TsTart

A lightweight application launcher for Linux tiling window managers, built with Gio.

Features

• Reads .desktop files from standard Linux application directories
• Displays application icons (PNG) or a fallback letter with the app name below
• Search bar with name-first, description-second filtering
• Keyboard navigation (Arrows, HJKL, Tab, Enter, ESC)
• Mouse hover selection with description display
• Customizable colors, columns, and spacing via command-line flags
• Launches the selected application and closes

Installation

go install g.arns.lt/zordsdavini/tstart@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://g.arns.lt/zordsdavini/tstart.git
cd tstart
go build -o tstart .

Usage

tstart [flags]

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
-bg	#282c34	Background color (hex)
-fg	#abb2bf	Foreground/text color (hex)
-selected	#4b5263	Selection highlight color (hex)
-cols	4	Number of columns in the grid
-space	1.0	Spacing multiplier between items
-only		Comma-separated list of app names to show (exclusive)
-ignore		Comma-separated list of app names to hide
-list	false	Print collected app names to console and exit
-version	false	Print version and exit

Examples

# Default settings
tstart

# 6 columns with red selection and wider spacing
tstart -cols 6 -selected "#ff0000" -space 1.5

# Dark theme with high contrast
tstart -bg "#000000" -fg "#ffffff" -selected "#333333"

# List all available app names (useful for building only/ignore lists)
tstart -list

# Show only specific apps
tstart -only "Firefox,Thunar,Terminal"

# Hide specific apps
tstart -ignore "Avahi SSH Server Browser,Avahi VNC Server Browser"

Keyboard Shortcuts

The launcher has two states: Search and Navigation.

Search State (default on start)

Key	Action
Type	Filter applications by name/description
Enter	Launch the first matching application
↓ / Tab	Switch to Navigation state
ESC	Switch to Navigation state

Navigation State

Key	Action
↑ ↓ ← →	Move selection in the grid
H J K L	Vim-style navigation
Tab	Cycle to next application
Enter	Launch selected application
/	Switch to Search state
ESC	Close the launcher

Integration with Qtile

Main reason for this project was to create app launcher for Qtile. That's how it should be in Qtile:

BLACK = "#282c34"
BLUE = "#61afef"

@lazy.function
def spawn_tstart(qtile):
    screen = qtile.current_screen
    cols = screen.width // 100
    cmd = f"tstart -cols {cols} -space 5 -bg {BLACK} -selected {BLUE}"
    qtile.spawn(cmd)

keys.extend([
    EzKey("M-A-<Return>", spawn_tstart),
])

@hook.subscribe.client_new
def pin_tstart(client):
    if client.name == "TsTart":
        screen = client.qtile.current_screen
        client.static(
            screen=screen.index,
            x=0,
            y=0,
            width=screen.width,
            height=screen.height,
        )
        client.focus()

License

See LICENSE.

Support

₿: bc1qel3spnk8e2hsmkwn7fcm2drlyjms3ch8t2tek7

₥: 856UP5jqjHt2TjHo6HEvGEciGweLM5kM4ek6tNPUbk57QhJixqntdL5Wt6djPHm3V7D5Zr8FPc8i9ixWfWuSFb1D6u5GuTv