Beam DocsmacOS 14+

Make it yours

Deep links

Open Beam, ask the AI or jump to a screen from a script, a shortcut or a web page with beam:// addresses.

Beam registers the beam URL scheme. Anything that can open a URL can drive it: Terminal, Shortcuts, a script, a bookmark or another app. Beam must be installed. It is launched if it is not running.

open "beam://search?q=swift%20concurrency"

Every link

LinkWhat happens
beam://search?q=…Opens the launcher with q filled in as the search. Without q the box is empty.
beam://ai?q=…Opens AI Chat in the launcher and sends q as the first message. Without q it opens an empty chat. Does nothing if AI is turned off in Settings → AI.
beam://command/<id>Runs your custom command with that numeric ID. If the command uses {query}, the launcher opens on its input screen instead. A missing or unknown ID does nothing.
beam://clipboardOpens the launcher on clipboard history.
beam://notesOpens the notes window.
beam://settings/<tab>Opens Settings on that tab. An unknown or missing tab opens General.
beam://tourStarts the feature tour.
beam://storyOpens Your Beam Story.

Any other beam:// address just opens the launcher. The scheme and the link names are not case sensitive.

Command IDs

Every command you create gets a number when it is saved, and beam://command/<id> uses it. Numbers count up and are never reused, even after you delete a command. On a fresh install Beam adds its eight starter quicklinks first, so they usually get these IDs:

IDCommandKeyword
1Googleg
2GitHubgh
3YouTubeyt
4Wikipediaw
5Apple Mapsmaps
6Google Translatetr
7ChatGPTgpt
8Redditr

So beam://command/5 opens the Apple Maps quicklink. Because it needs a search term, the launcher opens on its input screen. Commands you add yourself, from the gallery or by Raycast import, get the next free number after that. Your own numbers depend on the order you made things in, so check them before relying on a link.

Settings does not show the ID anywhere that the code reveals. To list yours, run this in Terminal:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Beam/beam.sqlite "select id, name, keyword from customCommand order by id"

Only an example

The ID 5 above comes from the default starter list. A link like beam://command/5 runs whichever command holds that ID on the Mac that opens it.

Settings tabs

Use these names after beam://settings/:

TabLink
Generalbeam://settings/general
Appearancebeam://settings/appearance
Voicebeam://settings/voice
AIbeam://settings/ai
Commandsbeam://settings/commands
Snippetsbeam://settings/snippets
Clipboardbeam://settings/clipboard
Notesbeam://settings/notes
Windowsbeam://settings/windows
Calendarbeam://settings/calendar
Manualbeam://settings/manual

Encoding the query

Percent-encode the text after q=. Spaces become %20 or +, and an apostrophe becomes %27.

open "beam://ai?q=what%27s%20on%20my%20calendar%20tomorrow"
open "beam://settings/clipboard"

Ideas

  • A Shortcuts or script action that runs open "beam://search?q=f%20invoice" to start a file search.
  • A bookmark or a note link to beam://notes.
  • A launcher entry in another tool that opens beam://clipboard.

Two things to know

AI answers can contain buttons like Connect Calendar or Enable Snippets. Those are beam:// links the model writes from a fixed list inside Beam, and they only work inside the chat. They are not general deep links. There is also beam://switchertest, an internal self-test for the Command-Tab replacement. You do not need it.

See also: Settings, menu bar and deep links, Commands, AI chat.