Mac app

Idea Bucket for Mac is the full app in a window, plus a menu-bar icon and global shortcuts that work from any app. Drop an idea, say one out loud, send the text you've selected, or search your bucket without leaving what you're doing.

#Download and install

The download is on the Idea Bucket home page: click Download for Mac. The app needs a Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 12 or later.

1. Open the downloaded IdeaBucket-mac.dmg.
2. Drag Idea Bucket into Applications.
3. Open it from Applications (see below the first time).

#Opening it the first time

The app isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS checks with you once. Do one of these:

• In Applications, right-click Idea Bucket and choose Open, then Open again in the dialog.
• Or try to open it normally, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.

After that it opens like any other app.

#Updating

Download the new version from the same place and drag it into Applications, replacing the old one. Your ideas live on the server, so nothing is lost. Because each version counts as a new app to macOS, you may need to allow the microphone, Accessibility and browser access again (see Troubleshooting).

#Signing in

Sign in the same way as on the web: Continue with Google, or type your email and click Send magic link.

• Google opens in your default browser. When you finish there, the browser hands you back to the app.
• Magic link: open the email on the same Mac and click the link. It opens the Mac app (it's an app.ideabucket:// link, so it won't work on another device).

Once you're signed in, the app adds an access key named Idea Bucket on Mac to your account (you'll see it with your other connectors in Profile). Signing out removes it.

#The menu bar

Idea Bucket keeps an icon in the menu bar. Click it for:

The menu shows each item's current shortcut, so it's a handy reminder if you change them.

#Quick capture

Press ⌥ Space in any app. A small box floats over whatever you're doing, ready for typing:

• Type your idea, with #tags if you like (for example Try a herb spiral by the shed #garden). Tag suggestions appear as you type a #.
• Enter drops it. You'll see a check mark and Dropped, then the box hides and you're back in your app.
• ⇧ Enter starts a new line.
• Esc, clicking elsewhere, or tapping ⌥ Space again closes the box.
• The microphone button in the box starts dictation if you'd rather click than hold a key.

The box opens on the screen your pointer is on, without bringing Idea Bucket's main window forward. It works over full-screen apps too.

#Where it came from

Ideas dropped from the quick box remember the app you were in, and in a browser, the page you were on. A small icon at the bottom left of the box shows what will be attached. Click it to leave it off this idea (click again to put it back).

On the idea, it shows as a small icon: a globe for a browser, a chat bubble for Slack, a terminal for Terminal, and so on. Hover it to see "From Safari · Page title". When there's a page, clicking the icon opens it in your browser.

The page link works in Safari and the Chromium browsers: Google Chrome, Arc, Brave, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi and Chromium. The first time you drop from each one, macOS asks "Idea Bucket wants to control…". Click Allow to get page links. If you click Don't Allow, ideas still record the browser, just without the link. Firefox can't be asked, so ideas from it get the app only.

You can change your answer later in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation.

#Hold to talk

Hold ⌥ Space instead of tapping it, and just speak:

1. Hold the keys. After a moment (about a third of a second) the box opens, listening, and your words appear as you talk.
2. Say "hashtag" before a word to tag it: "pitch the shed idea to Sam hashtag garden" becomes pitch the shed idea to Sam #garden.
3. Let go. It waits a moment for your last words, drops the idea, shows a check mark and hands you back to your app.

While holding:

• Press Esc to throw away what was heard. Nothing is saved.
• If nothing was heard, the box says Didn't catch that and nothing is saved.

The microphone is on only while you hold the keys (plus a moment for your last words). It goes off when you let go, press Esc, or click away.

The first time, macOS asks for microphone access. That prompt takes focus and cancels the first hold, so allow it and hold again. Other messages you might see: Microphone access is blocked, No microphone found, or Dictation limit reached for this hour.

A quick tap still just opens or closes the box. To make the keys open the box only, turn off Hold to talk in Settings.

#Add selection

Select some text in any app (an email, a web page, a note) and press ⌥ ⇧ Space. The quick box opens with the text in it and the cursor at the end, ready for #tags and Enter. If you'd already typed something in the box, the selection goes below it.

Very long selections are trimmed to the first 9,800 characters, and the box says so.

#Accessibility permission

Reading another app's selection needs Accessibility access. The first time you press the shortcut:

1. macOS shows its own prompt, and Idea Bucket opens System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility for you.
2. Turn on Idea Bucket in the list.
3. Go back to your app, select the text again and press the shortcut.

Until access is allowed, the shortcut takes you straight to that settings page instead of opening the box.

#Services menu

Don't want to grant Accessibility? Use the Services menu instead, which needs no permission: select text, right-click it (or open the app's menu) and choose Services → Add to Idea Bucket. The quick box opens with the text, as with the shortcut.

#Quick search

Press ⌥ ⌘ . in any app to open a search line over what you're doing. Empty, it lists your 6 latest ideas. Type to search the same way Find does, by meaning and by keyword. Type # to pick a tag and see that tag's ideas.

You can also click a result to preview it, or double-click to copy it. Pressing ⌥ ⌘ . again or clicking elsewhere closes quick search.

Next time it opens, your last search is still there, selected, so typing replaces it.

Offline, quick search looks through the ideas saved on your Mac and says Saved ideas · offline.

#Settings

Open Profile → Settings (or Settings in the sidebar). The Mac app section has:

#Changing a shortcut

1. Click the shortcut. It says Press keys….
2. Press the new combo, for example ⌃ ⌥ I.

Rules while recording:

• The combo needs at least one of ⌘, ⌃ or ⌥ (⇧ alone isn't enough), so it can't get in the way of typing. If you press a key without one, it says Add ⌘, ⌃ or ⌥ and keeps listening.
• Esc cancels and keeps the old shortcut.
• ⌫ (or Delete) turns the shortcut off. It then shows Off; the menu-bar item still works.
• Each of the three shortcuts must be different.
• Reset to default appears next to a shortcut you've changed.

If macOS or another app already uses the combo, Settings shows "That shortcut is taken by another app or macOS" and keeps your old one. Pick a different combo.

#Links and Shortcuts

The Mac app answers app.ideabucket:// links, so you can drive it from the Shortcuts app, Raycast, Alfred, a script or a link in your notes.

The text must be URL-encoded: spaces as %20 and # as %23. For example, this opens Drop with Call the plumber #home:

app.ideabucket://drop?text=Call%20the%20plumber%20%23home

#Using the Shortcuts app

1. In Shortcuts, create a new shortcut.
2. Add a Text action with your link, for example app.ideabucket://drop?text=Call%20the%20plumber%20%23home.
3. Add an Open URLs action after it.
4. Run the shortcut: Idea Bucket comes forward with the text ready to drop.

To drop text that changes (say, from Ask for Input), put a URL Encode action on that text first, then build the link from its result.

#Offline

You can drop ideas with no connection, from the main window or the quick box. The quick box shows Saved offline instead of Dropped. Those ideas wait on your Mac and are sent automatically when you're back online; the app shows "Synced 1 idea" (or however many) when they go through.

Keep Idea Bucket running (it can stay in the menu bar) so it can send them. For more on how saving offline works, see Capturing ideas.

#Troubleshooting

#A shortcut does nothing

• Another app probably owns the combo. Launchers like Raycast and Alfred often use ⌥ Space, and other tools may grab other combos. Either change the shortcut in Settings or free it up in the other app, then quit and reopen Idea Bucket.
• When a shortcut is taken at launch, Idea Bucket skips it for that session and Settings shows it as Off. Record a different combo there.
• The menu-bar items always work, whatever happens with shortcuts.
• Make sure Idea Bucket is running: check for its icon in the menu bar. Turn on Launch at login so it's always there.

#Permissions stopped working after an update

The app isn't notarized, so macOS treats each new version as a new app and may forget what you allowed. If something that used to work stops after updating:

• Microphone (hold to talk, dictation): go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and turn Idea Bucket on. If it's already on, turn it off and on again.
• Accessibility (Add selection): go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, select Idea Bucket, remove it with the − button, then add it again with + (from Applications) and turn it on.
• Automation (page links from browsers): go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation and turn on your browser under Idea Bucket. If it isn't listed, drop an idea from that browser again and allow the prompt.

#"Add to Idea Bucket" isn't in the Services menu

• Make sure the app is in Applications and you've opened it at least once.
• Select some text first: the item only appears when text is selected.
• Check System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services → Text and make sure Add to Idea Bucket is ticked.
• macOS can take a while to notice a new service. Log out and back in if it still doesn't show.

#Add selection opens an empty box

Some apps don't share their selection directly. Idea Bucket then copies it for you (and puts your clipboard back afterwards), which needs the app to answer ⌘ C quickly. If the box is still empty, copy the text yourself and paste it in, or use the Services menu.

#The magic link opened the browser, not the app

A magic link sent from the Mac app only opens the Mac app. Open the email on the Mac where Idea Bucket is installed and click the link there. If the link has expired or was already used, send a new one from the app's sign-in screen.

For problems that aren't specific to the Mac app, see Troubleshooting.