Launcher

The Noctalia launcher is a centralized search interface that provides quick access to your applications, system actions, and utility providers.

How search works

As you type, Noctalia queries all active Launcher Providers. Providers can either be “global” (always searching) or “prefixed” (triggered by a specific keyword).

Global providers (like Applications and Calculator) results are merged and sorted by a relevance score.
Prefixed providers (like Emoji and Wallpaper) take over the search results when their prefix is detected at the start of your query.

Usage-based boosting

The launcher tracks how often you activate specific results (applications and wallpapers). Frequently used items receive a score boost, surfacing them at the top of the results list even with partial queries.

Providers

Applications

The primary provider for finding and launching your installed apps.

Source: Reads .desktop entries from standard XDG directories (e.g., /usr/share/applications, ~/.local/share/applications).
Search: Matches against the application name, generic name, keywords, and categories.
Scoring: Uses fuzzy matching with weights. Activation count boosts the score.

Calculator

A built-in expression evaluator powered by tinyexpr.

Prefix: None (Global).
Trigger: Automatically activates when the query looks like a mathematical expression (contains digits and operators like +, -, *, /, ^, %).
Functionality: Supports standard arithmetic and functions like sin, cos, sqrt, pi, e. Pressing Enter copies the result to your clipboard.

Emoji

A quick way to find and copy emojis.

Prefix: /emo
Functionality: Searches emoji.json by name, category, and keywords. Activating a result copies the emoji character directly to your clipboard.

Example: /emo heart

Wallpaper

Quickly browse and apply wallpapers from your configured directories.

Prefix: /wall
Source: Searches the directories defined in your [wallpaper] config.
Functionality: Filters by filename and parent directory name. Activating a result immediately applies the wallpaper to all monitors and updates your theme if using wallpaper as the theme source.
Scoring: Activation count boosts the score.

Configuration

The launcher itself is mostly automatic, but its behavior is influenced by other sections of your config:

Keybinds: Customize navigation (up, down) and activation (validate, cancel).
Shell: ui_scale and font_family affect the launcher’s appearance.
Wallpaper: Defines the search paths for the Wallpaper provider.