Scoot

Scoot provides three distinct modes for navigating and controlling the mouse cursor:

1. Element-based navigation: Uses macOS accessibility APIs to identify UI elements (like buttons and links) within the focused window of the frontmost application. Each element is assigned a unique character sequence (e.g., "aa"). Typing the sequence teleports the cursor to that element.
2. Grid-based navigation: Subdivides all connected screens into a grid of equally-sized cells. Each cell is assigned a unique character sequence. Typing the sequence teleports the cursor to that specific cell.
3. Freestyle mode: A freeform mode that provides no visual assistance (no grid or element overlays). This is useful for quickly nudging the cursor using text-editing shortcuts without visual clutter.

In addition to grid and element navigation, Scoot repurposes standard text editing keyboard shortcuts to move the mouse cursor. It supports:

• Standard macOS text editing shortcuts.
• Emacs keybindings.
• vi keybindings.

These shortcuts are particularly useful in Freestyle mode for fine-grained cursor movement (nudging) without needing to trigger a visual grid or element view.

Scoot provides three distinct navigation modes that can be activated via global keyboard shortcuts. Activating a mode brings Scoot to the foreground and enables specific UI overlays.

• Element-based navigation mode: Uses a char-based decision tree to jump to UI elements. Each element is marked with a label (e.g., "aaa"). Type the characters one by one to move the cursor to the center of the corresponding cell.
• Grid-based navigation mode: Uses a 2D grid overlay for navigation.
• Freestyle mode: A mode without special UI or char-based navigation assistance, allowing for direct cursor movement.

To activate these modes, use the following global shortcuts (which can be customized in Preferences):

• ⇧⌘J: Element-based navigation
• ⇧⌘K: Grid-based navigation
• ⇧⌘L: Freestyle mode

Global Shortcuts:
- ⇧⌘J -> Element-based
- ⇧⌘K -> Grid-based
- ⇧⌘L -> Freestyle

To ensure Scoot is always available, you can add it to your macOS Login Items:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Navigate to “Users & Groups” and then “Login Items”.
3. Click the lock icon in the bottom left corner to unlock the settings.
4. Click the “+” button and select Scoot.app from your Applications folder.
5. It is recommended to check the “Hide” checkbox so the app launches in the background.

You can install Scoot using Homebrew or by manually downloading the app bundle.

Using Homebrew

Run the following command in your terminal:

brew install --cask scoot

Manual Installation

1. Download and extract the latest build of Scoot.
2. Drag the extracted _Scoot.app_ into your Applications folder.
3. Double-click _Scoot.app_ from the Applications folder to launch it.

Scoot requires macOS accessibility permissions to function. Without these, it cannot move your cursor, click, drag, or scroll.

1. When prompted on the first run, click “Open System Preferences”.
2. Click the lock icon in the bottom left corner of the System Preferences window to make changes.
3. Locate and check the box for “Scoot.app” to grant it accessibility access.

Note: Scoot runs entirely locally and does not collect user data or make network requests.

The following sequence demonstrates how to perform a drag-and-drop operation using Scoot's grid-based navigation mode:

1. ⇧⌘K: Activate Scoot.
2. kh: Jump the cursor to a specific cell.
3. =: Press and hold the left mouse button.
4. fd: Jump the cursor to the destination cell.
5. ↵: Release the left mouse button.

This pattern allows you to grab a file and drop it into a new location using only keyboard commands.

⇧⌘K -> kh -> = -> fd -> ↵

Global keybindings are always active as long as Scoot is running. They are used to bring Scoot to the foreground in a specific mode.

| Default Shortcut | Description |
|------------------|-------------|
| ⇧⌘J              | Use element-based navigation |
| ⇧⌘K              | Use grid-based navigation |
| ⇧⌘L              | Use freestyle mode |