What should you put in your first replacement?
Espanso calls a trigger and its replacement a match. Start with one unusual shortcut and one plain sentence. The rules are written in YAML, a text format where indentation matters. Check a match in a scratch editor first, so an unintended expansion never becomes a message or command.
Who can read the text you save in the configuration?
The plain text lives in Espanso’s configuration files on your machine. Anyone with access to those files can read the text. The files do not automatically become a shared team library. If you put them in shared storage or a repository, that choice gives others a copy according to that service’s access settings. Leave passwords and customer details out.
What should you keep when you move to another computer?
Espanso is free and open source. Check the installation for your operating system. Keep the relevant match and configuration files. If a rule uses an external file or package, check that dependency separately. Some packages can run scripts or insert more than plain text. Inspect them before use, and start your own setup with simple replacements.
How would you catch a shortcut that fires too often?
Suppose a common word in your workshop notes keeps expanding into a longer reply. Draw the sentence and a separate message field on paper to spot which trigger is too broad.
- Try two trigger designsWrite a common word as the first trigger and a prefixed shortcut as the second. Highlight where the common word appears in an ordinary sentence.
- Choose the narrower ruleWrite which text should expand and which should remain unchanged. Record the intended replacement in the notes you would keep with the configuration.