Settings · Espresso Help

General

Setting	What it does
Global shortcut	The keys that open The Shot from any app. Default `⌥Space`. Click the box and press new keys; click ✕ to remove the shortcut.
Shortcut opens	The Shot (quick search) or The main window.
Open at login	Start Espresso when you log in. Off by default.
Show icon in menu bar	A cup in the menu bar with Pull a Shot, New Window, Settings and Quit. Off by default.
When the last window closes	Keep Espresso open (the shortcut keeps working and indexes stay fresh) or Quit Espresso.
Check for updates automatically	Look for a new version once a day. On by default.
Download and install updates automatically	Install new versions when you quit Espresso, without asking. Off by default.
Get beta versions	Also receive preview versions before they’re final.
Check Now	Look for an update right away (also Espresso › Check for Updates…).
App icon	Pro Pick a coffee icon for the Dock. Finder keeps the classic icon.

Disks

Setting	What it does
Indexed disks	Every disk Espresso knows, with its status and number of items. The … menu has Update Index, Fresh Grind and Remove Index…. Connected disks that aren’t indexed yet have an Index button.
Decaf · Excluded folders	Folders whose contents aren’t indexed: add with +, remove with −. See Excluded folders.
Also skip folders named	Skip common folders by name wherever they are: `node_modules`, `.git`, `DerivedData`, `.build`, `Pods`, `__pycache__`, `.venv`, `target`.
Index network volumes	Offer shared network folders for indexing. Off by default.
Update network shares	Pro Re-check network shares every hour, 6 hours or day while Espresso is open.
Full Disk Access	Whether Espresso can see protected folders, with a button to open System Settings.

Search

Setting	What it does
Defaults for new windows	Match case · Match whole words · Match the full path · Ignore diacritics · Regular expressions · Forgive typos (with best matches first). Each window can still change them from the Options button.
Show hidden files	Show hidden files in results by default.
Show contents of apps and packages	Show files inside apps and packages. On by default.
Macros	Name and expansion of your macros. Add with +, remove with −, edit in place.
Your Usual · Saved searches	Rename, change or delete your saved searches.
Ask the Barista	Pro Apple silicon, macOS 15 or later. Download the model (585 MB, once), see what it’s learning, turn on Understand photos, or Remove the model and everything it learned. See Ask the Barista.

Metadata

Which extended details Espresso reads in the background:

Images: dimensions, date taken, camera and exposure
Audio: duration, artist, album and quality
Video: duration, size, camera, frame rate and codecs
Documents: author, title and pages
Finder tags

Turning a kind off stops reading it for new files; details already read are kept. Dimensions, date taken, duration and pages are in Espresso Free. With Espresso Pro everything else is searchable and can be shown as columns.

Inside files Pro (off until you turn it on): Documents and code, the text inside, searched with content:; and Photos, what they show (looks:) and the text in them. See Inside files. It doesn’t need Ask the Barista, and when the barista is set up it uses what was read here too.

Automation

Pro The command-line tool, AI assistants, Raycast, Alfred and Shortcuts. See Automation.

Espresso Pro

Your license: Try Free for 14 Days…, Buy Espresso Pro…, Activate with a key or a trial code; with Pro, Deactivate This Mac… and Manage License. See Espresso Pro.

About

The version and build number, Check for Updates…, and the licenses of the open-source components Espresso uses (Acknowledgements).

Elsewhere in Espresso

Espresso › Receipt: your statistics, printed like a café receipt. Items indexed per disk, number of searches, average and fastest search time. They never leave your Mac.
Help › Search Syntax (The Menu): the syntax and shortcuts, inside the app.
Help › Welcome to the Bar…: the welcome screens again, for example to add disks or grant Full Disk Access.