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Power Features

System Commands

System Commands give you a Raycast command for the actions you'd otherwise dig through system menus, settings, 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.

Discover System Commands

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.

Power & Session

  • Lock Screen: Lock the screen of your computer.
  • Sleep: Put your computer to sleep.
  • Hibernate: Hibernate your computer.
  • Toggle Energy Saver: Turn Energy Saver on or off.
  • Sleep Displays: Put the displays of your computer to sleep.
  • Restart: Restart your computer.
  • Shut Down: Shut down your computer.
  • Log Out: Log out of the current user account.
  • Show Screen Saver: Start the screen saver.

Audio & Media

  • Play / Pause: Play or pause the current track.
  • Next Track: Play the next track.
  • Previous Track: Play the previous track.
  • Seek Forward 10 Seconds / Seek Backward 10 Seconds: Seek 10 seconds forward or backward in the current media session when it supports seeking.
  • 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.
  • Manage Sound Output Devices: Choose your default output device and adjust its volume and settings.
  • Manage Sound Input Devices: Choose your default input device and adjust its volume and settings.
  • Toggle Active App Mute: Mute or unmute the active app.
  • Turn Active App Volume Up / Turn Active App Volume Down: Step the volume of the active app.
  • Toggle Microphone Mute: Mute or unmute every connected microphone.
  • Toggle Camera Mute: Block or restore camera access for every app.

Display & Appearance

  • Show Desktop: Hide every window and reveal the desktop.
  • Toggle System Appearance: Switch between light and dark mode.
  • Auto Dark Mode: Switch between light and dark mode automatically on a schedule. See Auto 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.

Files & Storage

  • Open Trash: Open the Trash in Finder or File Explorer.
  • Empty Trash: Empty the Trash.
    • Show Warning Before Emptying Trash: Ask for confirmation before emptying the Trash.
  • Eject All Disks: Eject every mounted disk image.
  • Toggle Hidden Files: Show or hide hidden files in the file browser.

Apps & Notifications

  • 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: Ask for confirmation before quitting every app.
    • 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: Ask for confirmation before quitting every app.
    • Excluded Applications: Choose specific apps that remain open when quitting all applications.
  • Restart Frontmost App: Quit and reopen the app you're currently using. To restart your computer instead, use Restart.
  • Dismiss Notifications: Clear every notification on screen.

Connectivity

  • WiFi: Connect to saved networks and manage Wi-Fi preferences.
  • Toggle WiFi: Turn Wi-Fi on or off.
  • Bluetooth: Manage your paired Bluetooth devices. To turn Bluetooth on or off, use Toggle Bluetooth instead.
  • Toggle Bluetooth: Turn Bluetooth on or off.
  • Toggle Airplane Mode: Turn Airplane Mode on or off.

Using System Commands

Search for any System Command in Root Search and hit Enter to run it. Most are one-shot: there's no follow-up screen, and the action runs right away.

System Commands are most useful 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: Assign a global Hotkey for stepping away from your computer.
  • Toggle System Appearance: Assign a Hotkey for quick light/dark switching.
  • Toggle Mute: Assign a Hotkey to mute when you join a call from any app.
  • Empty Trash: Assign the Alias et for occasional clean-ups.

Volume Mixer

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.

Auto Dark Mode

Auto Dark Mode switches Windows between light and dark mode on a schedule, so you don't have to do it by hand. It can also change your wallpaper to match. It's off until you set it up; to switch the appearance yourself at any time, use Toggle System Appearance.

Open Auto Dark Mode and choose a schedule:

  • Custom Times: Switch at the times you set. By default, light mode starts at 07:00 and dark mode at 19:00. The light and dark times can't be the same.
  • Sunrise & Sunset: Switch at sunrise and sunset. Raycast gets your location from Windows when you save and reuses those coordinates afterward.
  • Follow Windows Night Light: Use your Windows Night Light schedule to decide when to switch. This option needs Raycast to be able to read the Night Light state.

Optionally, pick wallpapers to go with each appearance:

  • Light Wallpaper: The wallpaper for light mode.
  • Dark Wallpaper: The wallpaper for dark mode.

Wallpapers can be JPG, JPEG, PNG, or BMP files, and the file you choose must exist. No wallpapers are set by default.

Actions

  • Save & Enable: Save your schedule and turn on Auto Dark Mode. Available while Auto Dark Mode is off.
  • Save: Save changes to your schedule. Available while Auto Dark Mode is on.
  • Disable: Turn off Auto Dark Mode. Your current appearance stays as it is.

When you save, Raycast closes its window before it applies any appearance change.

Auto Dark Mode catches up after your PC wakes. If you change the appearance yourself between scheduled switches, Auto Dark Mode doesn't keep switching it back.

Settings

  • Pause While Gaming: When enabled (default), Raycast doesn't change the appearance while a game is in the foreground. Raycast defers the change instead of applying it right away.
  • Location Override: Blank by default.

Quit All Apps

  • 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.

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