Covey

A general-purpose desktop command palette / app launcher.

covey-demo.webm

Inspired by tools like rofi, Ulauncher, Albert and the likes.

Key Features

• Instant Feedback Low latency and highly concurrent interactions with plugins via gRPC.

• Full Flexibility Everything is a plugin. Pick your favourites to create your ideal launcher.

• Simple Plugin System Powered by protobuf for cross-language plugin support, with easy-to-use bindings for Rust (more in the future!).

• Customisable UI UI can be customised with web CSS.

• Modular Architecture With a simple backend to interact with plugins, you can easily write another frontend if you so wish to!

Configuration

Covey's settings are stored in the covey folder of your OS's config directory. This contains the main config.toml file that configures the entire application.

Plugins keep data stored in the covey/plugins folder of your OS's data directory. Each plugin is in a subfolder with a binary and manifest.toml. Plugins will usually store extra data in this folder.

Example folder structure with default Linux paths:

~/.config
└── covey
    └── config.toml

~/.local/share
└── covey
    └── plugins
        ├── app-switcher          # plugin id
        │   ├── activations.json  # extra data
        │   ├── manifest.toml     # manifest
        │   └── app-switcher      # binary with same name as id
        ├── qalc
        │   ├── manifest.toml
        │   └── qalc
        ...

Plugins

Find a collection of plugins at blorbb/covey-plugins. To create your own plugin, check out the covey-plugin documentation.

To install a plugin, place the plugin's binary and manifest.toml within the plugin data folder (<data dir>/covey/plugins/<plugin id>). See the above folder structure for an example.

Desktop Environment Support

Covey is built to be cross-platform. If you encounter any problems, please open an issue!

Wayland

Due to Wayland’s stricter window styling rules, you might need to adjust your compositor settings to ensure Covey displays correctly. The process will likely be similar to the steps outlined for KDE Plasma below. If you discover a solution for your desktop environment, contributions via issues or pull requests are welcome!

KDE Plasma 6

To ensure the window is correctly placed and focused:

• Go to Settings > Window Management > Window Rules
• Click Add New...
• Set description: "Covey"
• Set window class: "covey"
• Click Add Property... and add all of the following:
  • Keep above other windows: Apply initially
  • Focus stealing prevention: Force, None
  • Focus protection: Force, None
• Click Apply to save your changes.