to.conditions

When conditions are specified in to, the event is sent only if the conditions are satisfied.

Note

This configuration is intended for highly specific use cases.

If your goal is to define a setting such as “Enable only in Finder”, you should use conditions at a higher level in the hierarchy rather than to.conditions.

to.conditions is available since Karabiner-Elements 15.3.7.

Example

In this example, conditions are used inside to_if_invoked and to_if_canceled to prevent the q key from being sent via to_delayed_action when the escape key is pressed.

💡 How to use this example

{
    "description": "Change double press of q to escape",
    "manipulators": [
        {
            "type": "basic",
            "from": {
                "key_code": "q",
                "modifiers": { "optional": ["any"] }
            },
            "to": [
                { "set_variable": { "name": "q pressed", "value": false } },
                { "key_code": "escape" }
            ],
            "conditions": [
                { "type": "variable_if", "name": "q pressed", "value": true }
            ]
        },
        {
            "type": "basic",
            "from": {
                "key_code": "q",
                "modifiers": { "optional": ["any"] }
            },
            "to": [{ "set_variable": { "name": "q pressed", "value": true } }],
            "to_delayed_action": {
                "to_if_invoked": [
                    {
                        "key_code": "q",
                        "conditions": [
                            {
                                "type": "variable_if",
                                "name": "q pressed",
                                "value": true
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    { "set_variable": { "name": "q pressed", "value": false } }
                ],
                "to_if_canceled": [
                    {
                        "key_code": "q",
                        "conditions": [
                            {
                                "type": "variable_if",
                                "name": "q pressed",
                                "value": true
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    { "set_variable": { "name": "q pressed", "value": false } }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

Advanced topic

Conditions are evaluated when the first event in the sequence of events within to is processed. This means that even if a variable’s value changes (e.g., using set_variable within to), the updated value won’t be immediately evaluated.

💡 How to use this example

{
    "description": "to.conditions example",
    "manipulators": [
        {
            "type": "basic",
            "from": {
                "key_code": "escape",
                "modifiers": { "optional": ["any"] }
            },
            "to": [
                {
                    "set_variable": {
                        "name": "example_flag",
                        "value": true
                    }
                },
                {
                    "key_code": "spacebar",
                    "conditions": [
                        // Because this condition are evaluated before the first event is processed,
                        // the value of example_flag is not true at that stage, so the evaluation will return false.
                        {
                            "type": "variable_if",
                            "name": "example_flag",
                            "value": true
                        }
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "set_variable": {
                        "name": "example_flag",
                        "value": false
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}