Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux
63 ByteAtATime 21 7/13/2025, 4:57:48 PM github.com ↗
Hey HN!
I'm a huge fan of Raycast, but as a Linux user, I was always disappointed it wasn't available on my main OS. This summer, I decided to just build it myself. This project has the goal of being interoperable with Raycast itself, including a majority of the extensions.
It's built with Tauri and Rust on the backend, with a Svelte frontend. The biggest challenge was getting it to run existing Raycast extensions, which required building a custom React renderer as well as making a custom API.
I also wrote a quick post, which I hope to expand on in the future, about this project. You can find it here: https://byteatatime.dev/posts/recreating-raycast
The project is still very rough, but I'm sharing it now to get any feedback you may have!
The most impressive part is probably your age, because this isn't an easy project even for senior devs!
I haven't tried it yet, but I can't wait to find some time for that.
I've researched applications like this for Linux quite extensively and I think you might find the following tips of interest: - For the slow extension startup issue you mentioned, consider Deno as a runtime as it has a better sandbox and is faster than Node overall. There may be some compatibility issues, but if I remember correctly most stuff is handled by the special Raycast extension libraries which you implement manually anyway. - I'd consider Numbat [0] for replacing the calculator implementation you have now. As far as I can tell, it should have feature parity with SoulverCore and it's also written in Rust, so interfacing with it should be much easier and won't require the FFI work you're doing now. - Project Gauntlet [1] is another project which has gotten quite close to implementing a full-featured Raycast alternative and might be worth taking inspiration from. It would certainly be very cool if you can make the UI rendering native at some point (although I guess Rust isn't perfect for native UI at the moment [2])
Keep up the good work!
[0]: https://github.com/sharkdp/numbat
[1]: https://github.com/project-gauntlet/gauntlet
[2]: https://areweguiyet.com/
Raycast also runs on Windows now, albeit in beta.
Other Linux launchers with extensibility:
KRunner: https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Krunner
Albert: https://albertlauncher.github.io/
The name is just for identification, as the project's goal is to be a compatible, open-source alternative for the Linux community, a platform they don't currently serve.
That being said, I'll definitely keep it in mind. Thanks for bringing it up!
> Raycast is an application launcher and productivity software developed for macOS and by Raycast Technologies Ltd. It offers fast access to applications, dictionaries, files, text snippets, clipboard, and more.[2] Raycast is an alternative to the macOS's built-in Spotlight function, with a richer interface and the option to install extensions, providing additional ways to display varied content.[3]
You want some calculation? Run calc and do the calculation, do you save so much time by replacing the "run calc" step with "open launcher" that it's worth adding more software to your setup?
it's sad to see this core principle being increasingly ignored in linux, but i guess that ship sailed a while ago.
There are good tools for doing each of those things separately. A good launcher that allows you to do any of them with such trivial overhead is a huge time saver.
Raycast can all of do that automatically, and the only shortcut you need to know is Cmd-Space.
I don't get it either.