Realms

Realms are distinct search areas in Monarch, created to separate different contexts and workflows. Each Realm has its own scope, items, theme, and memory of what you use. Set up Realms to make it easier to access certain files, commands, Superlinks and more whenever you are using certain apps or websites. You can also use Realms to simply organize your Monarch data.

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Quick Realm Example

For example, you can make “screen” surface Screen Studio in Monarch normally, while having a Realm for photo editing that makes “screen” surface your Screenshots folder when using Canva or Affinity. Any Realm can be bound to any hotkey, so you can also use them to access data specific to certain projects like Cmd+Shift+J for accessing all Job Search related files (resumes, notes, bookmarks, etc).

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How to Create a Realm

To create a Realm, go to Monarch Settings and select the Realms tab and click the Create Realm button in the top right corner.

1. Give the Realm a meaningful name.
2. Add at least one item to your new Realm.

You can also add an icon to your realm and make it visually distinct by setting a custom theme just for this Realm, as well as . You can create Custom Themes in Monarch by going to Monarch Settings > Appearance.

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Adding items to a Realm

Search through your global Monarch context to select items to add to your new Realm.

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Bulk adding items to a Realm

If you already know you want all applications or all of your Superlinks in a Realm, you can easily do so by using the bulk add actions for Realms so you don’t have to add them one by one. Even if you only want most of the items, just run the bulk add command, then remove the few that you don’t want.

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Removing items from a Realm

To remove an item from a Realm, click the “x” on the right hand side of the item you want to delete. This only deletes it from the Realm itself and has no bearing on the global Monarch context or the file system itself.

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How To Switch Realms

• Use the All Realms command, then select a Realm from the list
• Search for a Realm by name directly in root search
• Bind a Realm to a hotkey via Monarch Settings > Shortcuts
• Setup Realm context in settings

Additionally, whenever a Realm is active, you will have access to the following commands:

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Global Search

Run this command to exit the current realm and revert back to searching the global Monarch context.

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Exit Realm

Run this command to immediately exit the current Realm and revert back to your default Realm. The Global Search command always puts you back in the global search context. The Exit Realm command will put you back into whatever is your default Realm, which may or may not be the global search context.

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Realm Context

By default, you change Realms by searching for the Realm and selecting it with Enter. This is reasonable, but most of the time you know exactly what Realm you need and when. This is where binding hotkeys to specific Realms come into play. The most seamless way to switch Realms is to set your Realm to activate within specific contexts: Setting Realm Context means making a Realm activate automatically based on the current app or website you’re using. This means you never actually have to think about switching Realms in the first place. Setting up Realm context is easy. Just enter the names of the applications and websites a Realm should apply to. For websites, you can get very specific by using the well-known splat operator. This means you can set up different Realms for things like different G-Suite users within the same browser. For example: A work Realm for docs.google.com/document/u/1/* and a personal Realm for docs.google.com/document/u/0/* and now Monarch will surface the relevant search results and commands based on what account you’re writing Google Docs for in your browser automatically.

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Replacing Monarch Search

You can set any Realm as the default Realm and it will become the Realm that is active whenever you press your normal shortcut to summon Monarch (for many people this ⌘ + space. This is useful for when you find yourself operating out of a specific Realm more often than not. The most common use case for this is replacing the default Monarch search. Many people want a very simple Spotlight replacement that contains just a few apps and some relevant files, perhaps a bookmark or two and that’s it. With Realms, you can create a minimalist Spotlight replacement with ease by setting it as your default Realm.