Show HN: CMS-like editing for Markdown with contenteditable and 100 lines of JS (mattismegevand.com)

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!

Comments (20)

runjake · 26m ago

Looks great! Change the name. The Raycast people are going to (initially) ask you to anyway.

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/

jraph · 1h ago

Another runner which can be extended and runs on Linux is KRunner, the one that comes with KDE. Should this inspire you.

kombine · 1h ago

KRunner is great, has a lot of features including currency and unit conversion. I use it almost exclusively now.

mynegation · 1h ago

Raycast will either hire you or send you a cease-and-desist order. Either way, I would change the name now.

ByteAtATime · 1h ago

Fair point! I've actually thought about that before; I've tried to be extremely clear in the project's README with a disclaimer that this is a non-commercial hobby project and is not affiliated with the official Raycast team in any way.

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!

sangeeth96 · 1h ago

That shouldn't matter. They might even have a Linux version in the works, given they are doing Windows now. They are within their rights to ask you to get rid of it. You also seem to be using their brand assets like the logo. I get your intention and love what you were able to accomplish but if you intend for this to grow, you are better off doing this now.

ByteAtATime · 1h ago

That makes sense -- I'll go figure something out, thanks for the explanation!

rafram · 1h ago

“Just for identification” is the point — the name Raycast identifies their product, and it’s their trademark. You can’t use it without permission, even with a disclaimer in the readme.

sangeeth96 · 1h ago

As well as the logo used, name references from all other places and even tweaking the looks a bit.

ksynwa · 1h ago

From wikipedia

> 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]

flipcoder · 1h ago

Nice work but change name asap, pivot to something original

imcritic · 1h ago

I don't really see any value in such combines.

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?

herrherrmann · 1h ago

Have you ever tried a launcher as powerful as Raycast? I can only recommend it. I use it for quick calculations, currency conversions, file lookups, translations, looking up http status codes, joining meetings, finding emojis, quickly checking my calendar, etc. etc. – so, perhaps a singular function might not warrant a launcher, but the sum of functions and keyboard-centric UI make it very valuable for me in my daily workflows.

znort_ · 22m ago

"write programs that do one thing and do it well. write programs to work together."

it's sad to see this core principle being increasingly ignored in linux, but i guess that ship sailed a while ago.

kstrauser · 1h ago

On a Mac, opening the launcher means pressing cmd-space at any time, getting a popup text entry field, typing "1+2", seeing the answer, and hitting esc to dismiss it. That's the entire workflow for operating a calculator, launching an app, searching Google, locating a file, or whatever. I challenge you to do that operation with a separate app more (or even as) efficiently.

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.

MisterSandman · 1h ago

Do you remember the command line command to convert 5:30 IST to PDT? Or convert $70 USD to SGD? Or what 17.3 years in seconds is? Or how many days are between 2024-12-30 and 2025-06-17?

Raycast can all of do that automatically, and the only shortcut you need to know is Cmd-Space.

sublinear · 9m ago

I just type the same into the browser. Only shortcut is alt-tab or a touchscreen swipe, and it works on any device without installing anything.

I don't get it either.

monooso · 1h ago

Plenty of people appear to disagree.

johng · 1h ago

Amazing work! I love Raycast as well!

regularjack · 1h ago

I'm not one to care for age usually, but I think it's worth mentioning that OP is 15 years old. Well done, great work, please keep building and writing.

Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux (github.com)

Show HN: Learn LLMs LeetCode Style (github.com)

Show HN: ArchGW – an intelligent edge and service proxy for agents

Show HN: CMS-like editing for Markdown with contenteditable and 100 lines of JS (mattismegevand.com)

Show HN: The simplest way to use MCP. local-first. 100% open source (director.run)

Show HN: An open-source, Android app for discovering privacy-respecting software (github.com)

Show HN: I built this to talk Danish to my girlfriend – works with any language (menerdu.vercel.app)

Show HN: I made a JSFiddle-style playground to test and share prompts fast (langfa.st)

Show HN: Clu3 – Team up with GPTs in a 2v2 game of codenames (clu3.juliakzl.com)

Show HN: DesignArena – crowdsourced benchmark for AI-generated UI/UX (designarena.ai)

Show HN: I made a free tool to sync Strava activities with your calendar (stravatocalendar.com)

Show HN: c0admin – A terminal-based AI assistant for Linux sysadmins (github.com)

Show HN: I added Game of Life to my Portfolio Website and it's so cool (kuber.studio)

Show HN: HNping 'remind me later' for HN via web push (hnping.com)

Show HN: Vibe Kanban – Kanban board to manage your AI coding agents (github.com)

Show HN: Pyhoff – Connect Python ML Models to Beckhoff/WAGO IO Hardware (github.com)

Show HN: I built an LLM chat app because we shouldn't need 10 AI subscriptions (prismharmony.com)

Show HN: I built a toy music controller for my 5yo with a coding agent (github.com)

Show HN: RULER – Easily apply RL to any agent (openpipe.ai)

Show HN: Pangolin – Open source alternative to Cloudflare Tunnels (github.com)

Show HN: We developed an AI tool to diagnose car problems (autoai.help)

Show HN: OffChess – Offline chess puzzles app (offchess.com)

Show HN: An educational Local Qwen3 LLM Inference project written in Rust (github.com)

Show HN: 0xDEAD//Type – A Fast-Paced Typing Shooter with Retro Vibes (0xdeadtype.theden.sh)

Show HN: Cactus – Ollama for Smartphones (github.com)

Show HN: FluidAudio – Swift Speaker Diarization on CoreML (github.com)

Show HN: Magnetar, a high-perf BitTorrent parsing and manipulation library (github.com)

Show HN: Interactive pinout for the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 (pico2.pinout.xyz)

Show HN: Microsoft official MCP for documentation and more (github.com)

Show HN: CXXStateTree – A modern C++ library for hierarchical state machines (github.com)

Show HN: FlopperZiro – A DIY open-source Flipper Zero clone (github.com)

Show HN: BinaryRPC – Lightweight WebSocket-based RPC framework in modern C++ (github.com)

Show HN: Open source alternative to Perplexity Comet (browseros.com)

Show HN: MCP server for searching and downloading documents from Anna's Archive (github.com)

Show HN: I build an iOS App for parents to plan meal, create recipes, lunchboxes (apps.apple.com)

Show HN: I built a playground to showcase what Flux Kontext is good at (fluxkontextlab.com)

Show HN: I Built a Stick-On Wireless Lamp That Installs in 30 Seconds (shopinfinitylamp.store)

Show HN: Build web forms in rich text (kameo.dev)

Show HN: Typeform was too expensive so I built my own forms (ikiform.com)

Show HN: NYC Subway Simulator and Route Designer (buildmytransit.nyc)

Show HN: asyncmcp – Run MCP over async transport via AWS SNS+SQS (github.com)

Show HN: BreakerMachines – Modern Circuit Breaker for Rails with Async Support (github.com)

Show HN: Train Block Diffusion Models on Consumer Hardware (RTX 4090) in Hours (github.com)

Show HN: Petrichor – a free, open-source, offline music player for macOS (github.com)

Show HN: I automated code security to help vibe coders from getting busted (elara-app.ai)

Show HN: I wrote a "web OS" based on the Apple Lisa's UI, with 1-bit graphics (alpha.lisagui.com)

Show HN: Cogency – Cognitive Architecture for AI Agents (github.com)

Show HN: VibeKin – Gated Discord Tribes via Personality Matching (tgc.fly.dev)

Show HN: Jukebox – Free, Open Source Group Playlist with Fair Queueing (jukeboxhq.com)

Show HN: Reviving a 20 year old OS X App (andrewshaw.nl)

Show HN: A Raycast-compatible launcher for Linux

Comments (20)