Change Log

Please note that the Change Log covers all changes including Powerpack-only features. To enjoy all that Alfred has to offer, be sure to buy a Powerpack license. :)

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Alfred 5.5.1

Build 2273, Friday 13th September 2024

macOS 15 Sequoia

• Alfred 5 officially supports macOS Sequoia
• Add macOS Sequoia Passwords app by default in Clipboard History

Workflow Improvements and Fixes

• Fix Workflow connection veto close correctly pasting when copying groups of objects
• Improve warnings for Number Slider configurable config when marker count is notable
• Fixed Grid View JSON Universal Action overrides, which also fixes correctly adding overridden items to the buffer
• Fix copying from Grid View when there is no search field visible
• Ignore empty paths passed into the Grid View workflow object
• When directly calling an input object with multiple keywords and Inbound Mode set to Keyword, use the first keyword
• Added a defaults write to change the font size of the workflow debugger ranged between 11 (default) and 24 (big)
  • defaults write com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-Preferences workflows.debuggerFontSize [size]
• Fix issue to refresh a workflow's compound variable cache after updating environment variables via AppleScript
• Fix Script Filter not showing Universal Actions panel when JSON arg is empty, action is populated
  • Improve handling of missing arg in grid view when triggering Universal Actions
• Match Automation Task names non-sequentially in Workflow Palette search
• Tweak help subtext in various Workflow objects
• Tweak Workflow context popup menu to simplify some options
• Fix Workflow JSON Config editor to correctly show emoji characters in strings while retaining syntax highlighting
• Fix correctly following alternative connections configured as fn↩︎ in Workflow User Interface Views

General Improvements and Fixes

• Write localhash to prefs.json to aid in advanced workflow creation
• Updated Universal Actions file display name code to obtain display name immediately after rename
• Increase width of "Match Application's keywords in Default Results" checkbox in Application search options
• Modify Usage tab to bring "Copy Stats" button top the top level
• Fix Markdown Rendering of image widths when contained within a list
• Fix matching ?automation tasks with a trailing s to open Automation Task Options
• Update placeholder icons in theme editor to be more colourful
• Improve Terminal integration code, specifically for large inputs
• Update Twitter to X in default web search, while retaining 'twitter' as a secondary keyword

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Alfred 5.5

Build 2257, Monday 18th March 2024

This is a absolutely huge and significant update!

Visit https://www.alfredapp.com/whats-new/ to see what's new and get some great workflows!

New Workflow UI Components for rich interaction with Alfred

• Grid View: With the new Grid View object, show results image and file results in a satisfyingly visual layout!
  • Dynamically feed in a list of files from the previous workflow object or use JSON to script your input
  • Customise the column count and image aspect
  • Include an optional search field to filter the grid results
• Text View: A super flexible, editable Markdown and plain text view, expanding your Workflow abilities immensely. Take simple notes or create a fully interactive text editor!
  • Populate results from a workflow object, a script for dynamic results or a file source
  • Make the text selectable, or editable within Alfred, with optional continuous spell checking mode when editable
  • Parse the results as Markdown: Include images, links, code blocks, lists, headers and more within your Markdown content
  • Dynamically specify footer text and loading text, including hotkey modifier hints
• Image View: Browse images in a clean, automatically sized view within Alfred.
  • Preview a single image from Alfred's results
  • Preview multiple results with a pagination guide at the bottom and use the arrows to navigate
  • Stack the view, so it's easy to go back to Alfred results with Esc
  • ⌘O opens the current file in its default app
  • Use numbers ⌘0 to maximise the window and ⌘9 to Zoom to Fit
• PDF View: Browse your PDFs in Alfred
  • Select and copy text from the PDF
  • Change the page display via the right-click context menu to show a single page or double page side by side
  • Navigate through your PDF, and zoom in and out using hotkeys
  • Stack views on top of Alfred results to quickly go back to them with Esc

Universal Actions

• New "View in Alfred" Universal Action
  • Takes advantage of rich new views to quickly view images, Markdown, text, pdfs
  • use ⌘0 to dynamically enlarge the content viewer
  • Multi select images, view them in Alfred, then use ← or → to quickly switch between them
• Improve Workflow Universal Action integration
  • Fix resolution of variables in keywords when matching Keyword and Script Filter actions in Universal Actions view
  • New global option on canvas popup menu to toggle treating newly added Inputs and Script Filters as Universal Actions
• Update Recent Documents Universal Action to correctly load recents on macOS Sonoma
  • Additionally add to the recent documents list from Alfred's internal knowledge

More Workflow Improvements

• Workflow Editor now resolves keyword variables on input objects
  • Renders in italic to differentiate from fixed keywords
  • Globally disabled and enabled in canvas popup menu options
• On running a Workflow, show clickable macOS Notification when Automation Tasks are missing
  • Clicking the notification will open the "Update Automation Tasks" preferences sheet
• New Workflow JSON output key to cache script output for high performance
  • Includes loose reload mode to show expired results while loading new results
  • Cache is cleared for specific workflows on using 'reload workflow' AppleScript
• Added new "Unstack View" option to Hide Alfred workflow object
  • Allows for graceful unstacking of stackable views such as the new Image View
• Added new Number Slider to Workflow user configuration options
  • Configure for number range, visual markers and limiting markers (e.g. 10 steps)
  • Automatically switches min / max if configured incorrectly
• Correctly return an error when calling a Workflow External Trigger externally, and the workflow needs user configuration
• Fix word truncation in title bar of Workflow debugger
• Fix Workflow window veto close logic when using result mod overrides, to prevent default connection veto from being used
• Holding ⌥ on the Workflow Gallery menu in the Workflow Editor will now give a "Fix Tools" option to fix broken Homebrew / Xcode instances
• Tweak Text Field behaviour in Workflow User Configuration for consistent behaviour
• Fix sizing of generated Workflow user config to match the preview size
• Fix initial field focus in Show Alfred Workflow object configuration
• Allow Automation Task framework more control over workflow stream on task error

General Improvements

• Add "View in Alfred" as new default result modifier action in Advanced prefs, uses new rich views
• Overhaul the top level window / view framework to allow for the dynamic heights and widths of the new Workflow UI Components
  • Rewrite Alfred window location and sizing logic to better constrain to display height
• New custom Markdown renderer for Workflow "About" and Change Log
• Prevent text from slightly overflowing selection on right side of Alfred Window input fields in macOS 15+
• Accessibility
  • Updated Large Type window to work correctly with VoiceOver
  • Improved Dialog Conditional Workflow Object configuration VoiceOver
  • Fixed System Command preferences to better read components
  • Add new "?Add Default Search Scope" internal search
  • Add + button for search scopes in File Filter workflow object
  • Improve accessibility for Dispatch Key Combo object combo field
• Fix internal search to correctly return Workflow results when there is a manually edited invalid info.plist
• When deleting a workflow or snippet, the name is now shown in the confirmation dialog
• Update theme editor background to only show system backgrounds which are viewable
• Fix theme options position view from clipping tiny Alfred outside of the bounds

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Alfred 5.1.4

Build 2195, Wednesday 25th October 2023

• macOS Sonoma
  • Remove visual glitch mitigation and fixed window size option if using Sonoma 14.1 as FB13188204 is fixed
• Fix layout of initial Permission Request window, preventing truncated text on "Don't show again" checkbox
• Fix the File Action workflow trigger to strictly filter for the specified file types
  • You'll now only see the trigger in Universal Actions if all given files satisfy the specified file types
• Tweak Powerpack preferences tab layout for visual clarity
• Update Workflow framework to tweak behaviour of nil arguments converted to argument arrays differently to improve Automation Task behaviour
• Added alfred_workflow_description to the workflow constants to provide the Workflow's description
• Prevent unnecessary parameters from being saved in Workflow plist when they are no longer relevant
• Show current version in Update preferences when a new update is available
• Tweak wording for macOS metadata reindex button to "Rebuild macOS Metadata Index"
• Tweak Automation Tasks in workflow editor to prevent stacked event listeners

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Alfred 5.1.3

Build 2175, Monday 25th September 2023

• macOS Sonoma
  • Add certain temporary mitigations to a Sonoma visual glitch until workaround can be established, or Sonoma bug fixed (FB13188204)
  • If you're experiencing rendering bugs in Alfred's default results, enable the "Default Results Fixed Size" in Alfred's General preferences
• Add additional countries to "Where are you" for website localisation
• Default to google.com for Google searches, matching Safari's behaviour
  • More reliably logged in to Google account when using Google related searches
  • Added option in Alfred's General preferences to return to previous local domain behaviour
• Fix Workflow debugger crashing when attempting to post nil argument
• Update theme footer margin to be fixed at predictable 10px instead of using search field margin
• Using ⌘Esc within Alfred will now close Alfred regardless of stacked views
  • e.g. if you've navigated from the default results to the Universal Actions view, ⌘Esc will hide Alfred instead of taking you back to the default results
• Tweak Alfred window and view automatic sizing calculation to better constrain to short screen resolutions
• Fix internal URL scheme to open workflows by both Workflow UID, falling back on to Workflow Bundle ID
• Move Universal Actions "No matching actions" to footer for more consistency with FS Navigation
• Remove superfluous characters from end of "Loading volumes, please wait...ec" message
• Begin removal of Sonoma rendering bug mitigation code
• Update framework file picker to re-select file in popout Open dialog in e.g. User Config and File Picker

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Alfred 5.1.2

Build 2145, Wednesday 2nd August 2023

• macOS Sonoma tweaks
  • Tweak framework of file and app opening, fixing the opening of web pages saved as Web Apps
• The {snippet:...} placeholder is now processed in the Arg/Var, Large Type, and Write File Workflow objects
  • As these 3 objects operate in plain text, rich text snippets will be converted to plain text
  • Note: It's not recommended to use this placeholder if you intend to publish your workflows, as the snippet may not exist
• Add a new Script Type of /bin/zsh --no-rcs which gives a cleaner environment for running Workflows
  • This is the default script language for newly created Run Script and Script Filter objects
• Improve passive Gallery Workflow update checking
• Tweak and clarify wording on workflow message dialogs, e.g. Prefab dialog when no objects selected

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Alfred 5.1.1

Build 2138, Tuesday 30th May 2023

• Improve VoiceOver in default results for files with differing filename and Display Name
• Tweak Preferences Snippet table sizing to prevent ... truncation in header
• Tweak Alfred Preferences update message when unable to connect to CDN to download update
• Tweak help subtext in Workflow File Filter and File Action Trigger configuration
• Tweak Checkbox label description for clarity in Workflow Configuration Builder
• Add 'Resolve Dependencies' and 'Automation Task Options' to the ? keyword internal search
• Update Amazon search url to latest format, and include additional country localised domains
• Add installed Automation Task version into exported diagnostics
• Remove outdated Permissions Enabled example in Permissions helper sheet
• Clarified help text in Dispatch Key Combo Workflow object

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Alfred 5.1

Build 2134, Wednesday 26th April 2023

Workflows

• Automation Tasks
  • New Options sheet to configure and update tasks, available from Workflows > Alfred Gallery > Automation Task Options...
  • Improvements to the Automation Task updater framework, including option to automatically keep tasks up to date
  • Automation Tasks can now be added to the Workflow Palette
    • Enable in the Automation Task Options sheet
    • Once in the Palette, they can be searched and added to the workflow like native objects
  • Framework has been updated to better support internal overridable query input, giving more native experience
• Alfred Gallery Improvements
  • Updated Workflow Gallery icon hints in workflow list for clarity
  • When checking for Gallery Workflow updates, Alfred will now alter the workflow list filter to ensure workflows needing updates are visible
  • Added new option to sort workflow list by Gallery Updated which sorts by Gallery Updates > Gallery Workflows > Alphabetical
  • Avoid crash in Alfred Preferences' Gallery updater when cancelling the update during the initialisation
• Added new Expression Utility workflow object
  • Allows for easy variable and query expressions such as incrementing variables
• Updated Random Utility workflow object
  • Add new option to get random word from a newline separated string
• Updated Reveal File in Finder Action workflow object
  • Now correctly processes multiple passed-in paths, revealing all paths in Finder instead of only first path
• Accessibility Improvements
  • Overhauled VoiceOver of workflow object configuration sheets: List Filter, File Filter, Script Filter, Dictionary Filter, Running Apps Filter
  • Add + and - Buttons to the Hotkey Trigger Related Apps tab for improved Accessibility
• Improve Alfred Ubiquitous Search (? keyword) to include Workflow Configuration fields (by name or value), and environment variables
  • Search will also now match variable names used in input object keyword fields
  • Multiple keywords will also be matched if using the || modifier
• Updated Workflow Editor notification system, now made generic to allow for more than simple Alfred Gallery update notifications
  • Now shows Automation Tasks update available
  • Click to remove a visible notification
• Rename "User Configuration" to "Configuration Builder" in the workflow backend config, to better explain its purpose
• Strip irrelevant newlines from text fields in Workflow naming and export sheets when saving
• Remove automatic lowercasing of keywords fields in input objects on saving, allowing for case-sensitive variable names
• Tweak wording in Workflow Dependencies Management for clarity
• Fix incorrect component resizing when selecting "Reset to Defaults" in workflow configuration
• Fix text truncation when workflow configuration checkbox text is too long
• Tweak Script Filter config UI layout to better vertical align components
• System Command workflow object Eject All action updated to use Alfred's new eject framework
• Added option to reload workflow on popup in preferences workflow list, useful for when e.g. a symlinked workflow isn't automatically reloading on external edit
• Added new Alfred AppleScript command to reveal a Workflow via UID or Bundle Id, and optionally show the Workflow's User Configuration
• The Script Filter JSON action property now correctly overrides arg when adding a result to the buffer
• Update built-in Script Filter getting started workflow with improved descriptions and notes
• The Script Filter keyword is now set as environment alfred_workflow_keyword on running a script to complement || multiple keywords
• The Workflow Editor now writes a sorted history of selected workflow UIDs to history.json in Alfred's application support folder, ordered latest selected workflow first
• Prefabs with a single item now correctly open the workflow configuration when the option to "Show Configuration Sheet for Newly Added Objects" is selected
• Fix dragging Safari into Hotkey Trigger object configuration > Related Apps
• Gracefully truncate Workflow name and description in Workflow Editor header and Import sheet

Clipboard and Snippets

• Added the ability to QuickLook Alfred's Clipboard History
  • Select the item in the history and tap ⇧ or press ⌘Y
  • Works with text, images and single files
• Added new option to convert image data to PNG on pasting
  • Will result in smaller data output, but may result in loss of colour accuracy or compatibility
• Added ⌘O to directly open Files and URLs from the Clipboard History list
• The snippet's keyword is now shown in the default results when using the snip keyword
  • This can be disabled in Alfred's Snippet preferences
• Show correct default Snippet Collection icon when searching with ? keyword
• Update clipboard image import to use NSPasteboardTypeTIFF (public.tiff) in place of deprecated NSTIFFPboardType (NeXT TIFF v4.0 pasteboard type)

General

• Clarify the Powerpack activation UI, adding spacing and a title label
• Update Apple Maps search icon to match current version
• Update the 1Password feature preferences to link to the Alfred Gallery 1Password workflow
• Tweak file application cache to be more accommodating of alternative unicode spaces
• Change Alfred Preferences title bar error messages colour to system red to make it easier to see in dark mode
• Update build environment and targets
  • Significant code review and refinements, removing deprecated code, adding future-proofing
• Update mechanisms used for discovering ejectable volumes
  • Ejectable volumes are now discovered off of the main thread to avoid potential UI pauses
  • Eject and Eject All commands now have a placeholder result when loading mounted drives, or if no mounts exist to eject
  • Use new eject framework to discover removable drives to be used in the Copy to... / Move to... Universal Actions
• Removed deprecated Alfred 2 theme importing
• Migrate URL discovery and testing methods in Custom Web Search feature to update framework
• Markdown rendering improvements
  • Fix horizontal rule rendering in markdown when using macOS Ventura
  • Fix incorrect interpretation of URLs within brackets
  • Update URLs to use URL string when title is empty
• Fix 'bing' title to 'Bing' in default web searches, and updated to the latest Bing logo
• Update ebay default web search icon
• Rewrite keyword matching framework for higher performance and new features
  • Multiple keywords can now be specified in features and workflows by using the || separator
• Update auto-completion logic to only complete the keyword if the expected argument type is none
• Add back notes in the Contacts viewer using new authorised provisioning profile
• Tweak internal vector icon rendering to fix incorrect drop shadows, and increase performance
• Update the copied argument when using the ? keyword to prepend navigateto/ which makes for a valid URL scheme on Ventura
• Add additional settings keyword to show Alfred's Preferences

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Alfred 5.0.6

Build 2110, Tuesday 13th December 2022

• Alfred Gallery Early Access
  • Browse Workflows on our new Workflow Gallery at https://alfred.app/
    • Almost 100 workflows already added, and hundreds more already in review to be added over the Early Access period
  • Install workflows directly into Alfred using the "Install in Alfred" button in the gallery
  • Keep Gallery workflows updated to their latest versions from directly within Alfred's Preferences
  • Manage Homebrew dependencies for Gallery workflows automatically using the new Resolve Dependencies feature
• Overhauled the macOS Reindexing sheet and underlying framework
• Add Voice Over accessibility to Contacts Viewer
• Remove unused Show button from Alfred's macOS Notification
• It's now possible to hide individual default actions from the default view in the Workflow Editor when no Workflow is selected
  • Right-click in the view and select the action you would like to hide
• Improve AppleScript behaviour for updating and removing workflow configuration
  • Fixes bug where prefs.plist wouldn't be written under certain circumstances
• Replace out some legacy Workflow icons with updated icons
• Update Remote template icons to use updated Workflow icons
• Strip kbd tags in markdown interpretation
• Improve underlying view layout calculation of Workflow user configuration
• Clear the icon cache for a Workflow when updating or reinstalling the workflow
• Fix incorrectly caching Alfred theme when directly accessing feature views after a macOS dark mode toggle
• Added option to ignore Universal Clipboard file lists in the clipboard history

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Alfred 5.0.5

Build 2096, Thursday 3rd November 2022

• Date placeholder rollbacks and enhancements
  • Roll back 5.0.4 POSIX formatting fix, as this turned out to break language settings for formatted dates
  • Fix 24h custom date formatting with the following:
    • Add new {isodate:...}, {isotime:...} and {isodatetime} placeholders which fix locale to POSIX and conform to ISO 8601
    • Using {isodatetime} will give 24h fixed ISO 8601 format yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZZ
    • Updated template for sortable date time placeholder template to use iso formatting, to fix in 24h
    • Added new Date and Time ISO 8601 placeholder template

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Alfred 5.0.4

Build 2095, Tuesday 1st November 2022

• macOS Ventura Tweaks
  • Clean up search result subtext for apps in the Cryptexes folder
  • Pre-cache Safari's updated location
• Workflow Tweaks
  • Workflow user configuration values can now be set and removed via AppleScript
  • Add "Configure..." item on Workflow list popup menu, and clarify button text to "Configure Workflow..." in Workflow editor header
  • Add : label suffixes in Workflow user configuration back end items
  • Update placeholder dates to use POSIX fixed formatting for user defined formats
  • Fix List Filter object configuration sheet resizing
• Clean up the AppleScript dictionary definition descriptions
• Correctly open Aliased packages and apps from the File System Navigation
• Improvements to file search scoping and troubleshooting
  • Added additional options to the search scope Reset... button
    • Reset to Applications and Home - This enables Applications, disables Folders in Home, and adds ~ along with a few more relevant folders
    • Reset to Full Disk - This disables Applications and Folders in Home, and adds /
  • Improve home folder discovery when Folders in Home is selected, rejecting more potentially irrelevant folders
    • Alter home folder location detection, and add redundancy check
    • Default to adding ~ to scope if unable to detect home folders
  • File Search Troubleshooting
    • Add more details to the file readability step
    • Add 3 actual MDQuery searches for the file based on defined scope, home and all
    • Add progress indicator, as MDQuery may not return instantly

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Alfred 5.0.3

Build 2087, Tuesday 11th October 2022

• macOS Ventura Preparation
  • Update build environment
  • Update Alfred's build target version, and remove deprecated API calls
  • Remove legacy text rendering (some custom themes may need tweaks)
• Tweaks to Mini Player AppleScript to fix certain tracks from not playing
• Tweaks to labels and descriptions in Features preferences
• Workflow User Configuration updates
  • Add "Default Value" for Popup configuration item
  • Update File Picker to have user editable field which also accepts e.g. {var:}
  • Added a placeholder configuration field to the File Picker
• Performance tweaks to image caching
• Tweaks to background local IP lookup for the Alfred Remote preferences

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Alfred 5.0.2

Build 2073, Monday 29th August 2022

• Prepare for updated v5 Corporate Powerpack activation
• Hide folder's Icon file from navigation to match Finder behaviour
  • If required, this can be brought back using defaults write com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred fsShowFolderIconFiles 1
• Palette improvements
  • Favourited Workflow palette items are now prioritised above non-favourited items in the palette search
  • Add "Filter" to "Running Apps" object in palette for consistency
• Write File Workflow output object improvements
  • Add "Prepend" option to file writing
  • Add option to write relative file to workflow's cache folder
  • Improve accessibility descriptions and tabbing order
• Remove /System/Volumes/Data/ from path subtext for file searches (default search and custom workflow file filters)
• Warn in workflow User Configuration when there are duplicate Environment Variable keys
• Add "Open Editor Shortcuts Help" to Workflow canvas popup menu
  • Opens useful guide and cheatsheet for operating the canvas effectively using the keyboard
• Add ⇧⌥arrows shortcut to Workflow editor to match ⇧⌥click behaviour of connecting but not moving the selection
• Update Custom Search configuration test button to match encoding behaviour of resulting Custom Search
• Update {clipboard} placeholder to better conform to {placeholder:variation.modifiers}
  • {clipboard.lowercase} and {clipboard:2.lowercase} is now the recommended syntax
  • {clipboard:lowercase} still works for backwards compatibility
• Fix the help link on the Workflow Dialog Conditional object
• Improve URL syntax parsing for Workflow markdown
  • Now also makes plain URLs clickable
• Workflow Export dialog
  • Improve accessibility of fields and responder order
  • Tweak help subtext on Workflow export dialog
• Update Workflow Replace utility to pre-process newlines and tabs in RegEx replacement template

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Alfred 5.0.1

Build 2067, Wednesday 27th July 2022

• Improvements
  • Additions to Split Arg utility object
    • Added new "Discard empty items" option
    • Improved VoiceOver and keyboard navigation
  • Improve Automation Task Workflow debug output to show which task is being run
  • Workflow markdown interpretation now also accepts both star and plus for unordered lists
  • Update the Workflow Prefab icon to better visually differentiate it in the Palette search
  • Improve experience on creating scripts via the Workflow Run Script / Script Filter "Create File" button
    • When no file extension is given to the file name, open the file in the default text editor
  • Warn when there are duplicate variable names used between Environment Variables and User Configuration in the Workflow Configuration
  • Palette search now also matches when not using spaces, e.g. "openurl" will now show "Open URL" in the results
  • Workflow JSON overrides for certain objects improved
    • Debug utility now allows override of processing outputs, and clear debug text
    • Speak output now allows override of using VoiceOver
    • Split Arg now allows override of output mode
    • Browse in Alfred now allows override of sorting and stacking
• Minor fixes and tweaks
  • Clear workflow's constants cache on committing an edit to a workflow
  • Fix spelling in Workflow Prefab dialog 'cavnas' to 'canvas'
  • Fix spelling in Workflow Debug sheet 'do' to 'to'
  • Fix button text colour for Workflow Getting Started Follow-Along guide when using macOS Light Mode
  • Fix scrollbar behaviour in Workflow Configuration > User Configuration sheet when macOS scrollbars set to Always
  • Add a warning dialog at startup if user doesn't meet minimum macOS 10.14 requirement
  • Fix correctly saving object configuration when using Run Script or Script Filter set to "External Script" then selecting "Create File" button
  • Remove / from the {query} and {var} URL encoded character list to make encoding options more forgiving
  • Make additional tweaks to new URL encoding algorithm to better work with unicode
  • Update Share Usage link URLs in Alfred Preference's Usage tab to use newer twitter URLs
  • Fix scroll view content sizing in Configurable Config Text Area fields
  • Fix scrollbars on Workflow User Configuration and Automation Task sheets when scrollbars set to always
  • Tweak size of the Workflow Config backend shared "description" field to better vertically fit text
  • Update info and error label colours in Workflow Delay utility object config to be dark mode compatible
  • Fix sizing of Prefab and Favourite sections of the palette to properly fit text when no items are added

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Alfred 5.0

Build 2057, Wednesday 13th July 2022

Workflows

• Brand new Workflow Editor
  • Completely rewritten from the ground up to put accessibility and performance first
  • New palette for more efficient workflow creation
    • Drag and drop to add items to the canvas
    • Normal and compact mode, and easily expand and collapse sections
    • Favourites section to host your most used workflow objects
    • Preconfigured objects, or groups of objects, can be stored in the palette as Prefabs for faster workflow creation
  • New Workflow landing screen when no workflows are selected, with handy shortcuts
  • New Getting Started guide
    • Walks new users through the various aspects of workflow development
    • Interactive Getting Started section in the palette, with prefabs to drag and connect
  • New configurable "User Configuration" for workflows
    • Add simple user-facing preferences to your workflows, making them easier for users to install and set-up
    • Recognisable controls such as Text fields, check boxes, picker boxes and more
    • Option for required fields which are highlighted with orange
    • Assign variable names and default values to each item which are then available throughout your workflow
    • Configuration shown on importing or upgrading a workflow
    • Quickly access a workflow's configuration from within the editor using the Configure Workflow button, or ⌘,
  • Keyboard navigation around workflow objects
    • Use ⌘ arrows to select objects around the canvas
    • Use ⌘⌥ left / right to navigate along connection streams
    • Use ⌘⌥ up / down to navigate to connected siblings
    • When no objects are selected, arrow keys will navigate the scroll area (⇧ arrows for larger steps)
    • Improved view focusing progression during actions, making keyboard navigation more predictable
  • New Workflow object icons to clarify workflow development
  • Individual connections can now be disabled, allowing for easier workflow development and testing
  • Efficient automatic workflow object connection with the ⌥ key
    • When dragging items from the palette or using the palette search, hold ⌥ to automatically connect to selected items
    • Select an item, hold ⌥ and click items to chain connect the items in order
    • Select one or more items, hold ⇧⌥ and click items to connect items to the first selected items
  • When dragging a new connection to an empty space on the canvas, you can now scroll from the edges of the canvas to create more space
  • Improvements to snapping and sizing to allow for better horizontal alignment
  • Notes are now intrinsically rendered as part of the object, so they don't get rendered behind other objects
  • Improved connection path detection, including recognising clicking the alternative path indicator
  • Improved rendering quality when zooming a canvas
  • Added alignment options for selected objects, both horizontally and vertically centred or referenced around clicked object
  • New Inbound Configuration option to modify the incoming argument before it's used
    • Updated indicator on workflow object input in editor when argument is being modified
  • The workflow list is now resizable
  • Hotkey Trigger highlight colour now differentiates when sharing combo with disabled workflows
    • Related hotkeys on canvas popup menu also show when the related hotkey is within a disabled workflow
  • Contextual help for workflow objects can now be found in more places
  • It is now possible to edit a Workflow object note by double clicking it
  • The "About Workflow" now supports a subset of Markdown
    • Add pretty introductions and help to your workflows, including images from the workflow's folder
    • Currently supported: Headers, italic, bold, unordered lists, inline code, separator, local image, links
• New Workflow debugger
  • Debugger is now available at the top level of the Workflow preferences, without the need to select a workflow
• Created new Automations object category
  • Moved Music and System Commands into Automations
• Snippet Triggers can now optionally be shown in the Clipboard History / Snippets Viewer
  • This is a global option available within the Snippet Trigger object configuration
• External Trigger updated to optionally enable running of triggers via URL Scheme
  • Example shown in object configuration
• Updated Conditional Utility object
  • Added cases for evaluating boolean true and false
  • Added option to hide the "Else" fallback condition
• Script Filter
  • Added new skipknowledge boolean field to the top level JSON
    • Allows for fixed order result sets while maintaining result UIDs (for item re-selection on reload)
• Rename File utility to File Conditional to better represent its purpose
• Rename Split Arg to Vars to Split Arg and add option to output as a list of arguments instead of variables
  • Added convenient popup button for default delimiters e.g. comma, tab, new line
• Add new Run Shortcut automation object
  • Run macOS 12+ specified shortcuts from within your workflow
  • Specify input as string or file(s)
  • Choose to ignore Shortcut output and continue, or wait for Shortcut and use its output
• Add new Join Arg utility object
  • Converts multiple input arguments into a single output argument with specified join character
  • Useful with supporting some Automation Tasks
• Add new Running Apps workflow input filter object
  • Select output from Bundle ID, Path, or Process ID
  • Add optional result title prefix as a hint to the action
• Add new Dialog Conditional utility object
  • Present a macOS System dialog to the user
  • Configure title, description and up to 3 available buttons
  • Multiple outputs, allowing different path based on button pressed
• Add new Speak output object
  • Speaks configured or passed-in text
• Stripped back run script environment to ensure external variables don't pollute Alfred's script environment
  • Update default run script environment path to /opt/homebrew/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
• Python 3 has now been added to the default script selection
  • Note that if Python 3 hasn't already been installed via e.g. Homebrew, this may trigger the Xcode command line tools install
• Update the default selected script type for Run Script and Script Filter to zsh instead of bash
• New word matching framework
  • Improves boundary matching beyond whitespace
  • New "Word based - sequential" matching option available in Script Filter when selecting "Alfred filters results"
  • List Filter now shares the same matching options available in the Script Filter
• /usr/bin/swift has now been added to the selectable language types in Run Script and Script Filter
• Prevent clicking through on an unpopulated website in the workflow importer and exporter
• Improvements to the placeholder system throughout Workflows
  • The {query} placeholder will now process placeholder modifiers, e.g. {query.lowercase.trim}
    • Allows for faster workflow development with fewer utility objects
  • Access constants, previously only available to Run Script and Script Filter, using {const:constname}, e.g. {const:alfred_workflow_version}
    • Use {constants} in the Debug Utility to view all constants for a workflow within the workflow debugger
    • Improve script runtime handler to prevent user-overridden Alfred constants
  • Debug Utility now uses {variables} to dump all variables, however {allvars} will still be recognised for backwards compatibility.
• When duplicating a symlinked workflow, fully resolve the symlinked path so the workflow is correctly duplicated

General

• Alfred now uses the Modern and Modern Dark as the default themes
• Roll out enhanced URL handler throughout Alfred allowing for more flexible URL recognition and handling
  • Remove deprecated UTF-8 option from custom web searches, make all searches UTF-8
• Improve Alfred text view undo algorithm to break coalescing on non-alphanumeric breaks instead of timing
• Add custom Alfred accent colour to Preferences UI, for improved experience on Big Sur+
• Improved icon rendering across the board
• Larger hit zones for buttons at the bottom of the Workflows, Themes and Remote Pages lists
• Improved macOS Colour palette behaviour in theme editor when changing colour options
• Improvements to Ubiquitous Internal Preferences Search, ? keyword within Alfred
  • Add new blank workflows using ?add workflow

Snippets

• New option to allow resetting of colour, size and font in rich text
  • Useful for creating formatted snippets which are dark mode compatible
  • Option also added to Copy to Clipboard Workflow object
• Separate icons for Snippets and Snippet Collections for UI clarity
• Enable drag and drop of snippets between collections in the preferences
• Fix disabled collection colour in preferences dark mode

Universal Actions

• Reveal in Finder Universal Action now works with multiple file selections

Accessibility

• Alfred 5 brings a big overhaul in Accessibility, and marks the start of an ongoing process to refine and improve every aspect of Alfred 5
• When searching in Alfred using the ? keyword, or using the Alfred Preferences search, workflows are now correctly focused when searched for and actioned

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Changes made during the Alfred 5 Early Access

Alfred 5.0 GM1

Build 2057, Wednesday 13th July 2022

• A few further tweaks to URL processing
• Preparation for General Release, removing Early Access banner from prefs

Alfred 5.0 EA11

Build 2053, Tuesday 12th July 2022

• Fix Early Access regression in URL query argument handling throughout Alfred
• Open URL workflow object
  • Improve flexibility of URL placeholder handling by offering two new options to Encode {query} and Encode {var:}
    • These are checked by default, and are best left checked under normal use of this object
    • When unchecked, options are passed to the URL processor unchanged, giving developer control over encoding
  • Overhaul Accessibility for the Open URL object, with correct tab focus ordering, and better VoiceOver descriptions

Alfred 5.0 RC1

Build 2050, Monday 11th July 2022

• Run Shortcut Workflow Automation Action
  • Update underlying shortcut execution from using 'shortcuts' command line tool to calling AppleScript 'Shortcut Events' instead
    • Fixes issue where passed file paths were copied to macOS temporary folder so couldn't be operated on
  • Update shortcuts logic to fall back to No Input when overriding JSON with an out of range value input mode value
• Fix layout on resizing Workflow configuration sheet environment variables tab
• Workflow Debugger log messages output from the Debug workflow object now show as system yellow in the debugger to better stand out
• Update iTunes to Music in Mini Player volume commands
• Update default "Search in Finder" fallback to show correct Finder subtext in Alfred's results
• General Release preparations
  • Remove EA from bundle version number (Preferences are still in Early Access mode)
  • Improve Alfred Preferences Powerpack tab and activation process
  • Remove Powerpack requirement from using Early Access build
  • Tweaks to the Onboarding / Welcome process

Alfred 5.0 EA10

• Accessibility
  • Add + and - buttons to Launch Apps / Files Workflow Object configuration sheet to make more accessible
• Improve memory efficiency of Automation Tasks when running internal scripts
• Run Shortcut Workflow Automation Action
  • Add (default) input option to ignore passed argument
    • This prevents certain Shortcut app scripts from failing due to an unexpected input being passed
  • Improve task caching to better respect overridden options
  • Stop workflow when the Shortcut action errors, shown in the Workflow debugger

Alfred 5.0 EA9

• Accessibility
  • Improve the Alfred Preference's Music Feature VoiceOver descriptions
• More label changes in Preferences from iTunes to Music
• Update Automation Task workflow object to respect Task UID configuration override (e.g. using the JSON Config utility object)
• Workflow Shortcuts Automation action
  • Stop workflow stream if no Shortcut selected, or there is a Shortcut error
  • Enable Workflow object configuration overrides
• Add System Bold to the available standard fonts in Alfred's theme editor

Alfred 5.0 EA8

• Accessibility
  • Improve VoiceOver of selected workflow object in canvas
    • Now reads additional visual information on the object such as the defined keyword for a Keyword Input
    • Reads the attached canvas note for the object
    • Reads defined hotkey value
  • Remove macOS Bug workaround which verbally changed modifier keys to text in Hotkey View accessibility
    • Fix prevents double reading of mod keys, please let me know if you don't hear the mod keys anymore
• Update Automation Task workflow object to respect config overrides (e.g. using the JSON Config utility object)
• Automation Task Updater improvements
  • Configured Automation Tasks with a missing underlying Task now show as red in canvas
  • Tasks will automatically reconfigure themselves once updated tasks are installed, and canvas update
• Improve robustness of workflow array stream processing to ensure non-strings are correctly processed by objects
• Workflow Configuration Sheet (the sheet under the [x] button)
  • Update the help button link location to a more suitable page
  • Make the user config preview sheet width better match the live sheet to aid text decisions
• Update the default Mini Player keyword to "music", because apparently leaving it as "itunes" wasn't being retro-funny ;)

Alfred 5.0 EA7

• Workflow Canvas and Accessibility
  • Update Speech Workflow output object with option to automatically use VoiceOver for output
    • Enabled by default for newly added objects, falls back to using macOS Speech Synthesiser
  • Added ⌥arrows to automatically connect while navigating in the canvas
    • The "next selected object" for connection uses the same logic as using ⌘arrows
  • Added ⌥⌫ to remove connections to and from the selected object(s)
  • Added ⌘↩︎ to show the popup menu for the selected object(s)
• Automation Tasks
  • Add the initial Automation Task update mechanism, currently available from within the Workflow Automation Task object
    • Downloads and installs (or reinstalls) the Automation Tasks from our official repository
    • Additional changes are coming here before General Release
  • Update the task argument validation to discard irrelevant arguments being passed in, and then check the Task expected input count on the remaining items
    • Allows for much more flexibility when adding Automation Task objects throughout a workflow
    • Add additional debugging output in the Workflow debugger to show which arguments are being used, and which have been discarded
• Fixed the help button link location in the Workflow configuration (the sheet under the [x] button)
• Loosen the URL validation within the Open URL Workflow Object configuration, now allowing for e.g. {query}/xyz or {var:xyz}
• Prevent non-configured Workflow Snippet Triggers from showing in the Snippet Viewer
• Pass .icloud files to Finder for opening, which will instigate a download and open of these files
• Prevent Workflow and Automation Task auto-generated configuration text fields from incorrectly wrapping with long text
• Added + and - buttons to the Clipboard History App Ignore list in Alfred's Preferences to improve accessibility
• Added links to follow-along counterpart webpages for the Workflow getting started guides

Alfred 5.0 EA6

• Open URL workflow object
  • Updated to now recognise multiple input arguments, and process defined URL for each argument
  • Improves flexibility when used in combination with new and updated workflow objects, including the Automation Task object
• Workflow User Configuration Backend
  • Add new option to Copy an entire item (on item's popup menu), and paste it as new (from + button)
  • Make Workflow user configuration backend subtext descriptions non-selectable
• Workflow readme markdown improvements
  • Improve link detection, and remove Open URL confirmation check
  • Fix markdown syntax, now using asterisks for bold, italic, and bold italic
• Fix accessibility label in Features > General prefs for Remove Scope Folder button
• Fix logic in Running Apps filter to prevent over-caching
  • Fixes issue with Quit keyword showing irrelevant items

Alfred 5.0 EA5

• Add ⌘K as shortcut to clear the Workflow Editor debugger
• Update Workflow preferences Workflow filter to be aware of non-strings when filtering
• macOS Ventura compatibility improvements

Alfred 5.0 EA4

• Tweak canvas overlay
  • Move down on the canvas, and make slightly smaller
  • Swap Apple mouse emoji for the word "Click"
  • Add a close button to the top right
• Put focus back into palette search field when clicking a search result
• Improve the Powerpack tab layout (this will change before general release)
• Update various text throughout Alfred's preferences
• Improve the Learn More Prefab which is part of the 5th Workflow Getting Started guide

Alfred 5.0 EA3

• Fix the palette guide height calculations when macOS Scrollbars are set to "Always"
• Spell check the change log and fix speeling mistakes ;)
• Add hyperlinks to workflow readme markdown (shows URL when clicking to confirm opening)
• Add a message within the Automation Tasks workflow configuration linking to early access workflow (currently not online)
• Add new canvas overlay to help discover some of the new keyboard shortcuts
  • Can be hidden from canvas popup menu, under the options submenu
• Tweak canvas background opacity by a fraction to work around odd Monterey flicker

Alfred 5.0 EA2

• Fix spelling in onboarding from Actiavted to Activated
• Fix {query} replacement in Dialog Conditional
• Tweak font attributes in Workflow guides
• Prevent crash when using the Dialog Conditional and editing workflow while dialog visible
• When duplicating a symlinked workflow, correctly duplicate workflow instead of doing nothing
• Remove a couple of erroneous NSLogs which were in for development
• Remove the Skip Onboarding preference value when showing "Beta Requires Powerpack" to prevent loop
• Update "Buy or Upgrade" and "Upgrade" button links to point to early access store (currently not online)
• Fix missing Join Arguments icon in palette when in compact mode
• Always show the Dialog Conditional in front of Alfred's window
• Add workflow debug output if Dialog Conditional doesn't show due to missing configuration
• Add border around Dialog Conditional in canvas to differentiate from standard Conditional
• Fiddle with the palette re-layout when using macOS Scrollbars are set to "Always"

The Alfred 4 Change Log is still available for your browsing pleasure!

Latest Blog Post:

Video Tutorial: Using Web Searches and Creating Custom Searches in Alfred