TouchCafe is a native macOS app that turns trackpad gestures, extra mouse buttons and keyboard shortcuts into actions - launch an app, open a URL, run a script, snap a window, or type a keystroke, all from a single binding.
Three trigger types, one dispatcher: pick a gesture, button or hotkey, choose what it does, and scope it to the apps you want. Everything runs locally on your Mac - no cloud, no account required to use it.
Highlights
- Trackpad gestures - multi-finger swipes, pinch, rotate and one-finger circles, recognized from real Magic Trackpad input with tunable per-gesture thresholds.
- Extra mouse buttons - bind the middle, back, forward and side buttons on almost any mouse, captured natively; ordinary left and right clicks are never touched.
- Global keyboard shortcuts - system-wide hotkeys that fire from anywhere, alongside your gestures and buttons.
- Do almost anything - open apps, URLs or files, run a shell script or a Shortcuts.app shortcut, type a keystroke, snap a window (halves, quarters, fill), or chain several steps into one sequence.
- Per-app scope - a binding can fire everywhere or only in the apps you choose, and can require modifier keys to be held.
- Live View - watch your gestures get recognized in real time before you commit; bound actions are blocked while you test, so nothing fires by accident.
- Clipboard history - a searchable history of recent clips with pinning and one-tap paste back into any app.
- Local-first and private - bindings live in a local SQLite file you can export to and import from JSON. A master switch pauses everything instantly, and nothing leaves your Mac.
How it works
Pick a device tab - Trackpad, Mouse or Keyboard - add a binding, and record its trigger by drawing the gesture, pressing the button, or capturing the shortcut. Choose an action, optionally scope it to certain apps or require modifier keys, and save. TouchCafe watches for that trigger system-wide and runs the action. You grant Accessibility (for window management and keystrokes) and Input Monitoring (for gestures and mouse buttons) once during onboarding, and you are set. Everything is stored locally and can be backed up or moved with a single JSON export.
Perfect for
- Power users - who want their trackpad and mouse to do far more than scroll and click.
- Multi-button mouse owners - who want the back, forward and side buttons to actually do something useful on macOS.
- Gesture-first workflows - who would rather flick a trackpad gesture than reach for a hotkey to switch spaces, run a script or snap a window.
- Privacy-minded users - who want a fast, local-first utility that sends nothing to a vendor's servers.
