Raycast Release Notes

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We made more memory and performance improvements. AI Chat, Notes and Settings now each run in their own process, so a busy chat or a heavy note no longer slows down Root Search, and closing them frees up their memory. The launcher can use up to 35% less memory while idle. File Search uses up to 80% less memory at peak and up to 95% less while searching, searches are up to 30% faster, and background indexing uses much less CPU. More details are below.

💬 Send Context to AI

Two new commands let you show AI exactly what you're looking at. Send Element to AI lets you hover over anything on your screen, like a paragraph, an image or a button, and click to send it to AI Chat. To share a whole window instead, use Send Window to AI.

Tip: Assign a hotkey like ⌘ + ⇧ + 0 to Send Element to AI to grab context even faster.

✨ New

• Custom AI Providers: You can now give custom provider models Raycast's Web Search, Read Page, Search Images and Chart tools. Turn them on with a tools block in providers.yaml, and choose whether each one runs on Raycast, your company gateway, or a vendor you have a key for (Tavily, Exa, Firecrawl, Brave, Perplexity or Jina)
• Script Commands: Added controls to enable or disable background refresh for individual scripts

💎 Improvements …

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We made several memory and performance improvements. Raycast's host process now uses about 50% less memory. Each extension process uses about 30% less memory at startup and less CPU when launching, which helps menu bar commands, background refreshes, and AI tools. We also fixed a memory leak that grew the longer Raycast stayed open. More details are below, and further improvements are coming in the next updates.

🤖 Auto Model

We reworked our Auto model, and you can now choose how it picks a model for you. It comes with three different preferences: Lightweight, Balanced, and Flagship. Balanced is the default and uses about 70% fewer credits than Flagship to help you get more out of your credits. Lightweight responds in about 70% less time than Flagship and works well for quick questions. Flagship uses the most capable models for harder tasks and requires a Pro+ or Max subscription.

✨ New

• AI: Added Claude and ChatGPT subscription usage in /usage in AI Chat and in Settings
• AI: Added Show AI Credits/Claude/ChatGPT Usage commands
• Clipboard History: Added a Paste as PNG action for TIFF images
• Root Search: Added direct search results for more settings, including Accessibility settings and Keyboard Shortcuts
• UI: Added automatic color contrast adjustments throughout to ensure the UI remains legible …

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Extensions can now provide their own AI models to Raycast. Just install a compatible extension from the Store, complete its setup, and choose its models in AI Chat. It’s an easy way to bring even more models into your everyday workflow.

We updated a few extensions: Ollama AI, AI by Vercel, Cerebras, Groq, LM Studio, etc.. Developers, check out the API changelog for more information.

💎 Improvements

• AI Chat: Rename a chat by double-clicking its title in the top bar. Press Enter to save or Esc to cancel, and the window can still be dragged by the title
• AI Chat: Dictation with Ctrl + M in the AI Chat and Quick AI composers now uses the same processed transcript as the Dictate command. The text shows up once you stop recording instead of streaming into the editor while you speak
• Applications: Added support for finding apps by alternate names and Spotlight keywords, such as “Codex” for ChatGPT and “Preferences” for System Settings …

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macOS Golden Gate is out, bringing many user interface changes. While there are no major new features, we've focused on implementing some of these design tweaks in Raycast, such as new sidebars / toolbars as well as Liquid Glass updates.

✨ New

• UI: Updated all user interfaces to support macOS Golden Gate

💎 Improvements

• AI Chat: Copying or pasting a response now takes only the final answer, leaving out the working narration that came before it
• Calendar: Added support for opening events in BusyCal installed through Setapp
• Emoji & Symbols: Improved text symbol rendering performance when reopening the window
• Performance: Improved responsiveness when loading images, icons, and contact thumbnails
• Script Commands: Scripts now run from their own folder by default, with support for relative and home-directory paths
• Script Commands: Script commands now run with your regional locale, so dates, numbers and currency in their output match your system settings
• Startup: Added clearer instructions for restarting Raycast after cancelling Keychain access
• Store: Added update details showing which extensions were updated, skipped, removed, or failed, with access to version history

🐞 Fixes

• AI: Fixed messages and corresponding reasoning sometimes appearing in the wrong order …

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We rebuilt the core of Raycast AI. You can now give AI Chat a task and it works out a plan, uses your extensions, writes and runs code, checks the results, and keeps going until it's finished. When something fails, it tries a different approach. And when it needs a decision from you, it stops, asks you, and then continues where it left off.

Tasks like these cost more to run than a single question, which is why this release also changes how we charge for AI. Our plans move from rate-limited to usage-based, all subscription prices stay the same, and there's a new Max plan for heavier usage. Read the full reasoning on our blog.

But there is more…

🔁 Bring Your Own Subscriptions

You can now connect your Claude or ChatGPT account to any paid Raycast plan and use those models in AI Chat, Quick AI, and AI Commands. This lets you run the heaviest tasks without worrying about additional costs. We plan to add other providers in the future, turning AI Chat into your single interface to get the most out of your subscriptions. You can enable models from your subscriptions in Settings → AI → Models & Providers.

📁 Projects …

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Bring Your Own Model brings three familiar ways to use your preferred AI models back to Raycast v2. Connect any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with Custom Providers, run models through Ollama with Local Models, or add your OpenRouter API key to choose from its catalog. Once configured, your models are available across Raycast AI alongside Raycast’s built-in options.

In v2, Custom Providers, Local Models, and Bring Your Own Key require a Raycast Pro subscription. We know this is a meaningful change compared to v1 and want to be upfront about it. You can read more about our thinking and where we’re heading on the BYOAI article in the Manual.

✨ New

• AI: Added support OpenAI-compatible custom providers, local models via Ollama, and OpenRouter API keys, using their models across Raycast AI
• Quick AI: Added a Paste Formatted Response action
• Window Management: Added Resize Window and Move Window commands that take exact pixel dimensions and coordinates as arguments …

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Your favorite emojis are now just a : away. Type : followed by an emoji name to open the Inline Emoji Picker and insert emojis without breaking your flow.

Inline Emoji Picker works across text fields throughout Raycast, including AI Chat, Notes, Snippets, Quicklinks, and AI Commands. Suggestions follow your preferred emoji skin tone.

✨ New

• Emoji: Added Inline Emoji Picker. Type : followed by a name in any text field to search and insert emojis.

💎 Improvements

• Quick AI: Added support for dropping files from Finder directly into Quick AI to attach them, including while revealing the window with the global hotkey mid-drag
• Root Search: Improved icon rendering of Quicklink favourites in compact mode
• Root Search: Tab now performs primary action if AI or Tab to Quick AI is disabled

🐞 Fixes

• AI Chat: Fixed a text scaling issue in “Ask Question” tool
• AI Chat: Fixed run errors rendering above tool calls in some situations
• AI Chat: Fixed failed image generations and remote tools appearing as completed
• Clipboard History: Fixed an issue where selecting all content would also select list items
• Clipboard History: Ensured pasting non-full entries can still correctly update history (ie. paste as plain text)
• Emoji Picker: Fixed emoji jitter when moving selection …

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Raycast 2.0 is out of Beta! 🎉

Thank you so much for being a part of it! We would not be at this point without all of your feedback and support.

With this release, Raycast v2 replaces v1. You will be guided through the update in Raycast, and your existing v2 beta data will remain unchanged. If you have not imported your v1 data yet, you will have the option to do so during the update. Some permissions may need to be authorized again after the migration.

During the beta, Dictation and AI Chat were available for free while we tested and improved the experience. With this release, these features will now be part of Raycast Pro. To help with the transition, signing in gives you a 7-day free trial of Pro. No credit card is required.

For more information on the update process, see our FAQ.

✨ New

• AI: Added a Clear Chat action, which resets a chat's messages while keeping its model, agent, and other configuration
• AI: Added support for mentioning AI extensions when replying to a question asked with the Ask User Question tool
• AI: Ask User Question tool can be collapsed to make browsing conversation easier while questions are unanswered
• MCP: Added loopback OAuth redirects so MCP providers that reject custom URL schemes, such as Atlassian, can now be connected

💎 Improvements …

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The best chats start with the right context. Screen Awareness brings context from your focused app or window into AI Chat or Quick AI, so you don’t have to copy text, attach screenshots, or explain what you’re looking at.

Use the Send Focused Window to AI command, choose Screen Awareness from the @ menu, or simply ask “summarise this” or “reply to this”.

The first time you use the command, a short onboarding guide helps you set a hotkey. Our team likes to double-tap the right Command key.

✨ New

• AI: Send Focused Window to AI command includes richer app and window context
• AI: New Ask Screen Awareness AI Extension to quickly give context to Raycast
• AI: Added compaction and context management support
• Quick AI: “Send Message” AI setting is now respected by Quick AI as well which allows submitting queries on Command Return
• Dictation: Added a way to import your vocabulary and hotkeys from other apps
• Dictation: Added a new “Add Word to Vocabulary” command to add a selected word or entered argument into your vocabulary
• Feedback: New Ask Feedback AI Extension to contact the Raycast team
• Hotkeys: Added support for chords using a modifier held on both sides of the keyboard (e.g. left ⌘ + right ⌘), including recording and display in the hotkey recorder

💎 Improvements …

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Some AI Chat requests take a little longer, and you shouldn’t have to keep checking whether they’re done.

Background notifications let you know when AI Chat has finished responding or needs your input while you’re working elsewhere. Keep using another app or chat, then jump back in from the notification when you’re ready. You can turn them on or off anytime in AI settings.

✨ New

• AI: Generated images can be dragged and dropped into other apps
• AI: New speed and intelligence stat bars make it easy to differentiate models
• AI Chat: Chats in the sidebar can be dragged and dropped between sections like Recent, Archive, individual folders and Pinned
• Quick Fix: Added an experimental option to preserve text formatting in supported apps like Slack and Notion. Enable it in the command’s settings
• Dictation: A new activity graph to see when you’re using dictation the most

💎 Improvements

• AI: Changed links in markdown to blue color to make them more visible
• AI Chat: Simplified and cleaned up the layout of the composer, confirmation prompts and questions asked back to the user
• AI Chat: Added right-click actions for links and files, making it easier to open, copy and share them …

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The wait is over. Cloud Sync beta is here. You can now keep your Raycast data in sync across macOS v1, macOS v2, Windows and iOS.

Switch seamlessly between your work and home computers, take notes on the go, or start an AI chat on your phone and continue it on your laptop. These are just a few ways Cloud Sync helps your work flow across devices.

Cloud Sync is available to Raycast Pro subscribers.

✨ New

• Cloud Sync: Sync your data across macOS V1, macOS V2 beta, Windows beta and iOS
• Cloud Sync: Customize what gets synced across your devices
• Cloud Sync: Manage your synced devices
• Clipboard History: Added new Reset Paste Sequence command
• Root Search: Added ability to show favorites in compact mode

💎 Improvements

• AI: <br> tags in AI markdown now render as line breaks
• AI: @-mentions get preserved when copying a selection in the UI
• AI: @-mentions left in the composer when closing AI Chat get preserved when re-opening AI Chat again
• AI Chat: Consecutive tool calls get collapsed into a group to reduce visual clutter
• AI Chat: Auto-loaded extensions now get persisted into the AI Extensions list of a chat and therefore stay loaded after a restart of AI Chat
• AI Settings: Added default reasoning effort settings to models view …