Questions

Using a Stream Deck without Elgato's app on a Mac

Yes, its keys can work as inputs with Elgato's app quit or running beside it. InputConfig, the free Mac app I make, reads Stream Deck keys as inputs from version 1.6, as an experimental feature: it follows the key layouts in the open source python-elgato-streamdeck library, and I have not tested every model.

For most people, Elgato's own Stream Deck app is still the right tool. It is free, it draws a picture on every key, and its plugins talk to OBS and other apps directly. Use it. InputConfig is for the other cases: the deck's keys in the same preset as a game controller, a per-app layout that switches by itself, a key that does something different when held or tapped twice, or the deck running with Elgato's app closed.

On this page: 10 sections

1. Steps
2. Check that your model is read
3. Connect the deck in InputConfig
4. Know what you give up without Elgato's app
5. Run both apps at once
6. Give a key a job
7. If a key does nothing
8. What it cannot do
9. The short version
10. Questions

Steps

1. Plug in the Stream Deck.
2. Quit Elgato's Stream Deck app, or leave the keys you want InputConfig to handle empty in it.
3. Tick the Stream Deck under USB in InputConfig, Devices, or behind the Devices button in the menu bar item when the Dock icon is off.
4. Open a preset, click Edit, add a row, press Scan, and press a key on the deck.
5. Pick an output, such as a shortcut, a click, a macro, a Siri Shortcut, a system function or MIDI, and Save.

Check that your model is read

Every key is an on and off button, so it works with everything a controller button does.

InputConfig is free on the Mac App Store. macOS 14 or later, no account, no tracking, open source.

Connect the deck in InputConfig

• You: Open InputConfig, Devices in the menu bar and tick the Stream Deck under USB. With the Dock icon off, the same list is behind the Devices button in the InputConfig menu bar item.
• InputConfig: Opens the deck, remembers it, and reconnects it by itself after that.
• Check: Press Scan on a row and press a key. If the row fills with Key 1, Key 2 and so on, InputConfig hears the deck.

InputConfig opens a Stream Deck only when you tick it, so nothing changes until you do.

Know what you give up without Elgato's app

• Pictures on the keys. InputConfig reads key presses only; it does not draw anything on the screens.
• Plugins. Elgato's plugins talk to OBS, Spotify and others directly and can show a live status on a key. InputConfig sends keystrokes, clicks and MIDI, so OBS never tells the deck which scene is live.
• The Stream Deck +'s dials and touch strip. Not read.

If you rely on any of those, keep Elgato's app for those keys and give InputConfig only the keys you leave empty there.

Run both apps at once

InputConfig opens the deck without taking it away from Elgato's app, so both hear every press. A key with an action in Elgato's app and a row in InputConfig does both things. Leave the keys you want InputConfig to handle empty in Elgato's app, or quit Elgato's app while you use InputConfig.

There is a second way that needs no Stream Deck support at all. Elgato's app can make a key send a hotkey such as F13 to F19, function keys nothing else on a Mac uses, and InputConfig can bind those like any key from the keyboard. Keys are only listened to, so the F13 still reaches the front app as well, and keys from every keyboard count as the same key. That is why the keys nothing uses are the ones to pick. What F13 to F19 do on a Mac has more.

Give a key a job

A Stream Deck key can do anything a controller button can:

• A key or shortcut. Held as long as the key is held, so a key on Discord's push-to-talk key talks while it is down.
• Three jobs on one key. A hold and a double tap as well as the press.
• Repeats and latches. A macro, turbo, or toggle.
• The Mac itself. A system function or a Siri Shortcut: screenshots, volume, Mission Control, the lights in the room.
• MIDI. MIDI notes and control changes for a DAW or lighting software.
• Spoken feedback. The Mac says what the key just did.

Because the deck is just another input device in a preset, it switches with the preset. Per-app auto switch can give the same keys one job in OBS and another in Final Cut Pro, and a game controller in the same preset keeps its own rows.

If a key does nothing

Climb this ladder, smallest step first:

1. Tick the deck. InputConfig opens a Stream Deck only when you connect it from the Devices menu.
2. Scan a key. If the row fills with a key name, InputConfig hears the deck, and the row's output is the question.
3. Clear the key in Elgato's app. A key that fires twice also has an action there.
4. Bind by Scan, not by counting. The layouts come from the community library and are experimental. If a model numbers its keys wrongly, tell me which one.

Scan is the fastest test: a filled row means the deck is read.

What it cannot do

• Draw on the keys. No images or labels on the screens.
• Read the dials. The Stream Deck +'s dials and touch strip are not read.
• Promise every model. The support is experimental, and I have not tested a Pedal myself.

Treat it as a set of buttons, not as a replacement for Elgato's app.

The short version

• Pictures and plugins. Keep Elgato's app.
• A deck in a controller preset, per-app layouts, holds and double taps. Tick the deck in InputConfig, Devices, and Scan its keys.
• Both. Leave InputConfig's keys empty in Elgato's app.

Split the keys between the two apps, and you get pictures on some and per-app layouts on the rest.

Questions

Related

• A free Stream Deck alternative from a gamepad or MIDI pad
• Foot pedal shortcuts on a Mac
• What F13 to F19 do on a Mac, and how to use them
• A macro deck from a numpad, MIDI pad, or controller
• Other controllers
• Per-app profiles that switch by themselves
• Connecting a controller to InputConfig

Free. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.