Stream Deck + XL20GBX9901
Pathfinder Prototyping builds the layer between your hands and the software that runs your work. The line runs to 42 Stream Deck plugins, 41 live on the Elgato Marketplace and one more in review, covering CAD, PCB design, laser, 3D printing, photo, audio, and knowledge work. 5,013 commands, 276 dials and 227 profiles, built and tested on real hardware.
Every plugin is written against what its operating system actually exposes: 33 are Windows builds and 11 are native macOS builds, with two shipping for both. Plugins are what is on the shelf today. The practice is prototyping the controls for whatever needs them next.
One plugin per application, each one covering the whole application rather than a starter set of shortcuts. Filter the line and the deck above follows.
Every plugin, its target application, and where it stands right now, in one table. 5,013 commands across the line.
| Plugin | Domain | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| OrcaSlicer Hotkeys | 3D printing | Live | 77 commands across 13 categories. Six dials, and OrcaSlicer's Prepare toolbar on five touch strips. |
| LightBurn Hotkeys | Laser | Live | 131 commands across 17 categories. Keys that read LightBurn back and dim when they cannot apply, six dials that print the live value, no machine motion on any of them. |
| KiCad Hotkeys | PCB design | Live | 236 commands across 23 categories. Eight dials, live layer readout, auto page switching. |
| Inkscape Hotkeys | Vector design | Live | 187 commands across 19 categories. Tool switching and canvas control. |
| GIMP Hotkeys | Image editing | Live | 100 commands across 12 categories. |
| Obsidian Hotkeys | Knowledge work | Live | 90 commands across 13 categories. Thirteen dials, six of them reading the vault live. |
| PureRef Hotkeys | Reference boards | Live | 169 commands across 14 categories. Mode-aware drawing keys. |
| Plasticity Hotkeys | CAD modeling | Live | 167 commands across 14 categories. Custom key art, per-key sounds. |
| FreeCAD Hotkeys | Parametric CAD | Live | 330 commands across 27 categories, from sketching through FEM and CAM. |
| Windows Terminal Hotkeys | Development | Live | 61 commands across 14 categories. Nine dials, a Tab Painter page of tab colours on the 15-key hub, key sounds on by default, Easy Link built in. |
| Clipchamp Hotkeys | Video editing | Live | 33 commands across 6 categories. Every key presses Clipchamp's own buttons through UI Automation, and the big decks get a number pad for exact clip values. |
| SOLIDWORKS Hotkeys | Mechanical CAD | Live | 93 commands across 10 categories. Native SOLIDWORKS API routing. |
| Claude Complete Controller | AI tooling | In Marketplace review | Session monitoring and control for Claude Code. |
| Phone Link Hotkeys | Phone control | Live | Free. 18 commands across 4 categories. Android battery, media, and toggle keys read live and confirm from the phone itself. |
| Onshape Hotkeys | Cloud CAD | Live | 104 commands across 13 categories. Live document and tab readout. |
| Bambu Studio Hotkeys | 3D printing | Live | 78 commands across 12 categories. Nine dials plus a print telemetry strip. |
| Excalidraw Hotkeys | Whiteboarding | Live | 67 commands across 6 categories. Four dials and a live active-tool readout. |
| OneNote Commander | Note taking | Live | 123 commands across 13 categories. Dials show the live page and section. |
| Sound Sampler | Audio capture | Live | Free. Record what your PC is playing, then use the clips as key sounds anywhere in the line. |
| Krita Complete | Digital painting | Live | 132 commands across 13 categories. Seven dials that write absolute values. |
| Darktable Complete | Photo editing | Live | 135 commands across 14 categories on macOS, 134 on Windows. The line's first plugin for both platforms, with six dials, one of them an Omni dial you assign from 29 sliders. |
| Easy Link | Profile switching | Live | Free. Hold one key and the app in front gets its own named profile, switched in automatically. |
| xTool Laser Deck | Laser design | Live | 58 commands across 7 categories. Six dials for canvas zoom, pan, history and pixel nudging. |
| RawTherapee Complete | Raw developing | Live | 104 commands across 10 categories. Eight dials, plus two keys that read what is loaded. |
| 3D Builder Commander | 3D modeling | Live | 52 commands across 8 categories. Emboss text onto a model from one key. |
| Shapr3D Studio Deck | Direct modeling | Live | 65 commands across 9 categories. A tool ring that arms before it fires, plus a numpad on the larger decks. |
| Paint.NET Studio Deck | Image editing | Live | 71 commands across 9 categories. Nineteen tool keys that select the exact tool, not the next one in the cycle. |
| REAPER Control Room | Audio production | Live | 124 commands across 11 categories. Sends REAPER its own command ids, so actions with no default shortcut work on a stock install. Eight dials, one of them holding any plugin's parameters, and a T9 keypad that types into REAPER. |
| Obsidian macOS Master Commander | Knowledge work | Live | 90 commands across 13 categories, on macOS. Unbound commands run by name through Obsidian's command line interface. |
| Shapr3D macOS Studio Deck | Direct modeling | Live | 84 commands across 12 categories, on macOS. Tool and constraint rings on the touch screen, both orbit axes on dials. |
| macOS Terminal Complete | Development | Live | 79 commands across 11 categories, on macOS. Writes go to the plugin's own Terminal window, so a stray press never lands in your working shell. |
| GIMP macOS Studio Deck | Image editing | Live | 98 commands across 12 categories, on macOS. The toolbox on the Stream Deck + touch screens, a number pad that types into GIMP's fields, four dial jobs. |
| FreeCAD macOS Studio Pro | Parametric CAD | Live | 330 commands across 27 categories, on macOS. 212 multi-key chord sequences each fire whole from a single key. |
| KiCad macOS Studio Deck | PCB design | Live | 235 commands across 23 categories, on macOS. Track width, via size and grid read live from KiCad, and a command with no verified chord refuses instead of firing. |
| REAPER macOS Control Room | Audio production | Live | 124 commands across 11 categories, on macOS. 77 keys send REAPER its own command ids, 34 of them for actions with no default shortcut. |
| LightBurn macOS Studio Deck | Laser | Live | 122 commands across 17 categories. Seven dials that work on the artwork, a Status key that reads the machine connection, keys that never fire into another app. |
| OneNote macOS Commander | Note taking | Live | 123 commands across 13 categories. Page and section dials with the real names on the strip, read live from OneNote's navigation pane. |
| Microsoft Paint Commander | Image editing | Live | 86 commands across 10 categories. Keys press Paint's own buttons and sliders by identity through UI Automation, and six dials read back what Paint holds. |
| Altium Designer Live Deck | PCB design | Live | 311 commands across 23 categories. |
| Godot Studio Deck | Game development | Live | 271 commands across 22 categories. Seven camera dials and fourteen camera keys reach the 3D viewport through a small editor add-on, with no pointer in the canvas. |
| Rhino Commander | 3D modeling | Live | 196 commands across 14 categories, sent to Rhino's own command engine rather than typed. 20 keys read Rhino's real state, six dials with live strips, Windows and macOS in one pack. |
| Bootstrap Studio Deck | Web design | Live | 59 commands across 7 categories. A save key that reads the window title, five Open Recent keys that hand a .bsdesign file to the running app, eight dials with their own strip art. |
Every plugin has its own page with screens, specs, and support notes. Names in the table above go straight to the Elgato listing.
We move the commands that matter onto hardware, and write the software behind them. Plugins are what ships today. The practice travels to whatever needs prototyping next.
Command catalogs that cover the whole application rather than a starter set of shortcuts, organized into task categories so an operator finds the key without a manual. Tested on real hardware before release.
Keys that read the application back: a laser key that shows job status over the network, PCB keys that know the active layer, keys that name the open document. State lives on the key, not in your head.
Your team runs software nobody has built controls for. We take on custom plugin and workflow-tooling builds. Each one starts with a paid assessment of your application, so the scope is known before the build begins.
Plugins are what you can buy today. The rest is commissioned: automation, AI systems, and production tooling for shops and benches.
We build the tooling that keeps automated work visible: the job shows its state while it runs, and a person can interrupt it or take it over at any point. No black boxes on the bench.
Plenty of professional software ships with nothing to automate against. We build control for those applications anyway, steady enough that a shop can run its daily workflow on top of it.
A locked visual language held across hundreds of marks, so a full set reads as one instrument instead of a pile of clip art. The style gets set once, then held.
Delivered for a medical-device prototyping shop: an AI workstation that sits where the work happens, next to load cells, stepper motors, and firmware, rather than in a browser tab.
Pathfinder Prototyping is a product studio in St. Paul, run by a maker who crossed into AI. The direction of travel matters: years of fabrication, 3D printing, and shop-floor problem solving, now aimed at the software those trades run on.
"I build AI systems for the people who make things. I came up through fabrication and 3D printing, so I know what the bench actually needs. Most software isn't written for shops and workbenches. Mine is. New tools for old problems."
Your team runs software nobody has built controls for. That is the same problem every plugin on this page started as, and the answer is the same: learn the application, find the commands that actually cost time, and put them under a hand.
The work is not limited to Stream Deck. The deck is the surface this shop knows best, and the practice underneath it is prototyping the control layer for a tool that does not have one yet.
Custom work starts with a paid feasibility assessment: a written report on what a deck can control in your application, and what state it can read back. You decide after the report, not before. If your application cannot do what you want, the report says so plainly and nothing further gets scoped.
A paid look at your application: what it exposes, what can be read back, and what a control surface could honestly do. You get the findings whether or not you build.
The command catalog, the categories, the profiles for the devices your team owns, and the state readouts the application will support.
Every key pressed on a real device before it ships. Nothing here has been tested only in a simulator.
The same index the deck at the top of this page runs on, searched as you type. Hotkeys appear exactly as the application ships them, and the commands an application gives no shortcut for are marked rather than hidden.
