terminal_launcher

Crate and binary are named terminal-switcher; the repo is terminal_launcher. Same project.

A fast, keyboard-driven launcher for terminal sessions. Hit a global hotkey, fuzzy-search a list of saved directories and SSH hosts, press Enter, and a new WezTerm window opens at that location.

Built in Rust with iced. Lives in the system tray. Config is a single TOML file.

Why

If you regularly hop between a handful of project directories and remote hosts, opening a terminal and cd-ing (or running ssh user@...) every time gets old. This is a small dedicated launcher just for that — closer to Spotlight or Alfred than to a full terminal multiplexer.

Features

• Global hotkey to show/hide (default Alt+Space)
• Fuzzy search over saved entries
• Two entry types: local directory (opens WezTerm with --cwd) and SSH host (runs ssh user@host [-p port] inside WezTerm)
• Built-in editor (Ctrl+E) to add, edit, and delete entries — no need to hand-edit the TOML
• System tray icon with Config / Restart / Exit menu
• Customizable color theme via the config file
• Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Requirements

• WezTerm — wezterm-gui must be on your PATH
• On Linux: a working desktop environment with system tray support (most do)

For building from source, you'll also need Rust (stable, 2021 edition).

Install

Prebuilt binaries

Grab the latest archive for your platform from the Releases page. Unzip it, drop the binary somewhere on your PATH, and run it.

From source

git clone https://github.com/AbstractNucleus/terminal_launcher.git
cd terminal_launcher
cargo build --release

The binary lands at target/release/terminal-switcher (.exe on Windows).

Run on startup

• Windows: put a shortcut to the binary in shell:startup (Win+R, then shell:startup).
• macOS: add it under System Settings → General → Login Items.
• Linux: create a .desktop file in ~/.config/autostart/.

Usage

1. Launch terminal-switcher. On first run it creates a default config and opens the editor.
2. Add your directories and SSH hosts in the editor, or close it and use it from the tray.
3. Press Alt+Space anywhere. Type a few characters, use arrow keys to pick, press Enter to launch.

Keybindings

Key	Action
Alt+Space	Show/hide the launcher (configurable)
↑ / ↓	Move selection
Enter	Launch selected entry
Escape	Hide the launcher
Ctrl+E	Toggle the entry editor

Config file

Located at the platform's standard config directory:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\terminal-switcher\config.toml
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/terminal-switcher/config.toml
• Linux: ~/.config/terminal-switcher/config.toml

You can open it directly from the tray icon's Config menu item.

[settings]
# Default palette is the Claude design language (warm coal + terracotta).
background  = "#1F1E1C"
foreground  = "#FAF9F5"
highlight   = "#D97757"
surface     = "#262624"
muted       = "#9C9A92"
accent      = "#E08B6F"
border      = "#30302E"
danger      = "#EE8884"
font_size   = 14

[settings.hotkey]
modifier = "Alt"      # Alt | Ctrl | Shift | Super
key      = "Space"    # Space, Enter, Tab, or a-z

[[entry]]
type = "directory"
name = "My Project"
path = "~/projects/myapp"

[[entry]]
type = "ssh"
name = "Prod Box"
host = "user@prod.example.com"
port = 22              # optional

After editing the file directly, restart the app from the tray menu (or hotkey changes won't apply).

Roadmap / non-goals

This is intentionally minimal. It's a launcher, not a terminal, not a session manager, not a replacement for tmux. WezTerm is currently hard-coded as the terminal — making that configurable is on the table if there's interest.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.