Show warning toast when triggering “global:” shortcuts, as Trilium stealing keyboard focus from other apps might be unexpected behavior

[Openstreetmapler]

Description

When I am using a non-Trilium app (e.g. the browser I’m using to write this issue) and press a keyboard shortcut that is defined as “global:” in Trilium (with the only default case of this being Meta+Alt+P [Create Note Into Inbox]), Trilium steals the focus from whatever app I’m currently using, even if Trilium is minimized and the other app is in full screen! This was very jarring and unexpected when I tried to use Meta+Alt+P to trigger a specific action in my favorite video player today!

TriliumNext Version

0.101.3 (desktop version)

What operating system are you using?

macOS

What is your setup?

Local (no sync)

Operating System Version

macOS 12.7.5

Error logs

No response

[dosubot]

This happens because Trilium registers global shortcuts using Electron's globalShortcut API, and when a global shortcut is triggered, the app intentionally brings its window to the foreground and focuses it—even if Trilium is minimized or another app is in full screen. This is done by calling a function that restores, shows, and focuses the Trilium window, which causes it to steal focus from other applications. This behavior is consistent across platforms and is not specific to macOS—it’s a result of the current code logic, not a bug or regression in your version (source).

There’s no built-in setting to prevent this focus-stealing behavior. However, you can remove or change global shortcuts in Trilium by going to Options → Shortcuts and searching for global:. After making changes, restart Trilium for them to take effect. If you need to use the same shortcut in another app, you’ll need to either remove it from Trilium or pick a different key combination to avoid conflicts.

If you need more granular control (like only triggering the shortcut when Trilium is focused), that would require modifying the app’s source code. Let me know if you want technical details on how to do that.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

^{How did I do? Good | Irrelevant | Incorrect | Verbose | Hallucination | Report 🐛 | Other}

   

[Openstreetmapler]

@dosu Thanks for the info! However, in my opinion, there should be a warning toast whenever a “global:” shortcut is used, with the following text (or something similar):

You’ve just triggered the global shortcut Meta+Alt+P, which causes Trilium to be focused even if you’re using another app. If you dislike this behavior, go to Settings > Shortcuts and remove the “global:” prefix from the shortcut you just triggered, then restart Trilium to apply changes.

[dosubot]

Great suggestion—Trilium already has a toast notification system in the UI, but currently it does not show a warning when a global shortcut is triggered. The infrastructure is there: when a global shortcut is pressed, the main process sends a "globalShortcut" event to the renderer, which could easily trigger a toast with your suggested message. This would just require a small change in the renderer’s handler for that event to call the toast service (see toast implementation and global shortcut handler). If you or a maintainer want to implement this, it’s a straightforward addition. Let me know if you want example code or more technical details!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

^{How did I do? Good | Irrelevant | Incorrect | Verbose | Hallucination | Report 🐛 | Other}