Menu bar and settings

Menu items

Shortcut

Choose ⌘Space (default), ⌘⇧Space or ⌥Space. The new shortcut works at once, in every app. Lightspot registers it as a global hot key, which needs no Accessibility permission. Picking ⌘Space while Apple Spotlight still uses it offers to free it, and if another app holds the shortcut when Lightspot starts, Lightspot tells you; see When ⌘Space is taken.

Search engine

Google, DuckDuckGo, Kagi, Bing, Brave Search or Ecosia. This only changes the last Web Search row; the search prefixes always go to their own sites.

Export and import

Export Settings… saves a JSON file, named Lightspot-Settings-2026-10-16.json by default, and reports how many custom and pinned commands it contains. Import Settings… reads such a file, shows a summary and asks before it replaces your current settings; nothing is merged.

Before writing the file, Lightspot replaces your home folder (/Users/you) with ~ in custom commands, pinned commands and search history, so the same file works on a Mac with a different user name; ~ is expanded again when a path is opened. Files from a newer Lightspot with a higher version are refused, and imported history is cleaned the same way as Lightspot’s own (see what Lightspot stores). A shortened example:

{
  "app" : "com.lightspot.app",
  "customCommands" : [
    {
      "iconSource" : "runner",
      "id" : "5AD4742B-E829-415A-A5B8-603FC8E56D4F",
      "keywords" : [ "github", "git", "repo", "code" ],
      "name" : "Open GitHub",
      "prefix" : "gh",
      "target" : "https://github.com/search?q={query}&type=repositories",
      "type" : "url"
    }
  ],
  "exportedAt" : "2026-10-16T08:00:00Z",
  "pinnedCommands" : [ "docker compose up -d", "npm run dev" ],
  "preferences" : {
    "autoStartEnabled" : true,
    "autoUpdateEnabled" : true,
    "browserHistoryDays" : 7,
    "hideMenuBarIcon" : false,
    "hotkeyOption" : "cmd_space"
  },
  "recentAppBundleIDs" : [ "com.apple.Terminal", "com.microsoft.VSCode" ],
  "searchHistory" : { "entries" : [ … ], "itemStats" : { … } },
  "version" : 1
}

The export contains your search history: what you searched for and which apps, pages and projects you opened. Look through the file before sharing it.

Where settings are stored

Everything is in Lightspot’s preferences (defaults read com.lightspot.app), under these keys, plus a lock file in ~/Library/Application Support/Lightspot that keeps a second copy from starting. The uninstaller deletes them all.