Lunchpad

Lunchpad brings the classic full-screen macOS app launcher back to macOS 26 Tahoe.

It is built with AppKit and follows the familiar Launchpad experience: open it with a four-finger pinch, browse apps page by page, search by name, open logical folders, and launch an app with one click. The name is intentional: Lunchpad is to Launchpad what reqwest is to request.

Highlights

• Native full-screen AppKit interface
• Four-finger pinch activation and spread-to-dismiss
• Paged app grid with two-finger horizontal swiping
• Search using localized application names and nonlocalized bundle names
• Logical folders, including the default Other folder
• Automatic updates when apps are installed, removed, or replaced
• Layout that adapts to the Dock on any screen edge
• Menu bar icon and configurable global hot key
• Native settings in English and Simplified Chinese
• No cloud service, account, or network connection required

Requirements

• macOS 26.0 or later
• Apple Silicon
• Swift 6 and the Xcode command-line tools when building from source

The four-finger gesture has currently been verified with a built-in Force Touch trackpad.

Build and install

Download the latest DMG from GitHub Releases, open it, and drag Lunchpad to the Applications folder.

Build a release app bundle from source with:

cd /absolute/path/to/lunchpad
./Scripts/package-app.sh

The script creates:

dist/Lunchpad.app
dist/Lunchpad-0.1.0-macos-arm64.dmg
dist/Lunchpad-0.1.0-macos-arm64.zip
dist/SHA256SUMS.txt

Verify the complete package with:

VERSION=0.1.0 ./Scripts/verify-package.sh

Lunchpad uses an ad-hoc signature because the project does not require an Apple Developer account. A copy downloaded from the internet may need to be approved once in System Settings → Privacy & Security before it can open.

Using Lunchpad

Lunchpad starts quietly in the menu bar and does not open the full-screen interface at launch.

• Pinch inward with four fingers to show Lunchpad.
• Spread outward with four fingers (the reverse of the opening pinch) to close Lunchpad while it is visible. The gesture is recognized only while Lunchpad is on screen.
• When macOS is showing the desktop, an inward pinch restores the displaced windows without opening Lunchpad, regardless of how Show Desktop was entered.
• Alternatively, press Control-Shift-Space or left-click the menu bar icon.
• Swipe horizontally with two fingers, use the arrow keys, or click a page dot to change pages.
• Type in the search field to find an app.
• Click an app to close Lunchpad immediately and launch it.
• Click a folder to browse its contents.
• Press Escape or click empty space to leave a folder or close Lunchpad.
• Right-click the menu bar icon for Show, Settings, and Quit actions.

If macOS performs another action for the same four-finger gesture, disable Four-Finger Pinch in Lunchpad Settings or change the system gesture in System Settings.

Settings

Open Settings from the menu bar icon or press Command-Comma while Lunchpad is active. Changes apply immediately and are stored locally.

• Language changes Lunchpad's own interface between Follow System, English, and Simplified Chinese. It does not change application names, which continue to follow macOS bundle localization.
• Application Order sorts apps by name, by the app bundle's filesystem creation time, or by its modification time. Both time modes are newest-first; creation time is not guaranteed to be the installation or release date. Folder positions and stored logical layout positions are preserved when the mode changes.
• Keyboard Shortcut records a modified key or function key. Use Clear to disable the global hot key. Lunchpad keeps the previous shortcut when Carbon reports a registration conflict. macOS does not provide a complete public registry of every application-level or system shortcut, so a successfully registered combination can still overlap behavior handled above Carbon.
• Launch at Login uses the macOS login-item service and is available in the packaged app.
• Four-Finger Pinch can stop or restart the existing trackpad monitor without restarting Lunchpad.

The default shortcut is Control-Shift-Space. For development and hardware testing, LUNCHPAD_HOTKEY can override the stored setting for one process:

LUNCHPAD_HOTKEY=control-option-l .build/debug/Lunchpad
LUNCHPAD_HOTKEY=disabled .build/debug/Lunchpad

Recognized override values are control-shift-space, control-option-l, and disabled. While an override is active, Settings displays it as externally managed and disables shortcut editing.

Local data

Lunchpad stores page order and logical folder assignments locally at:

~/Library/Application Support/com.arichyx.Lunchpad/layout.sqlite3

Logical folders do not move or modify real .app bundles. Removing a logical folder only returns its apps to the root level.

Development

Lunchpad is a Swift Package Manager project and does not require an Xcode project.

swift build --package-path /absolute/path/to/lunchpad
swift test --package-path /absolute/path/to/lunchpad
/absolute/path/to/lunchpad/.build/debug/Lunchpad

The trackpad connection and report format are documented in Docs/IOKitMultitouch.md. The app bundle is assembled by Scripts/package-app.sh.

Release tags, branches, and GitHub Release automation are documented in Docs/RELEASING.md.

Known limitations

• External Magic Trackpads may use report formats that are not handled yet.
• Keyboard navigation and drag-to-create folder editing are not implemented yet.
• Ad-hoc builds cannot be notarized and may require manual approval after download.
• Confirm that Assets/AppIcon.png is licensed for redistribution before publishing binaries.

License

Lunchpad is available under the MIT License.