Beam Make it yours
Settings, menu bar and deep links
Where everything lives.
Open Settings with ⌘, while Beam is open, or from the menu bar. There are eleven tabs.
| Tab | What is in it |
|---|---|
| General | Beam hotkey, Use ⌘Space like Spotlight, Quick Access hotkeys, App Switcher, Dictation, launch at login, pick up where I left off, reset window position, emoji picker, Beam Story recording, timer sound, file search prefix, permissions, About and the welcome tour. |
| Appearance | Themes, appearance, glass, accent, tint, text size and density. |
| Voice | Dictation triggers, delivery target, cleanup, style, vocabulary, high accuracy, diagnostics. |
| AI | Models and keys, tools and approvals, Quick Fix, agents, MCP Servers, Automations. |
| Commands | Quicklinks, shell commands, gallery and script folders. |
| Snippets | Snippets and expansion mode. |
| Clipboard | Record history, keep items for 1 to 365 days, maximum items, clear unpinned or all. |
| Notes | Turn notes on, hotkey pointer, note counts, font, size and a Markdown cheat sheet. |
| Windows | All 18 layouts with diagrams and a hotkey recorder each. |
| Calendar | Connect or refresh, show upcoming meeting, menu bar meeting, hidden calendars. |
| Manual | The in-app manual, searchable. |
Recording a shortcut
Click any shortcut box and press the combination. Function keys and arrows record alone. Every other key needs at least one of ⌃ ⌥ ⇧ ⌘. Press ⌫ while recording, or use the ✕, to clear. Every global hotkey is recorded in Settings → General → Quick Access.
Menu bar
Beam has no Dock icon. The menu bar icon offers: Search Beam, Clipboard History, Emoji & Symbols, Quick Note, AI Chat, Switch Windows, Pick Colour, New Timer, Invitations, Beam Story, Feature Tour, Settings, Beam Manual, Permissions & Setup and Quit.
Deep links
Every beam:// link, including beam://settings/<tab> for each tab above, is on the Deep links page.
Beam Story
Your year with Beam, in chapters with a shareable card: launcher opens, top apps, snippets, dictations, switches, emoji, calculations, AI use, colours, timers and more. Counting starts the day you install. AI chats and notes go back further. Search Beam Story. Recording stays on your Mac and can be turned off in Settings → General.