I'm using Alfred for years and I cannot use a computer without it. It's gotten to the point where, if I type on a fellow engineer's machine at AirConsole, I constantly find myself asking: "You do not use a clipboard history? No Alfred? But I told you about Alfred already right?"
THE feature: the clipboard history
I'm aware that Alfred boasts numerous impressive features and it's likely not the only paste manager available for OSX. Yet, by far, the feature I use the most is its clipboard history. Simply copy anything as usual, then press the shortcut you've assigned — in my case, Command + Alt + C. This brings up a history of everything you've copied. It's extremely useful for multitasking, especially when you're examining a specific set of entries. For instance, understanding the effects of an operation on UUID1 compared to the same operation on UUID2 and UUID3 can get confusing quickly. The clipboard history feature helps keep things clear and organized.
The feature for devs: Workflows
I use only 2 workflows but they're super useful.
Find2Kill:
This workflow allows you to find the process that is occupying a port and kill it without going into the task manager or the IDE again.
When running many different local servers at AirConsole (DB, Webserver, GameServers, Debugger...), it saves me so much mental overload.
My usual workflow is: run the server that I need -> the server won't start because the port is in use somewhere -> fport <the port> -> kill -> Run the program I wanted to run in the first place.
The workflow is open source and can be downloaded here.
Epoch Converter:
AirConsole is a data-driven company and data forensics is part of my day-to-day. It happens very often that I need to map epoch to human readable format. This workflow is super simple and useful:
Copy the timestamp (i.e. 1705156392) > Alt + Space (trigger Alfred) > type "ts" > I can see that it is "2024-01-13T15:33:12". I can even manipulate the format if needed.
The workflow is open source and available here.
Bonus: write your own workflows
You can write your own Alfred workflows with help of python or probably any other programming language. This is great if you have time for tooling but I never looked deep into it. My rabbit-hole radar forbids me to jump into it!
Snippets: better than aliases?
As a developer, having clever aliases in your terminal is a productivity hack. But how do you do when you have to type this snippets in an email or in a URL bar? You use Alfred aliases!
This is a simple but yet powerful and perfectly integrated feature: just Cmd + Alt + X and navigate your saved snippets instead or retyping them with errors.
Contacts
My last loved feature in Alfred is the integration with the contacts app from Apple. This is genius. That way, I'm always only one shortcut away from my contact info. Particularly useful if you cannot remember your own contact data. Alt + Space > Laurent Meyer and tada I see all my contact data!
Learning curve
At first Alfred's number of features can be overwhelming and there is still a huge number of features that I do not use after 5 years.
I would recommend to start using the clipboard history and get used to it. Once the clipboard history is properly installed in your muscle memory and in your daily workflows, you should try things, maybe a workflow, maybe a custom URL depending on what type of job you have.
Have fun boosting your productivity!