	Method
Description	Returns the filesystem path of the app.
Parameters	None
Returns	A string containing the filesystem path of the application or nil if the path could not be determined (e.g. if the application has terminated).
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

pid

Signature	`hs.application:pid() -> number`
Type	Method
Description	Returns the app's process identifier.
Parameters	None
Returns	The UNIX process identifier of the application (i.e. a number)
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

selectMenuItem

Signature	`hs.application:selectMenuItem(menuitem[, isRegex]) -> true or nil`
Type	Method
Description	Selects a menu item (i.e. simulates clicking on the menu item)
Parameters	menuitem - The menu item to select, specified as either a string or a table. See the `menuitem` parameter of `hs.application:findMenuItem()` for more information. isRegex - An optional boolean, defaulting to false, which is only used if `menuItem` is a string. If set to true, `menuItem` will be treated as a regular expression rather than a strict string to match against
Returns	True if the menu item was found and selected, or nil if it wasn't (e.g. because the menu item couldn't be found)
Notes	Depending on the type of menu item involved, this will either activate or tick/untick the menu item
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

setFrontmost

Signature	`hs.application:setFrontmost([allWindows]) -> boolean`
Type	Method
Description	Sets the app to the frontmost (i.e. currently active) application
Parameters	allWindows - An optional boolean, true to bring all windows of the application to the front. Defaults to false
Returns	A boolean, true if the operation was successful, otherwise false
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

title

Signature	`hs.application:title() -> string`
Type	Method
Description	Returns the localized name of the app (in UTF8).
Parameters	None
Returns	A string containing the name of the application
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

unhide

Signature	`hs.application:unhide() -> boolean`
Type	Method
Description	Unhides the app (and all its windows) if it's hidden.
Parameters	None
Returns	A boolean indicating whether the application was successfully unhidden
Source	extensions/application/internal.m

visibleWindows

Signature	`hs.application:visibleWindows() -> win[]`
Type	Method
Description	Returns only the app's windows that are visible.
Parameters	None
Returns	A table containing zero or more hs.window objects
Source	extensions/application/init.lua