Torchlight
A launcher for Linux I'm building. Hit a shortcut, type a few letters, and open an app, a
setting, a file or a folder, or jump to a window that's already open. Written in C with
GTK 4; works on X11 and Wayland.
- Typos are fine.
raedme finds README.md, prjnts finds projectNotes.md, and
work notes finds the notes folder inside Work.
- Fast and always current. A small daemon keeps the index in memory and follows file
changes as they happen. Typing stays under about 5 ms, even with 500,000 files
(evaluation).
- Open windows. Running apps list their windows beneath them and Enter switches to
one, on X11 and most Wayland desktops (which ones).
- Private. It learns what you open, but that history stays on your machine and can be
turned off. Only file names and paths are indexed, never what's inside the files.
Install
Ubuntu 24.04+, Linux Mint 22+ and other Ubuntu-based systems: download
torchlight_VERSION_amd64.deb from the
latest release and install
it:
sudo apt install ./torchlight_*_amd64.deb
It also adds Torchlight's APT repository, so new versions arrive with your other updates.
Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, Debian 13 and other distributions: download
torchlight-VERSION-linux-x86_64.tar.gz from the same page and run its installer. It sets
Torchlight up just for you, in ~/.local, without root:
tar xf torchlight-*-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
./torchlight-*-linux-x86_64/install.sh
To update, do the same with a newer release; install.sh --uninstall removes it. It needs
GTK 4.14 or newer, which distributions from 2024 on have.
Then bind torchlight-gtk --toggle (the installer prints its full path) to a keyboard
shortcut such as Super+Space; desktop setup says where on each
desktop. To build it yourself, see building.
On Omarchy 4, an optional integration
adds settings search, Omarchy theme colors and borderless popup rules. It is never
enabled automatically and refuses other distributions.
Use
| Key | Action |
|---|
| Type | Search apps, settings, files and folders |
| ↑ ↓ | Move the selection |
| Enter | Open it, or switch to the window |
| Ctrl+Enter | Show it in its folder |
| Ctrl+C | Copy its path |
| Esc | Close |
Torchlight indexes your home folder. To pick other folders, change how the daemon runs or
search from a terminal, see configuration.
More
- Building: from source, a headless build for servers, and development
- Configuration: folders, daemon options and the command line
- Desktop setup: shortcuts and open windows on each desktop
- Docs index: architecture, evaluation and design decisions
Contributing
Pull requests are welcome: fork the repository, make your change on a branch and open a
pull request against master. Read CLAUDE.md for the code rules, and run
make test and make lint first. I review and merge pull requests and publish the
releases.
License
MIT; see LICENSE. Bundled parts keep their own licenses, listed in
third_party/README.md, and release builds also contain SQLite
(public domain) and utf8proc (MIT).
