Swift Launcher

Swift Launcher is a keyboard-first launcher written in Rust + Slint.

Goals

• Minimal latency: open → search → execute fast.
• Great UX: clean UI, solid keyboard navigation, sane defaults.

Features

• Fuzzy search (ranked) over actions.
• Shell command actions (optional working directory).
• Desktop app actions (from .desktop entries).
• Project workflows (open folder, run dev server, run tests).
• Keyboard-only workflow (Up/Down select, Enter execute, Esc close).
• Cache entries.
• Theme config file
• Config file (TOML/JSON/RON), with optional hot-reload.

Installation

Native

git clone https://github.com/pezfisk/swift-launcher
cd swift-launcher
cargo build --release
./target/release/swift-launcher

CONFIGURE ON DESKTOP ENVIROMENTS

Plugin System

Swift Launcher uses WebAssembly (WASM) Components for plugins, allowing you to write extensions in any language while maintaining security and performance.

Understanding WASM Architecture

Read WASM.md for a comprehensive explanation of:

• What WASM is and why we use it
• The Component Model and interfaces
• Shift's WASM architecture and how plugins are loaded
• Memory isolation and security guarantees
• How information flows between host and plugins

Key benefits:

• Polyglot: Write plugins in Rust, Python, Go, JavaScript, C, Zig, and more
• Safe: Each plugin runs in an isolated sandbox
• Fast: Near-native performance (95%+ of native speed)
• Reliable: One plugin crash doesn't crash Swift

Creating Your First Plugin

Read PLUGINS.md for complete instructions on:

• Building the echo plugin in Rust, Python and JavaScript.
• How to target wasm32-wasip2
• Installation and testing
• Best practices for plugin development
• Troubleshooting common issues

Theming

If no theme.conf exists at /home/user/.config/swift/theme.conf a default theme will be used Here is an example theme.conf for reference:

[Window]
width=600
height=400
vertical-alignment=center
horizontal-alignment=center
background-color=#1e1e2e
border-radius=16
border-color=#74c7ec
border-width=1

[Action]
max-height=60
option-color=#313244
option-color-selected=#cba6f7
option-border-rodius=10
name-font-size=14
name-font-color=#cdd6f4
name-font-color-selected=#1e1e2e
exec-font-size=11
exec-font-color=#a6adc8
exec-font-color-selected=#45475a
exec-show=true
show-icons=true

[Runner]
font-size=16
font-color=#cdd6f4
background-color=#181825
border-color=#45475a
border-width=1
border-radious=8
height=45

Configuration

Default path:

• Native: ~/.config/swift/config.conf

Variables & Shell Integration

Swift Launcher processes variables in two ways:

• Custom Variables: Defined in the [variables] section. These are great for setting your preferred terminal or editor once.
• System Variables: Because actions run via sh -c, you can use standard shell variables like $HOME, $PATH, or $HOSTNAME.

Terminal Execution Guide

Different terminals require different flags to execute commands. Update your term variable based on your setup:

Execution Flag	Terminals	Example term Variable
Standard -e	Alacritty, Ghostty, Konsole, Terminology, ST, UXTerm	term = alacritty -e vim
Double-Dash --	Ptyxis, BlackBox, GNOME Terminal, Console (KGX)	term = ptyxis -- vim ​
Legacy -x	XFCE4 Terminal, Terminator, Guake	term = xfce4-terminal -x vim ​
No Flag Needed	Kitty, Foot, Tilix	term = kitty vim

Example config

[variables]
term = "alacritty -e"
editor = "vim"

[actions]
name = "Open dotfiles"
cwd = /home/$USER/dotfiles
exec = $term $editor /home/$USER/dotfiles

Configuration - Web Search Plugin

You can add extra search engines, with a configuration file at ~/.config/swift/search.conf with the following structure

Trigger of the search engine = url of the search engine without https:// and ?= onwards

So for example, for brave it would be

b=search.brave.com/search