StreamDeck Mac Command Line: The Ultimate Guide (From Basic to Advanced Command Line Techniques)

Alright, so the other day I was messing around with my setup, and I thought, “Why not make my Stream Deck even cooler by linking it up with some command-line stuff on my Mac?” You know, just to feel like a bit of a hacker, but without actually doing anything too complicated.

First off, I had to figure out what this Stream Deck thing really is. Turns out, it’s like this neat little box with buttons that you can customize to do all sorts of things. Streamers use it a lot to switch scenes and whatnot, but I figured it could be pretty handy for everyday tasks too.

So, I started digging around on how to get it working with the Mac’s command line. The first thing I did was plug the Stream Deck straight into my Mac. And guess what? It worked right away! There’s this app you gotta use to set everything up, so I downloaded that and started playing around. The idea is pretty simple: you drag actions from a panel on the right and drop them onto the buttons on the left in the app.

Getting Down to Business

Now, onto the command line part. I found out that you can make the Stream Deck run scripts, which is awesome. But, it’s a bit picky. It only likes certain file types, it seems. For Mac, it’s .sh files. So, I whipped up a quick test script, saved it as my_*, and tried to get it to run through the Stream Deck.

• Created a simple script: echo “Hello from Stream Deck!”
• Saved it as my_*
• Tried setting up a button to run it

It took a bit of fiddling, but I finally got it working. The trick was to make sure the script was executable. So, I had to run chmod +x my_* in the Terminal to give it the right permissions. After that, it was smooth sailing. I could press a button on my Stream Deck, and it would run my script, showing “Hello from Stream Deck!” in the Terminal. Pretty neat, huh?

Taking It Further

Then I thought, “What if I want to open specific apps with this?” And yeah, you can totally do that. I set up another button to open Chrome, just for kicks. It’s like having your own little control center for your Mac, right on your desk.

This whole thing got me thinking about all the possibilities. I mean, you could set up buttons for almost anything you do regularly on your computer. It’s not just for streamers; it’s for anyone who wants to make their life a bit easier and feel a bit more in control. And it’s not even that hard to set up once you get the hang of it.

So yeah, that’s my little adventure with the Stream Deck and Mac’s command line. It’s a fun little project, and honestly, it makes you feel pretty cool to have these custom buttons that do exactly what you want. If you’ve got a Stream Deck lying around, I’d say give it a shot. It’s a neat way to add a bit of flair to your setup, and who knows, you might even find it super useful.