Launcher

Press Super+d, type a few letters, press Enter, and the app opens. Without this slot a fresh desktop’s launcher key does nothing; with the profile on, two binds open one menu:

configuration.nix and home.nix

programs.scoot.desktop = {
  enable = true;
  # The menu on Super+d lists XDG apps, most-launched first;
  # Ctrl+Alt+Space lists PATH executables on their own panel:
  # launcher.enable = false;  # no menu at all on this box
};

What runs: Super+d spawns scoot-launcher (drun: every XDG app in the user’s ~/.local/share/applications plus the system’s XDG_DATA_DIRS, most-launched first), Ctrl+Alt+Space spawns the same script with --list-executables-in-path (run: PATH executables on their own panel). The menu draws on the overlay layer with exclusive keyboard, above fullscreen windows, taking every key while open. There is no daemon, no unit, no config file: the launcher holds nothing when closed (no process, no memory). The ranking lives in scootlaunch’s own history ($XDG_STATE_HOME/scootlaunch/history). A second press while it is open dismisses it, so one bind toggles.

The menu follows the look: background and text, selection and border from its palette, through the look layer at every open. A value you set in your own launch.toml (font, width, rows) wins per key, and theme.targets.launcher.enable = false leaves the whole look out while the rest follows it. In music-desk paper and ink:

And in moonrise (same menu, same flags, that look’s roles):

Measured against fuzzel 1.14.1 on the M2 (dev/benchmarks/launcher-ab-2026-10.md, N=30 per cell, release binaries, same session): tied inside the method floor up to 1000 entries, clearly faster at 5000 (101–102 vs 184 ms median launch-to-first-frame), query update flat while fuzzel climbs from 26 to 53 ms at 5000 (scootlaunch’s values sit below the measurement floor, so only the ranking is reliable), about half the memory (8.7 vs 18.0 MB PSS at 5000), and zero idle cost and zero resident cost on both sides. Ranking agrees on the winner for all 10 probes.

The dmenu contract is the other half of the slot: lines on stdin, the selection on stdout, with --no-run-if-empty staying quiet on an empty history and --only-match refusing custom entries (the pickers’ flags). printf 'alpha\nbeta\ngamma\n' | scootlaunch --dmenu, with the filter and Return driven through scoot’s own IPC, prints beta and exits 0. The clipboard picker, the WiFi/Bluetooth pickers and the screencast chooser run the same --dmenu switch, and the bar’s WiFi / power / audio pickers swap daemons without changing a call site. Two script-visible differences from fuzzel’s dmenu are handled inside the slot’s scripts (a cancel exits 0 from every picker either way):

• Dismissing the menu exits 1. Fuzzel’s dmenu exits 2 there (its app mode exits 0). A script that keys on fuzzel’s 2 breaks under the default, so treat any nonzero exit as a dismiss.
• The run bind lists PATH executables on their own panel. Fuzzel’s --list-executables-in-path adds them beside the apps. The flag spelling is the same behind both binds; what it lists is not.

scootlaunch forks the picked entry (a Terminal=true entry through your terminal) and exits, and the window maps and takes focus through the usual activation path. Over the session lock the binds never fire (plain strings: never repeat, never allow_when_locked), and a manual run behind the lock only lists app names, never clipboard or notification content.

Every value is an option, applied on rebuild/switch (the binds re-render into [binds]; no re-login, scoot msg reload is enough):

Option	Type	Default	Meaning
desktop.launcher.enable	bool	true with the profile	the package on PATH and both binds bound (drun on Super+d, run on Ctrl+Alt+Space)
desktop.launcher.daemon	enum ("scootlaunch", "fuzzel")	"scootlaunch"	the program behind enable (fuzzel is one line back: its color flags, its frecency cache, its additive run list; see Migrating from fuzzel)
desktop.launcher.package	package or null	scootlaunch (Linux-only: null off Linux)	point at your own scootlaunch build; null with the switch on fails evaluation naming it
desktop.theme.targets.launcher.enable	bool	true	theme the menu from the look (background and text, selection and border); false leaves the menu’s own style standing
desktop.keys.binds.launcher.enable / .launcherRun.enable	bool	true	bind the drun / run menu (false leaves that combo unbound)

Migrating from fuzzel

One line restores the previous menu:

configuration.nix and home.nix

programs.scoot.desktop.launcher.daemon = "fuzzel";

What changes back with it: the menu reads fuzzel.ini again (font, lines, borders; scootlaunch never reads that file and takes font, width_em, rows from programs.scootlaunch.settings instead), the look’s seven colors travel as CLI flags again, frecency comes from $XDG_CACHE_HOME/fuzzel instead of $XDG_STATE_HOME/scootlaunch/history, a dismiss exits 2 from dmenu instead of 1, and the run bind lists apps beside PATH executables instead of executables alone. The binds, the wrapper name (scoot-launcher) and every picker stay as they are.

Troubleshooting, by symptom:

• Super+d (or Ctrl+Alt+Space) opens nothing. The slot renders those binds only with launcher.enable beside the keymap (both on with the profile); either off leaves the combo unbound. Then check the binary: scoot-launcher from a terminal. Outside the session it still lists apps, so a failure there names the cause (no compositor to map on, or a bad launch.toml; scootlaunch --check says which).
• The menu lists no apps. scootlaunch found no .desktop files: it searches the applications subdirectory of XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_DATA_DIRS. Inside the session both are set (try echo $XDG_DATA_DIRS in a terminal); over ssh they may be empty.
• The wrong app keeps winning. The most-launched app sorts first. Reset it by deleting the history (rm ~/.local/state/scootlaunch/history with the menu closed).
• My launch.toml font is ignored. The file is read whole at every open, and a bad file is refused loudly (scootlaunch --check names the key). With no file the look’s resolved font file (font-file in the fragment scoot look apply writes) is used, else its family is looked for in the usual font directories, then the first well-known font file wins; run scoot look apply again, install DejaVu or set font to a file you have.
• Two menus stack. They cannot from these binds: the second press dismisses the open panel. A second menu means a second launcher (another menu tool running beside this one): turn this one off (launcher.enable = false) or uninstall the other.