Type :reply, get a whole email: free text shortcuts that work in every app
Espanso turns short codes like :addr into your full address, a whole email or today's date, wherever you type. Free, open source, no account.
:addr becomes your full address- An
:aishortcut that sends your clipboard to your own local AI and types back a cleaner rewrite
- A Windows 11 PC, a Mac or a Linux PC. The steps use Windows; the Mac and Linux differences are in step 1
- About 20MB of free disk space
- No account and no admin rights. Your snippets are plain text files you edit in Notepad.
Download Espanso and switch it on
Espanso watches what you type and swaps short codes for longer text. The portable version needs no installer: delete the folder and it's gone.
Espanso is free and open source (GPL-3.0), with about 14,600 stars on GitHub. On Windows, use the portable version, a 7.8MB zip from the official GitHub releases.
Open PowerShell (search for it in the Start menu) and paste these lines. They download the zip, unpack it into a folder called
espansoin your user folder, and start it:Windows (PowerShell)cd $HOME Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/espanso/espanso/releases/download/v2.4.1/Espanso-Win-Portable-x86_64.zip -OutFile espanso.zip Expand-Archive espanso.zip -DestinationPath espanso Remove-Item espanso.zip cd espanso\espanso-portable .\START_ESPANSO.batTipPrefer clicking? Download Espanso-Win-Portable-x86_64.zip from the releases page ↗, right-click it and choose Extract All, then open theespanso-portablefolder inside and double-click START_ESPANSO.bat. Any 2.x version works the same way.A welcome window opens. Click Start. The next page asks whether Espanso should launch every time you turn on your PC, and that box is ticked by default.
Untick it if you only want Espanso when you start it. Leave it ticked if you want your shortcuts every day without thinking about it. Click Continue. A small window pops up saying Espanso is running!. Now open any text box (Notepad, a box on a web page, an email) and type
:espanso. It turns intoHi there!as soon as you type the last letter.You can also check from PowerShell. You should still be in the
espanso-portablefolder:Terminal.\espanso statusOutputespanso is runningOn a Macinstall it with Homebrew ↗, then open Espanso from Applications. If macOS asks for permission to watch the keyboard, allow it. Your snippet files live in
~/Library/Application Support/espanso, and in the rest of this mission you typeespansowhere it says.\espanso:Mac (Terminal)brew install espanso espanso status espanso pathOn Ubuntu or Debianfirst check your session with
echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE. Forx11, install the package from the official Linux guide ↗ (Wayland has its own package and one extrasetcapline, both on that page). Snippets live in~/.config/espanso:Ubuntu / Debian, X11 sessionwget https://github.com/espanso/espanso/releases/latest/download/espanso-debian-x11-amd64.deb sudo apt install ./espanso-debian-x11-amd64.deb espanso service register espanso startTipEspanso has to see your typing to spot your shortcuts. It's open source and runs on your PC, but like anything that reads the keyboard, only ever download it from the official GitHub page.CarefulOn Windows, Espanso can't type into a window that's running as administrator unless Espanso is too. If a shortcut works everywhere except one program you opened as admin, that's the reason, not a broken snippet.
:espanso turns into Hi there!, and .\espanso status says espanso is running.If it breaksA window says 'Espanso is already running!' + 2 more
A window says 'Espanso is already running!'
'.\START_ESPANSO.bat' is not recognised
cd $HOME\espanso\espanso-portable and try again.You'd rather install it properly
winget install --id Espanso.Espanso -e gets the same version 2.4.1 as a normal app, with a Start menu entry. Your snippet files then live in %APPDATA%\espanso instead of the portable folder (espanso path shows where), and you type espanso where this mission says .\espanso.