Automation

With Espresso Pro, everything Espresso finds is available outside its window: in Terminal, in Shortcuts, in Raycast and Alfred, and to AI assistants such as Claude. Set it up in Espresso › Settings › Automation.

Command line

Click Install… next to Command line (macOS asks for your password the first time). Then:

espresso 'ext:pdf invoice dm:thisyear'
espresso -n 20 -s size -r 'video: size:>1gb'     # the 20 largest videos over 1 GB
espresso -l 'offline: raw'                       # with size, date and disk
espresso --json 'camera:iphone gps:'             # JSON, with extended details
espresso disks                                   # every disk, connected or offline
espresso info ~/Documents/report.pdf

The query is exactly what you'd type in the app (search syntax). Quote it in single quotes so the shell leaves |, !, < and > alone. espresso --help lists every option.

While Espresso is open, results are live. When it's closed, the tool reads the saved indexes and says how old they are.

AI assistants

Espresso includes an MCP server, so assistants can search your disks for you ("where's the contract I signed in March?", "what's on the blue backup disk?").

• Claude Desktop: click Add to Claude Desktop, then restart Claude.
• Claude Code: click Copy Command and paste it in Terminal.
• Other apps (Cursor, VS Code, LM Studio…): click Copy Configuration and paste it into the app's MCP settings.

Assistants can search and read details, never open, move or delete files. The names and paths they find are sent to the assistant's provider, like anything else you share in the chat.

Raycast and Alfred

Install the command-line tool first.

• Raycast: install the Espresso extension from the Raycast Store, then use Search Files.
• Alfred (Powerpack): download the workflow from Settings › Automation, then type es and your search. ↩ opens the file, ⌘↩ shows it in Finder.

Shortcuts

In the Shortcuts app, search for Espresso:

• Search Files with Espresso returns the matching files on connected disks, ready for other actions (for example, move every ext:heic dm:lastmonth to a folder).
• Search in Espresso opens a window with the search.