walker

README

Walker - Application Runner

(default style)

Features

• Icons
• notifications on failure configurable
• extend with... anything?
• start as service for faster startup (see benchmarks below)
• activation-mode: run entries via labels
• display images
• non-blocking async handling of results
• when service: clipboard with fuzzy find and images (currently "wl-clipboard" only)

Builtin Modules

• runner
• desktop applications
• websearch
• hyprland windows

Requirements

• gtk4-layer-shell

Installation

If you have problems installing gtk4-layer-shell, try switching your GTK4 theme to a default one. You can switch back after installing.

Building can take quite a while, be patient

arch:
yay -S walker

Config & Style

Default config will be put into $HOME/.config/walker/.

See config/config.default.json and ui/style.default.css.

Providing your own modules

If you want to extend walker with your own modules, you can do that in the config.

{
  "external": [
    {
      "prefix": "!",
      "name": "mymodule",
      "src": "node /path/to/myscript.js"
    }
  ]
}

Your plugin simply needs to return json with the following format:

type Entry struct {
	Label             string       `json:"label,omitempty"`
	Sub               string       `json:"sub,omitempty"`
	Exec              string       `json:"exec,omitempty"`
	Terminal          bool         `json:"terminal,omitempty"`
	Icon              string       `json:"icon,omitempty"`
	IconIsImage       bool         `json:"icon_is_image,omitempty"`
	HideText          bool         `json:"hide_text,omitempty"`
	Categories        []string     `json:"categories,omitempty"`
	Notifyable        bool         `json:"notifyable,omitempty"`
	Class             string       `json:"class,omitempty"`
	History           bool         `json:"history,omitempty"`
	HistoryIdentifier string       `json:"history_identifier,omitempty"`
	Matching          MatchingType `json:"matching,omitempty"`
	ScoreFinal        float64      `json:"score_final,omitempty"`
	MinScoreToInclude float64      `json:"min_score_to_include,omitempty"`
	ScoreFuzzy        int          `json:"score_fuzzy,omitempty"`
}

F.e.:

[
  {
    "label": "First Item",
    "exec": "remindme in 1s test",
    "searchable": "first item",
    "notifyable": true
  }
]

You can also do:

{
  "name": "filesystem",
  "prefix": "/",
  "src": "fd --base-directory /home/andrej/ %TERM%",
  "cmd": "xdg-open file://%RESULT%",
  "transform": true
}

Dynamic Styling

The window and items will have a class based on the source. Selecting an item will change the windows class to the current selections source. Using a prefix will apply that sources classes to the window.

F.e. search = !somecommand => #window.runner

Starting as service

Start with walker --gapplication-service to start in service-mode. Calling walker normally afterwards should be rather fast.

Keybinds

AM = Activation Mode

Key	Description
Enter	activate selection
Ctrl+Enter	activate selection without closing
Ctrl+j (if ActivationMode is disabled), Down, Tab	next entry
Ctrl+k (if ActivationMode is disabled), Up, LEFT_TAB (shift+tab?)	previous entry
Escape	close
Ctrl	start AM
in AM: <label>	activate item
in AM: Hold Ctrl+<label>	activate item (don't close)
in AM: Escape	stop AM

Activation Mode

Activation-Mode can be triggered by holding LCtrl. The window will get an additional class activation you can use for styling. While activated, you can run items by pressing their respective label. This only works for the top 8 items.

Startup "Benchmarks"

System: Arch Linux, Hyprland, Amd 7950x, 32gb DDR5-6000, SSD

Measured time is until the focus is in the search-bar and you can type.

Mode	Startup time
normal	37ms
with service	< 500µs / (2.3ms when input needs to be cleared)

Watchout for...

• Desktop entries will be parsed and cached in .cache/walker... currently no mechanism to refresh cache, so delete manually if needed