Tuna

How Commands Work

Tuna is built like a sentence.

You pick a subject. Then an action. Sometimes you also pick a target.

That is the whole thing.

Subject

The subject is one or more items.

Items might be:

  • an app
  • a file
  • a set of files
  • a folder
  • a piece of text
  • a URL
  • a clipboard item
  • a meta object like Current Finder Selection

You can also add your own plain subjects in Settings -> Sources -> Custom Items. That built-in catalog is empty and disabled by default. It can hold URLs, file/folder/app paths, and text snippets. These are just subjects: Tuna’s normal actions still decide what happens next.

Custom Items accepts regular values and advanced paste/import values like url.…, path.…, text.…, or Tuna URLs that wrap one of those subject identifiers.

Action

The action is what to do with the subject.

Examples:

  • open it
  • reveal it
  • copy it
  • move it
  • run it
  • transform it

Some actions are final. Some actions need one more thing.

Target

The target is the optional third part.

Examples:

  • Safari -> Open File... -> invoice.pdf
  • photo.gif -> Open With... -> Firefox
  • hello -> Append to File -> notes.txt
  • hello -> Send to Smart Link... -> GitHub Search

If an action does not need a target, the command stops at the action.

Commands that are safe to dismiss hide Tuna as soon as the command is accepted, including work started from Combo Mode. If the eventual result needs the launcher—for example, it returns new subjects or a review—Tuna opens again with that result. Commands that need visible interaction stay on screen.

Why This Matters

This is what makes Tuna composable.

You are not memorizing a thousand unrelated commands. You are moving through the same structure over and over:

  1. find a thing
  2. choose what to do
  3. optionally choose where it goes

All four modes feed into this:

That is why Tuna can stay predictable even when it grows.