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globalShortcut

Detect keyboard events when the application does not have keyboard focus.

Process: Main

The globalShortcut module can register/unregister a global keyboard shortcut with the operating system so that you can customize the operations for various shortcuts.

note

The shortcut is global; it will work even if the app does not have the keyboard focus. This module cannot be used before the ready event of the app module is emitted. On Linux Wayland sessions, shortcuts are bound through the desktop portal — see Usage on Linux below.

const { app, globalShortcut } = require('electron')

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  // Register a 'CommandOrControl+X' shortcut listener.
  const ret = globalShortcut.register('CommandOrControl+X', () => {
    console.log('CommandOrControl+X is pressed')
  })

  if (!ret) {
    console.log('registration failed')
  }

  // Check whether a shortcut is registered.
  console.log(globalShortcut.isRegistered('CommandOrControl+X'))
})

app.on('will-quit', () => {
  // Unregister a shortcut.
  globalShortcut.unregister('CommandOrControl+X')

  // Unregister all shortcuts.
  globalShortcut.unregisterAll()
})
tip

See also: A detailed guide on Keyboard Shortcuts.

Usage on Linux​

On X11, shortcuts are grabbed directly from the X server and work like on other platforms.

On Wayland, compositors do not let apps grab keys directly. Electron instead uses the org.freedesktop.portal.GlobalShortcuts portal, which changes the module's behavior in several ways:

  • Your app must have a valid portal identity. Set desktopName in package.json (or call app.setDesktopName()) to a reverse-DNS ID matching your installed .desktop file, e.g. com.example.MyApp.desktop. With an invalid or unresolvable ID, GNOME 50.0/50.1 denies every bind — silently, from the app's perspective.
  • GNOME shows a consent dialog the first time an app binds shortcuts, pre-filled with the accelerators the app requested. KDE Plasma binds silently without a dialog (shortcuts are visible and editable in System Settings).
  • Bindings persist across relaunches, keyed by the app's portal identity: after the user accepts once, registering the same shortcuts on later launches re-binds them silently.
  • The portal path is enabled by default. The GlobalShortcutsPortal and GlobalShortcutsPortalPreferredTrigger features are on by default, so no feature flags are needed — including on GNOME (see #52221).

Methods​

The globalShortcut module has the following methods:

globalShortcut.register(accelerator, callback)​

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Version(s)Changes
None
API ADDED
  • accelerator string - An accelerator shortcut.
  • callback Function

Returns boolean - Whether or not the shortcut was registered successfully.

Registers a global shortcut of accelerator. The callback is called when the registered shortcut is pressed by the user.

When the accelerator is already taken by other applications, this call will silently fail. This behavior is intended by operating systems, since they don't want applications to fight for global shortcuts.

The following accelerators will not be registered successfully on macOS 10.14 Mojave unless the app has been authorized as a trusted accessibility client:

  • "Media Play/Pause"
  • "Media Next Track"
  • "Media Previous Track"
  • "Media Stop"

globalShortcut.registerAll(accelerators, callback)​

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Version(s)Changes
None
API ADDED
  • accelerators string[] - An array of accelerator shortcuts.
  • callback Function

Registers a global shortcut of all accelerator items in accelerators. The callback is called when any of the registered shortcuts are pressed by the user.

When a given accelerator is already taken by other applications, this call will silently fail. This behavior is intended by operating systems, since they don't want applications to fight for global shortcuts.

The following accelerators will not be registered successfully on macOS 10.14 Mojave unless the app has been authorized as a trusted accessibility client:

  • "Media Play/Pause"
  • "Media Next Track"
  • "Media Previous Track"
  • "Media Stop"

globalShortcut.isRegistered(accelerator)​

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None
API ADDED

Returns boolean - Whether this application has registered accelerator.

When the accelerator is already taken by other applications, this call will still return false. This behavior is intended by operating systems, since they don't want applications to fight for global shortcuts.

globalShortcut.unregister(accelerator)​

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API ADDED

Unregisters the global shortcut of accelerator.

globalShortcut.unregisterAll()​

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Unregisters all of the global shortcuts.

globalShortcut.setSuspended(suspended)​

History
Version(s)Changes
>=42.0.0
API ADDED
  • suspended boolean - Whether global shortcut handling should be suspended.

Suspends or resumes global shortcut handling. When suspended, all registered global shortcuts will stop listening for key presses. When resumed, all previously registered shortcuts will begin listening again. New shortcut registrations will fail while handling is suspended.

This can be useful when you want to temporarily allow the user to press key combinations without your application intercepting them, for example while displaying a UI to rebind shortcuts.

globalShortcut.isSuspended()​

History
Version(s)Changes
>=42.0.0
API ADDED

Returns boolean - Whether global shortcut handling is currently suspended.