I was wondering why there is no popular and supported CLI application launcher(non-CLI ones would be dmenu, krunner, rofi, etc.), so I decided to write one myself.

It needed to have a filter-as-you-type search, Ctrl+j and Ctrl+k navigation in the list, and when running an application it should not hold the terminal captive(foreground) and not dump console output to the terminal.

clilauncher is a Python script for launching desktop applications with fuzzy search and action support. It provides a convenient and efficient way to find and execute applications from the command line.

• Fuzzy search for desktop applications.
• Support for desktop actions(like opening a private tab in a browser)
• Works with installed Snap and Flatpaks too, if not using custom directories
• Lightweight and easy to use.

• Python 3.x
• FZF (Fuzzy Finder) - using your package manager (sudo apt-get install fzf, brew install fzf, etc.), or from https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

Does not depend on gio or dex, use the version on master if needed

1. Run main.py
2. Use fzf to search and select the desired application.
3. Launch the selected application or action.

1. Clone the repository
2. Rename the script and move it to a directory on $PATH
3. Make the script executable: chmod +x main.py
4. Run the script: ./main.py

• Experimental method for launching applications without dex or gio fetches the Exec line from the .desktop file and omits the substitution variables, it is possible that it fails to launch an application correctly. It is very unlikely, though.

• Elvin deSouza

This project is licensed under the GPL License - see the LICENSE file for details.