A launcher for the Mac
Everything on your Mac, one keystroke away.
Press ⌃Space from whatever you are doing. Type a few letters. Enter opens the app and the window gets out of the way.
Version 0.1.0 · what's new
How it works
Three keys, and nothing to learn.
⌃Space
Opens the window over whatever is in front, centred and ready for the first letter. Press it again to send it away.
Type
The list narrows as you go. Initials work — gc finds Google Chrome — and so does the middle of a name.
Enter
Opens the highlighted app and hides the window. ↑ and ↓ move the selection, Esc dismisses, and clicking elsewhere does too.
Speed
It opens in 46 milliseconds.
That is the median from the moment the shortcut fires to the moment the field can take a keystroke — measured, not felt. The first press after you log in takes 91 ms, because the window has never painted yet.
A launcher that makes you wait is a launcher you stop reaching for. The window is built once at startup and kept alive out of sight, so the shortcut only ever has to show it.
first press after login: 91 ms
A launcher, and only that
Launch opens applications. It does not want to become the place you also do arithmetic, read your clipboard history and search your files — those may come later, each on its own terms, and none of them at the cost of the first keystroke.
Open before you have finished the shortcut
Usually: A spinner while the launcher wakes up
Your applications, and nothing else
Usually: Files, contacts and settings, ranked by guesswork
No account, no sign-in, no sync
Usually: A login screen in front of your own Mac
One window, nothing to configure first
Usually: A settings tree to tour before it is useful
Your data, and we mean yours
Launch reads the names and icons of your applications when it starts, keeps them in memory, and writes nothing down. There is no index uploaded anywhere, because there is nowhere to upload it to.
No account. No server of ours in the middle. It works with the network off, because it never reaches for it.
Getting it
One download, signed and notarized by Lapidem. Drag it to your Applications folder and press ⌃Space.
Download for macOSRequires macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon. · Version 0.1.0 · what's new
Press ⌃Space.
Free, no account, and nothing about your Mac leaves it.
macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon · version 0.1.0
Before you ask
- Can I keep Raycast?
- That is the point of the default shortcut. Launch takes ⌃Space and leaves ⌘Space and ⌥Space alone, so both can sit on the same Mac while you make up your mind.
- Which Macs?
- macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon. The download is signed and notarized, so it opens without a detour through System Settings.
- Does it ask for Accessibility?
- No. Opening an application needs no special permission, so the first run asks for nothing at all.
- What does it look at?
- The applications in /Applications, your own Applications folder, and the ones macOS ships. It reads their names and icons once, when it starts.
- Does anything leave the Mac?
- Nothing. There is no account, no server of ours, and no analytics inside the app.
- How do I get the next version?
- Come back to this page and download it again. Launch does not check for updates yet, and it will tell you when it does.