Selection actions¶

Act on text, links, or files selected in another app without copying and pasting manually. Select something, press Ctrl+Alt+Space (configurable), and Sevak shows actions for it. Nothing runs until you pick an action with Up / Down and Enter, or Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9.

Universal Actions for a selected sentence: search the web, show as Large Type, copy, paste as plain text, and change its case or encoding.

The picture shows sample text, rendered from the real interface with example data.

Turn it on¶

The feature is on by default. To change the hotkey or turn it off:

[general]
actions_hotkey = "Ctrl+Alt+Space"   # "" turns it off

How it works¶

sequenceDiagram
    participant app as Your App
    participant sevak as Sevak
    participant cb as Clipboard

    app->>app: You select text
    app->>sevak: You press Ctrl+Alt+Space

    rect rgb(100, 200, 100)
    sevak->>cb: Save clipboard contents
    sevak->>app: Press Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on macOS)
    sevak->>cb: Wait for clipboard to change (up to 300ms)
    sevak->>cb: Read the selection
    sevak->>cb: Restore original clipboard
    end

    rect rgb(200, 200, 100)
    sevak->>sevak: Show actions for the selection
    app->>sevak: You pick an action
    sevak->>app: Apply it (paste, copy, open, etc.)
    end

The selection itself is never stored or logged. Sevak reads it once, shows actions, and forgets it unless you run an action.

What you can do with selections¶

Text¶

Select any text:

Action	What it does
Search [Engine] for "..."	Opens your browser with a web search (one row per `[[web_search]]` engine)
Large Type	Shows the text huge across the screen (for reading across the room)
Copy	Copies the text to the clipboard
Paste as plain text	Pastes without formatting (font, color, etc.)
Calculate	If the text is a calculation or conversion, shows the result (e.g., `2*3+4`, `10 km in mi`)
Uppercase	Transform: `hello` → `HELLO` (replaces the selection where pasting works)
Lowercase	Transform: `HELLO` → `hello`
Title Case	Transform: `hello world` → `Hello World`
Trim whitespace	Remove leading and trailing spaces
URL-encode	Transform: `hello world` → `hello%20world`
URL-decode	Transform: `hello%20world` → `hello world`
Base64 encode	Transform: `hello` → `aGVsbG8=`
Base64 decode	Transform: `aGVsbG8=` → `hello` (only if valid)
Pretty-print JSON	Format minified JSON with indentation
Minify JSON	Remove whitespace from JSON
Ask AI about selection	Only when the AI assistant is on: puts `ai Explain this: <selection>` in the search box. Nothing is sent until you press Enter there

Transformations replace the selection in the app (Sevak pastes over it) where pasting works. Ctrl+Enter copies the result instead of pasting. If pasting is not available (Wayland, or macOS without permission), they copy.

Workflows¶

A workflow with a Universal Actions trigger appears in this list for the kinds of selection it accepts (text, links, or files and folders). Picking it runs the workflow with the selection as its argument, for example to tidy the text and paste it back.

URLs and links¶

Select one or more URLs (starting with http://, https://, mailto: or www.):

Action	What it does
Open	Opens the URL(s) in your default browser
Copy	Copies to the clipboard (one line per URL)
Large Type	Shows the URL(s) huge on screen

Files and folders¶

Select file paths or drag files from a file manager:

Action	What it does
Open	Opens the file with its default application, or a folder in the file manager
Show in folder	Opens the file manager at the file's location
Copy path	Copies the full path to the clipboard (one line per file)
Open in terminal	Opens a terminal in the folder (folders only)
Run as administrator	Runs the program with elevated privileges (Windows .exe programs only)
Send to Sevak	Fills Sevak's search box with the path for browsing (path browsing)

Text that looks like a path¶

If you select text that matches a file path (C:\Users\me\Documents, /home/me/Projects, ~/Downloads), Sevak also offers the file actions above, then the text actions (search, calculate, etc.).

Actions and modifiers¶

Press Enter to run the highlighted action. Modifiers change the behavior:

Key	Effect	Example
`Enter`	Run the action (as shown)	Paste the transformation, open the URL, etc.
`Ctrl`+`Enter`	Copy instead of pasting (transformations only)	Copy `HELLO` to clipboard instead of pasting
`Shift`+`Enter`	Copy the URL (web searches only)	Copy the search URL without opening it

The row under each action hints at the modifiers.

Pick an action with number keys¶

Instead of arrow keys and Enter, use Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9 to run the 1st through 9th action directly:

Key	Effect
`Ctrl`+`1`	Run the 1st action
`Ctrl`+`2`	Run the 2nd action
...	...
`Ctrl`+`9`	Run the 9th action

Dismiss the action panel¶

Esc: Close the action panel without running anything.
Left: Close the action panel (same as Esc).
Any other key: Close and continue typing in Sevak.

Platform notes¶

WindowsmacOSLinux (X11)Linux (Wayland)

Selection capture works in every app except windows running with elevated privileges (Admin, UAC). Sevak tries anyway and shows what happens. For admin windows, select manually and set [actions] use_clipboard_fallback = true to act on what you copied.

Requires System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → Sevak. Without this permission, Sevak cannot press Cmd+C in other apps and shows "Cannot read selection". Grant the permission and try again.

Files in Finder and text both work. Pasting transformations also needs Accessibility permission and respects your keyboard layout.

By default, Sevak reads the PRIMARY selection (text you just highlighted) first, without pressing any key (configurable: [actions] use_primary_selection = true). This is instant. If nothing is highlighted, it falls back to Ctrl+C.

You can also turn off primary selection and always use Ctrl+C: use_primary_selection = false.

Files are read from the clipboard. Terminal windows are skipped (Ctrl+C would interrupt the running program); use manual selection and clipboard fallback instead.

Applications cannot read another app's selection or press keys. Sevak shows "Cannot read selection on this desktop" or similar. Workaround:

Select the text manually.
Copy it (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C).
Set [actions] use_clipboard_fallback = true in your config.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Space again.

Sevak will then act on what you copied. This is not automatic, but it lets you use transformations and web searches.

Special cases¶

Very large selections

Sevak refuses selections larger than 256 KB to avoid lag, and more than 1000 selected files and folders at once. On Windows an oversized text copy is recognised from the size of what the app put on the clipboard and is not read at all; elsewhere it is read and dropped at once. If you have a massive block of text selected, copy a smaller part and try again.

Terminal windows

On Windows and Linux, terminal windows (Windows Terminal, conhost, cmd, PowerShell, ConEmu, mintty, WezTerm, Alacritty, kitty, Tabby, Hyper, gnome-terminal, konsole, xterm, tilix, terminator, foot, st and others) do not receive Ctrl+C from Sevak because it would interrupt the running program. Select manually or use clipboard fallback instead. The same list decides where snippet expansion stays quiet unless you turn on expand_in_terminals.

No admin permission needed on macOS

Unlike pasting, selection capture on macOS needs the same Accessibility permission but does not require you to run Sevak as admin.

Configuration¶

[general]
actions_hotkey = "Ctrl+Alt+Space"       # Hotkey to trigger actions; "" turns it off

[actions]
use_primary_selection = true            # Linux X11: read highlighted text first
use_clipboard_fallback = false          # Act on clipboard when capture fails

See Configuration reference for details on all settings.

Tips and troubleshooting¶

Bind actions to a different key

Choose a key not used by your desktop. On some layouts, Ctrl+Alt+Space types a no-break space; if that is your case, change the hotkey to Ctrl+Alt+C or another combination.

Use clipboard fallback on Wayland

If you are on Wayland and want to use transformations without the selection capture workaround, set use_clipboard_fallback = true. Then copy what you want to transform, press the hotkey, and pick an action. The result pastes or copies as normal.

Selection capture blocks keyboard input briefly

When you press the hotkey, Sevak waits for the modifiers to be released (up to 600ms) to avoid sending Ctrl+C while Ctrl is still down. If the hotkey's modifiers are held too long, Sevak releases them for the app. This ensures the copy succeeds, but it means your key bindings using those modifiers might behave unexpectedly for a moment.