# Hammerspoon

61 Hacker News commenters recommended Hammerspoon and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a free, scriptable Lua-based automation tool for macOS, used for window management, hotkeys and app integrations. Common caveat: Lua must be learned first.

## Why people recommend it

- Custom scripts for personal workflows (7 comments): "I was able to put together a hammerspoon script that does the job decently enough for my purposes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47370883)) "I never had a problem with the windowing system ever since I built my own customization scripts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49434265)) "I have a few hammerspoon customization for me to choose and open the applications I have." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47476164))
- Window resizing and placement hotkeys (4 comments): "I love Hammerspoon!! here's my one handed shortcuts for window control across multiple monitors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47374434)) "I have a slightly more elaborate setup that allows me to resize from one or another side" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47368818)) "I'm now happy with hotkeys in Hammerspoon that reposition and resize the current window" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47378319))
- Access to macOS APIs (4 comments): "Hammerspoon isn't targeted at programmers because it's abstracting hard things (interfacing with macOS system libraries, etc.) into easier ones" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47382425)) "Hammerspoon (Mac) is much better. It's basically Lua, with access to all the MacOS automation APIs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49017763)) "Insanely easier to use, way better programming language, a kitchen sink of macOS APIs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47370924))
- Key remapping and macros (3 comments): "I wanted to bind a keyboard shortcut to an option from a menu bar app which doesn’t support keybinding" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47381286)) "Hammerspoon [0] is a free option that can handle arbitrary key mappings/macros" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257193)) "I use it to map double CMD to swap between the terminal and the browser." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47369449))

## What people warn about

- Requires learning Lua (5 comments): "Personally, it's having to figure out Lua is what's kept me away from it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47374532)) "I'll have a hell of a time rewriting everything into Lua" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47378769)) "there are lots of things about the Lua APIs that I don't like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47382816))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Shortcuts](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-shortcuts.md): 57 recommend
- [Tasker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tasker.md): 12 recommend
- [Automator (macOS)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/automator.md): 7 recommend
- [Noodlesoft Hazel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hazel.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Hammerspoon", https://hackerapproved.com/p/hammerspoon/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).