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Power Features

System Commands

System Commands give you a Raycast command for the actions you'd otherwise dig through menu bars, system menus, or keyboard shortcuts for. Lock the screen, restart, toggle the system appearance, mute the volume; they're all one search away, and pair perfectly with hotkeys and aliases.

System Commands are organized into the System Actions built-in extension. They're available out of the box on both Mac and Windows, with a few platform-specific extras on each.

  • Lock Screen: Lock the screen of your computer.
  • Sleep: Put your computer to sleep.
  • Hibernate: Hibernate your computer.
  • Sleep Displays: Put the displays of your computer to sleep.
  • Restart: Restart your computer.
  • Shut Down: Shut down your computer.
  • Log Out: Log out from the current user.
  • Show Screen Saver: Start the screen saver.
  • Play / Pause: Play or pause the current track.
  • Next Track: Play the next track.
  • Previous Track: Play the previous track.
  • Toggle Mute: Mute or unmute your computer's speaker.
  • Turn Volume Up / Turn Volume Down: Step the volume up or down.
  • Set Volume: Set the volume to a specific value.
  • Set Volume to 0% / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100%: Jump straight to a preset level.
  • Volume Mixer: Adjust or mute the volume of individual apps that are playing audio. See Volume Mixer.
  • Toggle Mute for Current App: Mute or unmute the app in front of Raycast.
  • Turn Current App Volume Up / Turn Current App Volume Down: Step the volume of the app in front of Raycast.
  • Toggle Microphone Mute: Mute or unmute every connected microphone.
  • Show Desktop: Hide every window and reveal the desktop.
  • Toggle System Appearance: Switch between light and dark mode.
  • Toggle Stage Manager: Turn Stage Manager on or off.
  • Toggle HDR: Turn HDR on or off.
  • Toggle Night Light: Turn Night Light on or off.
  • Open Trash: Open the Trash in Finder or File Explorer.
  • Empty Trash: Empty the Trash.
    • Show Warning Before Emptying Trash
  • Eject All Disks: Eject every mounted disk image.
  • Toggle Hidden Files: Show or hide hidden files in the file browser.
  • Hide All Apps Except Frontmost: View the front app and hide everything else.
  • Unhide All Hidden Apps: Bring every hidden app back into view.
  • Quit All Apps: Quit every running application.
    • Show Warning Before Quitting Applications
    • Excluded Applications: Choose specific apps that remain open when quitting all applications.
  • Quit All Apps Except Frontmost: Same as above, but keep the front app open.
    • Show Warning Before Quitting Applications
    • Excluded Applications: Choose specific apps that remain open when quitting all applications.
  • Dismiss Notifications: Clear every notification on screen.
  • Toggle Bluetooth: Turn Bluetooth on or off.

Search for any System Command in Root Search and hit Enter to run it. Most are one-shot, with no follow-up screen, the action just happens.

System Commands shine when you assign them aliases or hotkeys. Open any command's Action Panel and choose Configure Command (or see Aliases & Hotkeys) to set:

  • An Alias so typing lock, mute, or restart jumps straight to the command.
  • A Hotkey for true one-press triggering, even when Raycast isn't open.

Common patterns:

  • Lock Screen with a global hotkey for stepping away from your machine.
  • Toggle System Appearance on a hotkey for quick light/dark switching.
  • Toggle Mute on a hotkey when you join a call from any app.
  • Empty Trash with the alias et for occasional clean-ups.

Volume Mixer lists every app with an audio session, split into Playing and Idle sections. Type in the Search apps… field to filter the list. With an app selected:

  • Press + or = to run Increase Volume, and - to run Decrease Volume.
  • Press CtrlM to mute or unmute the app.
  • Press or to slide the volume while the search field is empty.
  • Open the Action Panel for the Set Volume to 0% / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100% presets.
  • Show warning before quitting applications: When enabled (default), Raycast asks for confirmation before quitting everything. Disable it for instant quitting.
  • Excluded Applications: A list of apps that should stay open when you run Quit All Apps. Useful for keeping browsers, music players, or chat apps running while clearing everything else.

The same preferences apply to Quit All Apps Except Frontmost.