The command palette is Binder’s fast-path interface on macOS — a floating overlay for search, navigation, and quick actions. Think IntelliJ’s double-shift or VS Code’s ⌘K.

Opening the palette

Press Shift twice rapidly — within about 400ms. A floating card appears in the upper-centre of the window. Escape or click the backdrop to dismiss.

The double-shift trigger is ignored when you’re holding Cmd, Ctrl, or Option, so it won’t fire from keyboard shortcuts like ⇧⌘P.

What you can do

Start typing to search across every entry, including items nested inside collections. As you type, Binder’s natural-language parser runs — recognising entry types, done/undone, priority, and date ranges.

When the parser finds structured filters, coloured badge pills appear under the search field so you know what was understood (Note, this week, unticked, and so on).

If the lemma-based parser finds nothing, press Enter to hand the query to Apple Intelligence for a smarter parse (macOS 26+). Useful for phrasings like “things I haven’t ticked off” or “notes older than a week”.

Quick actions

When the input is empty, the palette shows one-click actions:

  • New Entry — open the create-entry sheet
  • New Note — open the quick note pop-up
  • Start Voice Memo — open the voice memo recorder
  • Recent entries — your 5 most recent, for instant jump-back

Any result — a top-level entry or a collection item — becomes a navigation target.

  • ↑ / ↓ — move between results
  • Enter — open the selected result
  • Esc — dismiss

Selecting a collection item opens the parent collection with that item focused.

How it differs from the Search tab

  • Command palette — transient, keyboard-first, designed for a single quick action
  • Search tab — persistent, full-width, designed for browsing and refining results

Use the palette when you know roughly what you’re after. Use the Search tab when you want to dig.