A lightweight, fast desktop application launcher for Linux

Overview

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Blink is a minimal launcher for Linux: press Ctrl+Space, type part of an app name, and launch from the list. It stays out of the way—borderless, transparent, no taskbar entry until you need it—while indexing Freedesktop .desktop entries from system paths, Flatpak, Snap, and ~/.local/share/applications. Matching prefers names that start with your query, then contains; launches go through gio launch so behavior matches your desktop environment. It also supports searching Google with g <query>.

Built with Tauri 2 and Angular.

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Highlights

• Global shortcut — show or focus the overlay with Ctrl+Space (configurable in code).
• Fast search — debounced query against a prebuilt index of installed applications.
• Packaged for Debian — .deb with icons under hicolor and a .desktop entry for your app menu.
• Google search — search Google with g <query>.

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Preview

blink_preview_new.mp4

Screenshots

Requirements (development on Linux)

Tool	Notes
Node.js	Current LTS (e.g. 20+) for the Angular toolchain.
Rust	Stable toolchain via rustup.
System libraries	WebKitGTK and related packages for Tauri — see Tauri v2 Linux prerequisites.

Runtime for launching apps: gio (usually libglib2.0-bin on Debian/Ubuntu); the packaged .deb declares this dependency.

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Quick start (development)

From the repository root:

npm install
npm run tauri dev

This runs the Angular dev server on port 1420 and opens the Tauri shell. Use Ctrl+Space to show the launcher (registering the global shortcut may require a graphical session with appropriate permissions).

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Installation

• Download the .deb file from here. You can also check other releases in the release section.

• Install it with your package manager, for example:

sudo apt install ./blink_0.3.0_amd64.deb

Adjust the filename to match with your downloaded file.

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Using Blink

Action	What it does
Ctrl+Space	Show and focus the launcher.
Type	Filter installed applications by name (case-insensitive).
Enter	Launch the first suggestion.
Click a row	Launch that application.
Escape	Hide the launcher and clear the query.

If Ctrl+Space is already bound elsewhere (another launcher, your IDE, or the window manager), change the shortcut in your settings.

• Go to Keyboard/Shortcuts.
• Add custom shortcut.
• In command/path add -> /usr/bin/blink and type the keybinding which you want to set.

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Project layout

Path	Role
src/	Angular frontend: search UI and Tauri invoke calls.
src-tauri/	Rust backend: desktop entry index, search, gio launch, window show/hide, global shortcut.