What Is Bunch?
Bunch is an application for the Mac that facilitates switching between different contexts based on what you would like to do. This allows you to set up customised workspaces and includes things like opening and closing applications, opening URLs, opening files, running scripts. The set up of these is managed via text files containing instructions, known as bunch files, and hence the app’s name.
What Is Alfred?
Alfred is a utility application that allows you to enhance your productivity. With a main interface very similar to Spotlight, you can carry out the usual Spotlight actions, but also many more besides. Alfred also supports hot key triggers, text expansion, clipboard management, and a broad array of customisable options.
A paid upgrade to Alfred, known as the Power Pack, is also available. The Power Pack unlocks more Alfred features and functionality, including Alfred workflows, arguably the most powerful feature of Alfred.
What Is an Alfred Workflow?
A workflow in Alfred is a set of actions that Alfred will carry out on your behalf when triggered. Built in a flow chart like way, using blocks and connector lines, workflows enable Alfred Power Pack users to create their own automated processes powered by Alfred.
You will need to have Alfred’s Power Pack to make use of Cluster.
About Cluster
What Is Cluster?
Cluster is an Alfred workflow created to help you interact with the Bunch app. As a launcher utility, Alfred users often find they naturally gravitate to using it for many interactions. This workflow is intended to help bridge from Alfred to Bunch with typical actions you might wish to undertake, as well as perhaps some that add new functionality around the Bunch app.
What Can I Do with Cluster?
Cluster helps you to work with Bunch in a number of ways, and it is designed to be extensible so that you can define your own simple workflows that leverage the power provided by Cluster.
Here are just some examples of what you can do:
- Open a bunch that is closed, close a bunch that is open, or toggle a bunch that is in either state.
- Edit a bunch.
- Edit the bunch you last edited.
- Refresh the bunches in the Bunch app or relaunch the app entirely.
- Archive bunches you don’t regularly use any longer, and restore them when you do again.
- Create new bunches from the currently running apps, existing bunches, from the standard example bunch, or just an create an empty bunch.
Where Can I Get Help on Using Cluster?
This site will hopefully give you everything you need to start using Cluster and get the best from it. It does however assume that you are familiar with the Bunch app. If you are not, we highly recommend heading over to the Bunch documentation and familiarising yourself with that first, otherwise you will not only miss out on what Cluster can do, but also what Bunch can do, which is probably more than you might think.
Why Is It Called Cluster?
Well Bunch has an app icon that looks like a bunch of grapes. Because this workflow is designed to work alongside Bunch, we just used one of the other terms used for groupings of grapes - a cluster. This is also why the icon looks like some grapes.
Who Created Cluster?
I’m Stephen Millard, and I’m the creator of Cluster. While I work in the learning technology space I do not work day-to-day with Apple technology. Out of work, I dabble in variety areas of technology and can regularly be found helping out others online with my writing and my contributions on a number of popular community forums, as well as through creating helpful things like this Alfred workflow.
I Have an Idea for Cluster
Awesome - we do so love a good idea for the workflow.
First of all do please double check the feature is not already included, and that it does not appear on the roadmap.
Assuming it isn’t already available or already planned, post some details of your idea over on the Cluster topic on the Automators forum or on Mastodon mentioning @sylumer@mastodon.social.
We cannot promise to add every request, but we can promise that every request will be given consideration for inclusion in a future release.
How Can I Thank You For Cluster?
Cluster is free to use, but if you want to thank me in a more tangible way for this, or any of my other projects, you can always buy me a coffee to fuel my next creative coffee shop coding session.