Install and Hyper Basics
CapsLock Enhancement V3 current targets macOS and Karabiner-Elements. There is nothing else to install: the configuration is a set of complex-modification rules that Karabiner interprets, so nothing new runs in the background and nothing is compiled on your machine.
This guide was verified with Karabiner-Elements 16.1.0 in August 2026, whose support matrix covers macOS 13 Ventura through macOS 27 on Intel and Apple silicon. Check the official site for the current release.
Install
Install Karabiner-Elements
Download the DMG from the official site
and run Karabiner-Elements.pkg, or install the cask:
Open Karabiner-Elements Settings and follow its prompts in System Settings. Allow the privileged and non-privileged background services, Accessibility, Input Monitoring, and the Driver Extension. Under Virtual Keyboard, select the layout matching your physical keyboard. Theofficial installation guide explains what each permission is for.
Import the rules
Open the import link below — any browser hands it straight to Karabiner-Elements:
Import CapsLock Enhancement V3.1
Or paste the URL yourself:
Choose Import, allow Karabiner-Elements to open, then enable the rules you want under Settings → Complex Modifications. The ten rules are independent, so a family you have no use for can simply stay off.
Then tap ⇪ — it should send ⎋ — and hold it while pressing H J K L: the cursor moves. You are on plane zero.
Two alternatives lead to the same place. TheKarabiner gallery page
has an Import button of its own, and for a fully offline install you can
drop capslock.json
into ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/ and pickAdd predefined rule. Karabiner-EventViewer shows what any key actually
emits if something looks wrong.
Tap, hold, and Hyper
Caps Lock now has two behaviours that never collide, because one is decided on release and the other while the key is down.
| Gesture | Output | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Tap ⇪ | ⎋ Escape | Escape without leaving the home row |
| Hold ⇪ | ✱ Hyper | Enter the base control plane |
| ✱ with ⎋ | ⇪ Caps Lock | Toggle the original Caps Lock state |
| ✱ with ␣ | ⌃ with ␣ | Switch input source |
| ✱ with ⌘ with ␣ | ⌃ with ⌘ with ␣ | Emoji and symbols picker |
✱ is not a private signal. Karabiner rewrites the held Caps Lock into all four right-side modifiers at once — ⌘ with ⌥ with ⌃ with ⇧ — which has two consequences worth understanding:
- Other software still sees an ordinary chord. Alfred, Moom, Magnet, Raycast and your IDE receive ⌃ with ⌥ with ⇧ with ⌘ plus a key and can bind it like any other shortcut.
- Anything CapsLock Enhancement does not claim passes straight through. ✱ with A has no rule of its own precisely so that a window manager can own it. The same trick works for any key you want to hand to another app.
Sixteen control planes
While Hyper stays held, the four left-side modifiers act as four binary switches. Read them as four bits and you get planes 0–15:
⌘ = 1 · ⌥ = 2 · ⌃ = 4 · ⇧ = 8.
| Plane | Left modifiers | Mappings | What lives there |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | ✱ | 89 | The daily layer: movement, deletion, apps, terminal, symbols |
| 1 | ✱ with ⌘ | 59 | Selection, second-choice apps, clipboard copy |
| 2 | ✱ with ⌥ | 38 | Pointer movement and third-choice apps |
| 3 | ✱ with ⌘ with ⌥ | 8 | Word and paragraph selection |
| 4 | ✱ with ⌃ | 12 | Desktop and window management |
| 5 | ✱ with ⌘ with ⌃ | — | Free |
| 6 | ✱ with ⌥ with ⌃ | — | Free |
| 7 | ✱ with ⌘ with ⌥ with ⌃ | — | Free |
| 8 | ✱ with ⇧ | 25 | App, window and tab switching |
| 9 | ✱ with ⌘ with ⇧ | 21 | Accelerated wheel |
| 10 | ✱ with ⌥ with ⇧ | 21 | Accelerated pointer |
| 11 | ✱ with ⌘ with ⌥ with ⇧ | — | Free |
| 12 | ✱ with ⌃ with ⇧ | 9 | Wheel |
| 13 | ✱ with ⌘ with ⌃ with ⇧ | — | Free |
| 14 | ✱ with ⌥ with ⌃ with ⇧ | — | Free |
| 15 | ✱ with ⌘ with ⌥ with ⌃ with ⇧ | — | Free |
Nine planes are populated; seven are free space for rules of your own. Open theconfigurator to browse the same sixteen rows interactively and see what each key does on the plane you select.
The planes are not arbitrary. Across the whole configuration the same modifier keeps the same meaning, which is why the layout can be learned once rather than memorized key by key:
| Modifier | Consistent meaning |
|---|---|
| ⌘ | Extend the action — select instead of move, copy instead of paste, the second application |
| ⌥ | Leave the text world — pointer, wheel, the third application |
| ⌃ | Talk to the window server — desktops, Mission Control, screen state |
| ⇧ | Switch containers — apps, windows, tabs; or accelerate a pointer action |
Compatibility
- The layout is drawn for ANSI keyboards and works the same on built-in Apple keyboards and external ones. ISO layouts work too, but the two keys that differ physically may land somewhere unexpected.
- The MouseKey family needs a numeric keypad. Everything else works on a tenkeyless board.
- Older macOS releases need an archived Karabiner-Elements build, which this guide does not cover.
macOS reserves a few system-wide chords of its own. The most common clash is ⌘ with ⌥ with ⌃ with ⇧ with ., which can open a diagnostics dialog — seeissue #30. Remap the system shortcut if it conflicts with a plane you use.
Next
Continue with navigation, deletion, and mouse control.