A launcher for applications, scripts and .AppImage files.
Built with rust for the i3 window manager.

Features • Installation • Controls • Built With • License

---

✨ Features

• ⚡ Launch .desktop, .sh, .AppImage and binary files in a singular interface.
• 📦 Organize apps into configurable "groups" for dumber and faster searching across hundreds of items.
• 🎨 Simple (but effective) options for customization such as the font, colors, icons, proportions and more.
• ⌨️ Intuitive controls and a minimal interface - zero visual distractions.
• 🧠 Configurable with a toml file, ensuring your settings are easily portable across different machines.
• 🖊 A default configuration file is created automatically if none is present at launch.

Important

Kast was created exclusively for my own use, on a computer running Void Linux with the i3 window manager. I can't guarantee that this program will run on your computer - for the best results, clone this repo and compile your own binary. If you're feeling lucky, follow the installation instructions below!

---

💻 Installation

0. (Optional) Install a nerdfont
The icon you set for each program is gonna be a devicon, and so you should download a nerdfont with devicon support. A fallback nerdfont is bundled in the binary though, and so you don't have to supply your own if you don't want to. (Kast also supports emojis) Install this font if you like

1a. Ensure ~/.local/bin/ exists and is in your shell path

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" # add this line to your shell config

1b. Source your shell after the previous step

source ~/.bashrc   # or: source ~/.zshrc

2. Download and install the latest release of Kast, and give it permissions

curl -L -o ~/.local/bin/kast $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/simon-danielsson/kast-launcher/releases/latest \
| grep "browser_download_url.*kast\"" \
| cut -d '"' -f 4)
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/kast

3. If using i3, add this line to your i3 config to make sure the launcher won't be launched as a tiled window

for_window [title="kast"] floating enable

4. Launch Kast for the first time to create a config file: ~/.config/kast/kast.toml

kast

5. Bind Kast to a key in your linux config

bindsym $mod+space exec kast # i3 config

6. Done!

---

🚀 Controls

[Esc]:
Quit the program

[Space/Enter]:
Launch application

[Up/Down]:
Navigate results

---

🛠️ Built With

• egui
• eframe
• winit
• serde
• toml
• home

---

📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.