Walker is a highly extendable application launcher that doesn't hold back on features and usability. Fast. Unclutters your brain. Improves your workflow.

• plugin support: simple stdin/stdout (external or via configuration, see wiki)
• icons/images
• start as service for faster startup (see benchmarks below)
• run entries via labels (F<1-8> or jkl;asdf)
• non-blocking async handling of results
• typeahead
• start with explicit modules, style or config
• arrow-up history
• drag&drop support
• dmenu-mode
• run as password input
• theming support (global, per module, with inheritance)

• runner
  • parses your shell config for aliases
  • exlusive list or all binaries
  • ignore-list
  • generic runner
  • semi-smart: shu now => shutdown now
• windows
  • simple window switcher
• desktop applications
  • history-aware
  • desktop actions (f.e. Open a new private window [Firefox])
  • puts newly installed applications on top
  • context-aware (context = open windows)
• websearch ()
  • simple websearch
  • google, duckduckgo, ecosia, yandex
  • can open websites directly
• clipboard
  • simple clipboard history
  • with images
• module switcher
  • lets you switch to specific modules
• commands (for Walker, f.e. clear cache)
• ssh
  • parses your known_hosts and config files
• finder
  • simple fuzzy finder
  • drag&drop support
• emojis
• custom commands (for running simple commands)
  • lets you define and run simple one-off commands
  • f.e. toggle window floating
  • no need to create keybinds for commands you don't run often

• catppuccin
• kanagawa
• bare

• gtk4-layer-shell

arch:
yay -S walker-bin

// or to build from source
yay -S walker

Building can take quite a while, be patient

Make sure you have the following dependencies installed:

• go
• gtk4
• gtk4-layer-shell
• gobject-introspection

git clone https://github.com/abenz1267/walker /tmp/walker
cd /tmp/walker
go build -x // the '-x' is for debug output
sudo cp walker /usr/bin/

Without these you won't be able to build.

programs.walker = {
  enable = true;
  runAsService = true;

  # All options from the config.json can be used here.
  config = {
    search.placeholder = "Example";
    ui.fullscreen = true;
    list = {
      height = 200;
    };
    websearch.prefix = "?";
    switcher.prefix = "/";
  };

  # If this is not set the default styling is used.
  style = ''
    * {
      color: #dcd7ba;
    }
  '';
};

nix.settings = {
  substituters = ["https://walker.cachix.org"];
  trusted-public-keys = ["walker.cachix.org-1:fG8q+uAaMqhsMxWjwvk0IMb4mFPFLqHjuvfwQxE4oJM="];
};

This depends on your system. You simply need to autostart Walker with walker --gapplication-service and it will run in the background. Then just run walker to bring it up.

Example for Hyprland:

exec-once=walker --gapplication-service

Check the wiki

You can start walker with explicit modules by using the --modules flag. F.e:

walker --modules applications,ssh

Will tell Walker to only use the applications and ssh module.

If you have typeahead enabled, make sure that your #search has no background, so the typeahead is readable.

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

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

See the wiki for more information.

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

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

AM = Activation Mode

Activation-Mode can be triggered by holding LCtrl ( or LAlt). 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.

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

Measured time is until telling GTK to show the window.

Make sure to clean the applications cache by either running the "Clear Applications Cache" command from within Walker (using the commands module) or by deleting the applications.json file in $HOME/.cache/walker/.

Additionally you can diasble the cache completely by setting

  "applications": {
    "cache": false
  },

in your config.