RuSwitcher

Lightweight keyboard layout switcher for macOS Free and open-source alternative to PuntoSwitcher

macOS app lives in macos/ · Windows version is planned · cross-platform behaviour contract in shared/

English · Русский

⬇ Download for macOS · Скачать для macOS · Homebrew: brew install --cask ruswitcher

English

Typed ghbdtn when you meant привет? Just tap Option ⌥ and RuSwitcher converts the last word into the right layout — typing it directly, no copy-paste. Works with any pair of installed keyboard layouts — Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German, French, and more. The trigger is fully configurable (a single key or a two-key combo), it can also fix the layout automatically as you type, and it even works through Apple Screen Sharing.

How it works

The trigger is configurable — Option, Command, Control or Shift (left or right side, single or double-tap), or a two-key combo (⌘+⇧, ⌃+⇧, ⌘+⌥, ⌃+⌥) for the Windows-style Alt+Shift feel.

Automatic conversion (beta)

RuSwitcher can also fix the layout automatically as you type, with no key press. Turn it on in Settings → Auto-conversion (off by default). When you finish a word (space), it checks the word against the macOS system dictionary and — only when confident — converts it and switches the layout for you.

Words with trailing punctuation are handled too (new in 2.7.0): ghbdtn, becomes привет, — the punctuation stays exactly as typed. Genuinely ambiguous tails are left alone on purpose: on the Russian layout the EN keys . , ; : are the letters ю б ж Ж, so levf. could mean either «думаю» or «дума.» — such words are yours to convert with the manual trigger.

Precision-first: to avoid false fixes it deliberately skips short words (< 3 letters), words with digits / URLs / punctuation in the middle, ALL-CAPS acronyms typed with Shift, camelCase / mixed-script code identifiers, terminals / IDEs / password managers, and password fields. It targets layout pairs that have a macOS system dictionary (English ↔ Russian / Ukrainian / German / French… are reliable); languages without one (Belarusian, Armenian, Georgian) keep using the manual trigger.

Because the check relies on the macOS system dictionary — which is less complete than the real vocabulary of the languages it converts — some compound, rare or slang words won't auto-convert on their own. That's exactly what the built-in exception lists are for: add words you type often to Always convert (or Never convert) and RuSwitcher will handle them the way you want, no dictionary needed.