[HN Gopher] Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux
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Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux
Hey HN! I'm a huge fan of Raycast, but as a Linux user, I was
always disappointed it wasn't available on my main OS. This summer,
I decided to just build it myself. This project has the goal of
being interoperable with Raycast itself, including a majority of
the extensions. It's built with Tauri and Rust on the backend,
with a Svelte frontend. The biggest challenge was getting it to run
existing Raycast extensions, which required building a custom React
renderer as well as making a custom API. I also wrote a quick
post, which I hope to expand on in the future, about this project.
You can find it here: https://byteatatime.dev/posts/recreating-
raycast The project is still very rough, but I'm sharing it now to
get any feedback you may have!
Author : ByteAtATime
Score : 119 points
Date : 2025-07-13 16:57 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| imcritic wrote:
| I don't really see any value in such combines.
|
| You want some calculation? Run calc and do the calculation, do
| you save so much time by replacing the "run calc" step with "open
| launcher" that it's worth adding more software to your setup?
| monooso wrote:
| Plenty of people appear to disagree.
| herrherrmann wrote:
| Have you ever tried a launcher as powerful as Raycast? I can
| only recommend it. I use it for quick calculations, currency
| conversions, file lookups, translations, looking up http status
| codes, joining meetings, finding emojis, quickly checking my
| calendar, etc. etc. - so, perhaps a singular function might not
| warrant a launcher, but the sum of functions and keyboard-
| centric UI make it very valuable for me in my daily workflows.
| kstrauser wrote:
| On a Mac, opening the launcher means pressing cmd-space at any
| time, getting a popup text entry field, typing "1+2", seeing
| the answer, and hitting esc to dismiss it. That's the entire
| workflow for operating a calculator, launching an app,
| searching Google, locating a file, or whatever. I challenge you
| to do that operation with a separate app more (or even as)
| efficiently.
|
| There are good tools for doing each of those things separately.
| A good launcher that allows you to do _any_ of them with such
| trivial overhead is a huge time saver.
| MisterSandman wrote:
| Do you remember the command line command to convert 5:30 IST to
| PDT? Or convert $70 USD to SGD? Or what 17.3 years in seconds
| is? Or how many days are between 2024-12-30 and 2025-06-17?
|
| Raycast can all of do that automatically, and the only shortcut
| you need to know is Cmd-Space.
| sublinear wrote:
| I just type the same into the browser. Only shortcut is alt-
| tab or a touchscreen swipe, and it works on any device
| without installing anything.
|
| I don't get it either.
| znort_ wrote:
| "write programs that do one thing and do it well. write
| programs to work together."
|
| it's sad to see this core principle being increasingly ignored
| in linux, but i guess that ship sailed a while ago.
| jraph wrote:
| A runner that runs "programs" coming from extensions is about
| as close to this principle as possible, no?
| regularjack wrote:
| I'm not one to care for age usually, but I think it's worth
| mentioning that OP is 15 years old. Well done, great work, please
| keep building and writing.
| ksynwa wrote:
| From wikipedia
|
| > Raycast is an application launcher and productivity software
| developed for macOS and by Raycast Technologies Ltd. It offers
| fast access to applications, dictionaries, files, text snippets,
| clipboard, and more.[2] Raycast is an alternative to the macOS's
| built-in Spotlight function, with a richer interface and the
| option to install extensions, providing additional ways to
| display varied content.[3]
| mynegation wrote:
| Raycast will either hire you or send you a cease-and-desist
| order. Either way, I would change the name now.
| ByteAtATime wrote:
| Fair point! I've actually thought about that before; I've tried
| to be extremely clear in the project's README with a disclaimer
| that this is a non-commercial hobby project and is not
| affiliated with the official Raycast team in any way.
|
| The name is just for identification, as the project's goal is
| to be a compatible, open-source alternative for the Linux
| community, a platform they don't currently serve.
|
| That being said, I'll definitely keep it in mind. Thanks for
| bringing it up!
| sangeeth96 wrote:
| That shouldn't matter. They might even have a Linux version
| in the works, given they are doing Windows now. They are
| within their rights to ask you to get rid of it. You also
| seem to be using their brand assets like the logo. I get your
| intention and love what you were able to accomplish but if
| you intend for this to grow, you are better off doing this
| now.
| ByteAtATime wrote:
| That makes sense -- I'll go figure something out, thanks
| for the explanation!
| bigyabai wrote:
| > They are within their rights to ask you to get rid of it.
|
| Only the logo and name. The functionality side should be
| perfectly fine, there are oodles of precedent for reversing
| a workable program from someone's commercial API: https://e
| n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_....
| sangeeth96 wrote:
| But prolly can still go after if you resemble it closely
| enough in terms of looks? I get the API point though,
| thanks.
| rafram wrote:
| "Just for identification" is the point -- the name Raycast
| identifies _their_ product, and it's their trademark. You
| can't use it without permission, even with a disclaimer in
| the readme.
| sangeeth96 wrote:
| As well as the logo used, name references from all other places
| and even tweaking the looks a bit.
| jraph wrote:
| Another runner which can be extended and runs on Linux is
| KRunner, the one that comes with KDE. Should this inspire you.
| kombine wrote:
| KRunner is great, has a lot of features including currency and
| unit conversion. I use it almost exclusively now.
| johng wrote:
| Amazing work! I love Raycast as well!
| flipcoder wrote:
| Nice work but change name asap, pivot to something original
| runjake wrote:
| Looks great! Change the name. The Raycast people are going to
| (initially) ask you to anyway.
|
| Raycast also runs on Windows now, albeit in beta.
|
| Other Linux launchers with extensibility:
|
| KRunner: https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Krunner
|
| Albert: https://albertlauncher.github.io/
| WD-42 wrote:
| There is also rofi, wofi, fuzzl, dmenu, and even gnome search
| providers. No shortage of launchers on Linux, all with varying
| capabilities.
| a022311 wrote:
| Awesome work! I've been dreaming of this project myself with a
| very similar stack (basically React instead of Svelte), but I'm
| very excited to finally have a Raycast alternative for Linux that
| has both consistent UI and extension compatibility.
|
| The most impressive part is probably your age, because this isn't
| an easy project even for senior devs!
|
| I haven't tried it yet, but I can't wait to find some time for
| that.
|
| I've researched applications like this for Linux quite
| extensively and I think you might find the following tips of
| interest: - For the slow extension startup issue you mentioned,
| consider Deno as a runtime as it has a better sandbox and is
| faster than Node overall. There may be some compatibility issues,
| but if I remember correctly most stuff is handled by the special
| Raycast extension libraries which you implement manually anyway.
| - I'd consider Numbat [0] for replacing the calculator
| implementation you have now. As far as I can tell, it should have
| feature parity with SoulverCore and it's also written in Rust, so
| interfacing with it should be much easier and won't require the
| FFI work you're doing now. - Project Gauntlet [1] is another
| project which has gotten quite close to implementing a full-
| featured Raycast alternative and might be worth taking
| inspiration from. It would certainly be very cool if you can make
| the UI rendering native at some point (although I guess Rust
| isn't perfect for native UI at the moment [2])
|
| Keep up the good work!
|
| [0]: https://github.com/sharkdp/numbat
|
| [1]: https://github.com/project-gauntlet/gauntlet
|
| [2]: https://areweguiyet.com/
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(page generated 2025-07-13 23:00 UTC)