The Caps Lock Key Is Wasted. Make It a Hyper Key.
Hold one key and you get a modifier no app uses. Here are the ways to set one up on a Mac, and which one to pick.
By Branden Garrett · Updated
Contents · 4 sections
Caps Lock sits in the best spot on the keyboard, and I use it for nothing. You have the same key in the same spot.
A hyper key fixes that. Hold Caps Lock and it presses Command, Option, Control, and Shift all at once. No app ships a shortcut that uses all four, so every combination is yours. Hyper+H never fights with anything. Tap Caps Lock on its own and you get Escape, which is the other key I reach for all day.
That's the whole idea. One key, two jobs, zero collisions.
Why Bother
Every app fights over the same shortcuts. Command+K means something different in Slack, VS Code, and your browser. Once you add your own global shortcuts on top, you run out of combinations that don't break something.
Hyper gives you a clean namespace. You can bind launchers, window moves, arrow keys, and mouse control to it, and none of them collide with anything an app does.
The second reason is your hands. Caps Lock is on the home row. The arrow keys and Escape aren't. Moving them under your fingers saves a reach you'd otherwise make hundreds of times a day.
Ways to Build One
There's no single right answer. They all end up in the same place, a Caps Lock that acts as a modifier, and they differ in how much control you get.
1. Hyperkey (Free App, Easiest)
Hyperkey by Ryan Hanson, who also made Rectangle. Install it, pick Caps Lock, check "quick press Caps Lock to Escape." Done. It used to cost $4.99 and is free now.
Use it if all you want is the hyper modifier and you'll bind shortcuts to it in other apps.
2. Raycast (If You Already Use It)
Raycast has a Hyper Key setting under Settings → Keyboard → Hyper Key. If Raycast is already your launcher, this is one less app running. Same tradeoff as Hyperkey: it gives you the modifier, not the layer of remaps on top.
3. Karabiner-Elements (What I Use)
Karabiner-Elements is a free, low-level keyboard remapper. It's more work to set up, and in return it can do more than the other two put together: tap-versus-hold, layers, and remapping any key to anything.
It's what I use. Caps Lock is Escape on tap and Hyper on hold, and Hyper plus H/J/K/L moves the cursor. I wrote the full setup up separately: Setting Up a Hyper Key with Karabiner-Elements.
4. Built Into macOS (Partial)
System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Modifier Keys lets you remap Caps Lock to Control, Option, Command, or Escape. Not all four at once, and not tap-versus-hold. It's a fine zero-install step if all you want is Caps Lock as Control or Escape. It won't give you a hyper key.
Which One
- Just want the modifier: Hyperkey.
- Already on Raycast: Raycast's setting.
- Want a navigation layer and don't mind JSON: Karabiner-Elements. Here's my setup.
The Point
None of this is clever. It's a few minutes of setup that pays you back every time you'd otherwise reach for the arrow keys. The key under your pinky has been doing nothing for years. Give it a job.
Keep reading
- Setting Up Alfred: A Faster Command+Space and Clipboard History →What Alfred is, what it costs, and the three things I set up first on any new Mac. The checklist I send coworkers.
- Setting Up a Hyper Key with Karabiner-Elements →Caps Lock as Escape on tap, Hyper on hold, and a home-row navigation layer on top. The exact config I run.