ueli

This is a keystroke launcher for Windows and macOS.

Table of contents

• Installation
• Quick tutorial
• Features
• Customization
• Privacy
• Roadmap
• Development
• Alternatives
• License

Installation

Installer / Zip

Note: because the executables are not signed Windows will probably prevent you from executing the installer or the program itself. You can click "Run anyway" to install/run the program.

• Download the latest version here
• Run the installer or unzip
• Run the application

Quick tutorial

• Press the global hot key to show/hide the window (default is alt+space)
• Start typing a program name
• Press Enter to launch the program

Features

Program search

• You can search for installed programs
• Use the arrow keys to scroll up and down
• Presss Enter to launch the selected program

Files and folder search

• You can search files and folders
• Press Enter to open the selected file/folder
• You can customize the folders which are scanned for files and folders

Open URLs with your default web browser

• Type in a URL
• Press enter to open the URL with your default web browser

Open default mail program

• Type in a email address
• Press enter to open your default mail program with an empty email to the specified email address

Web search engines

• You can use web search engines with a prefix and ?.
  • Example: g?{your search term}

Default web search engines:

Prefix	Web Search Engine
d	DuckDuckGo
g	Google
gi	Google Images
l	Linguee
w	Wikipedia
yt	YouTube

• You can customize web search engines like this:

"webSearches": [
    {
        "icon": "<svg>...</svg>",
        "name": "My Search Engine",
        "prefix": "m",
        "url": "https://my-search-engine.com/search?q="
    }
]

Execute commandline tools

• Start a commandline tool with the > prefix
  • Example: >ipconfig /all
• Stop an executing commandline tool with Ctrl+c

Note: you can not interact with the commandline tool. You only see the output.

Browse file system

• You can browse your file system by typing in a filepath
  • Example: C:\Users or /Applications
• Press Enter to open the file or folder
• Press Tab for autocompletion

Calculator

• Calculate simple math, matrix, symbolic function, convert unit and a lot more.
  • Example:
    • 23 * 24 / 2 + (6 * 7) ^ 2
    • 1 km/h to mile/h
    • a = [1, 2, 3]; a * 2

Custom commands

• You can customize custom commands to
  • Start command line tools
  • Open websites
  • Open files/folders
  • Launch programs

"customCommands": [
    {
        "name": "ping",
        "executionArgument": ">ping 8.8.8.8 -t",
        "icon": "<svg>...</svg>"
    },
    {
        "name": "Whatsapp",
        "executionArgument": "https://web.whatsapp.com",
        "icon": "<svg>...</svg"
    },
    {
        "name": "Data",
        "executionArgument": "C:\\Data"
    },
    {
        "name": "my-project",
        "executionArgument": "!code C:\\my-project"
    }
]

Environment Variables

This feature is deactivated by default. You have to activate this via customization.

• Search for environment variables
• Use Tab to autocomplete if it shows a valid file path

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcut	Description
Enter	Execute selected search result
Tab	Autocomplete file path
Ctrl+o	Open the selected program or file at it's location
ArrowUp	Scroll up
ArrowDown	Scroll down
Shift+ArrowUp	Browse user input history up
Shift+ArrowDown	Browse user input history down
F6, Ctrl+l	Set focus on user input
F1	Get help

Updater

To check if a new version is available right click on the tray icon. The first item in the context menu shows you if there is an update available or if you are running the latest version. If there is an update available click on "Download and install update".

Customization

All settings are stored in ~/ueli.config.json. You can modify this file to change the default values.

Options

• applicationFileExtensions Array of string - Represents the file extensions which are used to find applications in the specified folders
• applicationFolders Array of string - Represents the folders which are scanned for applications
• autoStartApp Boolean - If the app should be started automatically when you log in
• colorTheme String - Defines the color theme.
• customCommands Arraay of customCommand objects - A list of custom commands
  • executionArgument String - Represents the execution argument for the custom command
  • name String - Represents the displayed name for the custom command
  • icon String - (Optional) Represents the svg icon for the custom command. If no icon is set default icon is used
• fileSearchFolders Array of string - Represents the folders which are scanned for files and folders (not recursively)
• hotKey String - Represents the hotkey to show/hide the window. Available hot keys
• logExecution Boolean - If ueli should log the execution of applications, files and folders for better search results. Set to false if you want to disable logging.
• maxSearchResultCount Number - Maximum number of search results to be displayed
• rescanInterval Number - Interval in seconds to rescan the application folders
• searchEngineThreshold Number - Represents the threshold for fuzzy matching (min = 0, max = 1, lower means you have to be more precise with the user input)
• searchEnvironmentVariables Boolean - If environment variables should appear in the search results
• searchOperatingSystemSettings Boolean - If operting system settings and commands should appear in the search results
• searchResultExecutionArgumentFontSize Number - Represents the font size of the search result execution argument in pixels
• searchResultHeight Number - Represents the height of a search result box in pixels
• searchResultNameFontSize Number - Represents the font size of the search result name in pixels
• userInputFontSize Number - Represents the font size of the user input in pixels
• userInputHeight Number - Represents the height of the user input box in pixels
• webSearches Array of webSearch Objects - A list of web search engines
  • webSearch Object - Defines a web search engine
    • icon String - Represents the svg icon for the specific web search engine
    • name String - Represents the name of the web search engine
    • prefix String - Represents the prefix for your web search engine. For example if the prefix is g you can type in g?{your search term} to search
    • url String - Represents the url for the search engine to which the search term is appended to. For example https://google.com/search?q=
• windowWith: Number - Represents the width of the main window in pixels

Color themes

• atom-one-dark
• dark
• dark-mono
• light
• light-mono

Privacy

For better search results ueli is keeping track of the applications, files and folders you are accessing. All information is stored in ~/ueli.count.json. If you don't want ueli to track your executions simply delete that file's content and disable logging via the customization.

Roadmap

• Add nice GUI to modifiy configuration
• Notify user when update is available
• Use vue components

Development

Build status

Platform	Build status
Windows
macOS

Code coverage

Requirements

• Git
• Node.js
• Yarn

Setup

$ git clone https://github.com/oliverschwendener/ueli
$ cd ueli
$ yarn

Run

$ yarn build
$ yarn start

Note: there is also a watch task $ yarn build:watch which watches the stylesheets and typescript files and transpiles them automatically if there are any changes.

Debug

Note: for debugging you need Visual Studio Code

Choose one of these debug configurations:

Run tests

$ yarn test:unit
$ yarn test:integration

Code coverage

$ yarn test:unit --coverage

Package

$ yarn package

Alternatives

• Launchy
• Wox
• Alfred
• Hain
• Zazu App
• Cerebro

License

Copyright (c) Oliver Schwendener. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the MIT License.