Settings & Shortcuts Reference
Settings sections
| Section | What it configures |
|---|---|
| Services | AI service formats, addresses, access keys, timeouts, models, model discovery |
| Prompts | Built-in prompts, custom prompts, order, enabled state, custom instructions |
| External Ask | External targets, order, enabled state, the feature switch, custom entries, and optional System One decision routing |
| Selection Assistant | Permission, trigger mode, default action, auto-show, app scope, delay |
| Shortcuts | Global hotkey and shortcuts used while the SpotAsk window is open |
| General | Language, launch behavior, session retention, proxy, diagnostics, local data |
| Appearance | Appearance, font size, message style, and reading size |
| About | Version, project source, automatic update checks, and manual update checks |
Decision Routing lives in Settings > External Ask, after the channel list. It is off until you turn on Enable automatic routing.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Service address | TypeSafe official: https://api.typesafe.ai. OpenRouter: https://openrouter.ai/api. |
| Decision model | TypeSafe official: jev-1.13.0. OpenRouter: typesafe/jev-1.13. |
| Access key | A key for that same service. It is sent only to the address above. |
| Confirmation | Always confirm, or Auto-send above threshold. |
| Confidence threshold | Auto-send only when confidence is strictly above this value. Default 0.8. |
| Timeout | 0.5 to 5 seconds, in 0.1-second steps. Default 2 seconds. |
| On timeout | Choose manually, or Answer in SpotAsk. Default: choose manually. |
| Show routing toggle in toolbar | Shows the per-conversation switch. Default on. |
Default shortcuts
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open or focus the question window | ⌥ + Space (customizable, can be cleared) |
| Trigger the selection assistant | ⌥ + ⇧ + Space |
| Focus the input | ⌘ + L |
| Regenerate or retry | ⌘ + R |
| Toggle automatic routing for this conversation | ⌘ + ⇧ + R |
| Copy the latest answer | ⌘ + ⇧ + C |
| Open Settings | ⌘ + , |
| New conversation | ⌘ + N |
| Zoom in | ⌘ + = |
| Zoom out | ⌘ + - |
| Run the first enabled prompts | ⌘ + 1 through ⌘ + 9 |
| Send the question | ↩ |
| Add a line break | ⇧ + ↩ |
| Filter prompts and External Ask | @ in composer |
| Stop generating | ⎋ |
Prompt shortcuts depend on prompt order and which prompts are enabled. In-app shortcuts can be reassigned or cleared in Settings. Numbers after the enabled prompts continue to enabled External Ask entries.
Open Settings in SpotAsk
Opens the Shortcuts page in SpotAsk. If SpotAsk is not installed this link does nothing — open it by hand instead: SpotAsk menu bar icon → Settings... → Shortcuts, or press ⌘ + , to open Settings. Direct link: spotask://settings/shortcuts
Supported attachment types
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Images | PNG, JPEG, WebP, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, GIF |
| Code | Swift, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, TSX, JSX, Rust, Go, Java, C, C++, shell |
| Text | TXT, Markdown, JSON, YAML, XML, CSV, TSV, log |
Up to 8 attachments are supported per message. Very large images are normalized before they are sent, and large text files are truncated after the first 60,000 characters.
Conversation behavior
- Switching a model in the chat window changes only the current conversation.
- New Conversation returns to the Settings default model and clears the current draft.
- If conversation retention is enabled, SpotAsk asks whether to continue a conversation after it has been idle for a while.
- Escape behavior can be set in General: it stops a response or starts a new conversation.
Updates
- Automatic update checking runs when SpotAsk launches and periodically checks for new releases.
- Check for Updates checks immediately from About > Updates.
- In-app updates download and install directly inside SpotAsk without leaving the app. You can skip a version from the update window or restore skipped version alerts in Settings > About.
- Update Download Source can be configured in Settings > About > Updates (Automatic, Official GitHub, or Accelerated Mirror) with automatic timeout detection and mirror fallback for reliable downloads across regions.
- GitHub Releases remains available if the in-app updater cannot run.