Run an Apple Shortcut from a trackpad gesture

Apple's Shortcuts app can automate almost anything on your Mac, but the ways to start a shortcut are limited: a menu-bar click, a keyboard shortcut, or Siri. There's no built-in way to say "run this Shortcut when I swipe three fingers up." That's the gap this guide fills. With GestureCraft you map a trackpad gesture to a Shortcut, and from then on the gesture runs it — in every app, or just one. (Full disclosure: I make GestureCraft. BetterTouchTool can do this too; GestureCraft is the simpler, native, one-time-$7.99 way to get just this.)

Step by step

1. Note your Shortcut's exact name

   Open Apple's Shortcuts app and find the shortcut you want (or create a new one). GestureCraft runs a Shortcut by name, so use the name exactly as it appears — for example Start Focus Session or Daily Note.

2. Open GestureCraft and click Add Rule

   In GestureCraft, click Add Rule. Each rule reads like a sentence: When I do a gesture, run an action, in an app.

3. Record the trackpad gesture

   Under When I, do your gesture on the pad that says "Do your gesture here" — say a three-finger swipe up or a two-finger tap. GestureCraft captures the finger count and motion for you, so there's no menu of gesture names to hunt through.

4. Choose "Run Apple Shortcut"

   In the run area, open the list of actions and pick Run Apple Shortcut. Type your Shortcut's name into the Shortcut name field — matching the name from step 1.

5. Choose where it applies

   Leave the rule set to every app, or pick a single app under in if you only want the gesture to fire there. A gesture can mean one thing in your editor and something else everywhere else.

6. Save, and try it

   Save the rule. Now do the gesture on your trackpad — your Shortcut runs. That's the whole thing.

Ideas worth mapping

A gesture is fastest for the shortcuts you run all day.

• Three-finger swipe up → "New Note" — capture a thought without leaving what you're doing.
• Two-finger tap → "Toggle Focus" — flip a Focus mode on and off.
• Three-finger swipe down → "Start Timer" — kick off a work session.
• Four-finger swipe → "Save PDF to Reading List" — file the current page for later.

Any Shortcut works — if it runs in the Shortcuts app, it runs from a gesture. Because the trigger and the Shortcut are separate, you can rebuild the Shortcut later without touching the gesture.

Why a gesture and not a keyboard shortcut?

Keyboard shortcuts run out. The good key combinations are already taken by apps, and the free ones are the awkward three-key stretches you forget. A trackpad gesture is a spare "button" your hands already know, and it works the same in every app. GestureCraft is also event-driven, so it sits at near-zero idle CPU — it only does anything the instant you make a gesture, and never runs a background polling loop that drains battery while it waits.

Want the same thing from a keyboard shortcut or a mouse button instead? GestureCraft does those too. See the best Mac trackpad gesture app guide, or the full roundup of Mac gesture and input apps.