Sherlock is a lightweight and efficient application launcher built with Rust and GTK4. It allows you to quickly launch your favorite applications with a user-friendly interface, providing a fast and highly-configurable way to search, launch, and track application usage.

Quick Links

• Documentation: Sherlock's documentation
• sherlock-wiki: allows you to search Wikipedia from within Sherlock using the bulk_text launcher.
• sherlock-dict: lookup word definitions from within Sherlock.
• CONTRIBUTING.md: Please read this before submitting a PR.
  
  

🚨 Warning: This app is/was created on Arch Linux with the Hyprland tiling window manager in mind. It may cause errors or won't function at all on other system configurations.

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Getting Started
  • Dependencies
  • Installation
    • Arch Linux
    • From Source
    • Debian
    • Nix
  • Post Installation
    • Config Setup
    • Keybind Setup

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Features

🔧 Style Customization

• Fully customize the look and feel of the launcher.
• Modify themes and visual elements to match your preferences

🛠️ Custom Commands

• Define your own commands and extend the functionality of the launcher.
• Add new features or workflows tailored to your specific needs.

🚀 Fallbacks

• Configure fallback behaviours for various commands and operations.
• Ensure a smooth experience even when certain commands fail or are unavailable

🖼️ Application Aliases and Customization

• Assign aliases to your applications for better looks and quicker access.
• Assign custom icons to your applications for a personalized touch.
• Hide apps that you don't use and don't want to clutter up your launcher.

🌐 Async Widget

• Use the async widget to send API requests and display their responses directly in the launcher.
• Great for integrating live data or external tools into your workflow.

Spotify Widget

• Show your currently playing song or video

📅 Teams Events Launcher

• Use the Teams Event Launcher to easily join upcoming Microsoft Teams meetings

🔍 Category-Based Search

• Type the launcher alias and space bar to only search within a specific category of commands.
• Categories are fully configurable, allowing you to customize search scopes.
• Use the category launcher to show a group for additional subcommands

⌨️ Shortcuts

• Use modkey + number shortcuts to quickly launch a command or app without having to scroll.
• Configure custom key binds for navigation

Context menu

• A customizable context menu for additional application/launcher actions. For example opening a private browser window
• Extend or overwrite existing actions from your sherlock_alias.json file or create custom ones for your commands

Weather widget

• Show the weather in your specified location

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Getting Started

1. Dependencies

To run the Sherlock Launcher, ensure the following dependencies are installed:

• gtk4 - Gtk4 Documentation
• gtk-4-layer-shell - Gtk4 Layer Shell
• dbus - (Used to get currently playing song)
• openssl - (Used for retrieving Spotify album art)
• libssl-dev
• libsqlite3-dev

Additionally, if you're building from source, you will need:

• rust - How to install rust
• git - How to install git
  
  

2. Installation

Arch Linux

If you're using Arch Linux, you can install the pre-built binary package with the following command:

yay -S sherlock-launcher-bin

Or install the community-maintained git build with the following command:

yay -S sherlock-launcher-git

From Source

To build Sherlock Launcher from source, follow these steps.
Make sure you have the necessary dependencies installed:

• rust - How to install rust
• git - How to install git
• gtk4 - Gtk4 Documentation
• gtk-4-layer-shell - Gtk4 Layer Shell
• dbus - (Used to get currently playing song)
• libsqlite3-dev
• librsvg
• gdk-pixbuf2

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/skxxtz/sherlock.git
   cd sherlock

2. Install necessary Rust dependencies:

   Build the project using the following command:

   cargo build --release

3. Install the binary:

   After the build completes, install the binary to your system:

   sudo cp target/release/sherlock /usr/bin/

Build Debian Package

To build a .deb package directly from the source, follow these steps:
Make sure you have the following dependencies installed:

• rust - How to install rust
• git - How to install git
• gtk4 - Gtk4 Documentation
• gtk-4-layer-shell - Gtk4 Layer Shell

1. Install the cargo-deb tool:

   First, you need to install the cargo-deb tool, which simplifies packaging Rust projects as Debian packages:

   cargo install cargo-deb

2. Build the Debian package:

   After installing cargo-deb, run the following command to build the .deb package:

   cargo deb

   This will create a .deb package in the target/debian directory.

3. Install the generated .deb package:

   Once the package is built, you can install it using:

   sudo dpkg -i target/debian/sherlock-launcher_0.1.13_amd64.deb

   (Make sure to replace the filename if the version number is different.)
   
   

Nix

Non-Flakes Systems

Sherlock is available in nixpkgs/unstable as sherlock-launcher. If you're installing it as a standalone package you'll need to do the config setup yourself.

Flakes & Home-Manager

Add sherlock.url = "github:Skxxtz/sherlock"; to the inputs of flake.nix. The sherlock flake can be installed either as a standalone package; or managed with home-manager, which both installs and generates configuration files.

For home-manager enabled systems, import the homeManagerModules.default/homeModules.default output of the flake. Then, set programs.sherlock.enable = true; to install and create default configuration files. home-manager will track all of the config files automatically, and they can be modified using nix syntax with programs.sherlock.settings.<config-file>. The config files and their associated names are:

• config.json (config.toml): settings.config
• fallback.json: settings.launchers
• sherlock_alias.json: settings.aliases

The above settings are written nix syntax the following are written as just text:

• main.css: settings.style
• sherlockignore: settings.ignore

You can find an example here.

To stop home-manager from symlinking these files from the nix store (this can be useful if you're iterating a lot and don't want to rebuild your system), set the file's corresponding option to null. programs.sherlock.settings = null; will stop managing all sherlock-related config files.

Flakes without Home-Manager

To install the standalone package, add sherlock.packages.${pkgs.system}.default to environment.systemPackages/home.packages. You will need to create the configuration files yourself, see below.

3. Post Installation

Config Setup

After the installation is completed, you can set up your configuration files. The location for them is ~/.config/sherlock/. Depending on your needs, you should add the following files:

1. config.toml: This file specifies the behavior and defaults of your launcher. Documentation here.
2. fallback.json: This file specifies the features your launcher should have. Documentation here.
3. sherlock_alias.json: This file specifies aliases for applications. Documentation here.
4. sherlockignore: This file specifies which applications to exclude from your search. Documentation here.
5. main.css: This file contains your custom styling for Sherlock.

As of version 0.1.11, Sherlock comes with the init subcommand to automatically create your config. It will create versions of the files above, populated with the default values. Additionally, it will create the icons/, scripts/, and themes/ subdirectories. All you have to do is run the following command:

sherlock init

Warnings after startup

If you're getting warnings after startup, you can press return to access the main application. Alternatively, you can set the try_suppress_warnings key in the config file to true. This will prevent any warnings to be shown. The same thing can be done for errors. However, if you suppress errors, the application might not work as expected.

Keybind Setup

To launch Sherlock, you can either type sherlock into the command line or bind it to a key. The latter is recommended. The setup steps vary by display manager. The setup for Hyprland is outlined here:

1. (Recommended) Bind the $menu variable to Sherlock:

$menu = sherlock

2. Bind a key to execute $menu

bind = $mainMod, space, exec, $menu