App Launcher

The App Launcher lets you find and open any installed application by typing part of its name.

How it works

All installed applications are indexed at startup and kept up to date with a background refresh every five minutes. Results appear instantly with no manual setup required.

Each result shows the application name, its file path, and the app’s own icon.

Technical details

Note

This section is for the technically curious. You don’t need any of this to use the App Launcher as it just works out of the box.

macOS

Applications are discovered via Spotlight (mdfind) using the query kMDItemContentType == 'com.apple.application-bundle'. Only bundles under an /Applications/ directory are included, covering /Applications/, /System/Applications/, and ~/Applications/. Bundles in other locations are filtered out, and so are helper apps inside another app, such as login items or framework helpers. An app inside another app stays listed when it sits in a folder named Applications, as Xcode’s Instruments or Finder’s AirDrop do. Menu bar and background apps are listed like any other app.

The display name is resolved from the app’s Info.plist in priority order: CFBundleDisplayName, then CFBundleName, then the .app filename as a fallback.

Icons are extracted via NSWorkspace.iconForFile(), which returns the system-composited icon including any dynamic overlays.

Linux

Under construction

Linux app discovery is planned but not yet implemented. It will scan .desktop files from XDG data directories.

Windows

Under construction

Windows app discovery is planned but not yet implemented. It will enumerate Start Menu shortcuts.

Actions

Action	Shortcut	Description
Open	Enter	Launch the application.
Reveal in file manager	Cmd+Enter / Ctrl+Enter	Show the application in the file manager without launching it.