A keyboard-first launcher for Windows. Press a global hotkey to summon a floating search bar and quickly find and launch applications, files, folders, and custom actions.

Features

• Keyboard-first — Press the Win key to summon Nex from anywhere — replaces the Start menu
• Fuzzy search — Tantivy-powered full-text search across apps, files, and folders
• Everything SDK — Optional Voidtools Everything integration for real-time file search
• Calculator — Inline arithmetic evaluation in the search bar
• Clipboard history — Recently copied items at your fingertips
• Actions & plugins — Custom commands, web searches, and extensible plugin SDK
• Game mode — Automatic suppression while gaming
• Auto-updater — Stay current with built-in update mechanism

Getting Started

Install

Download the latest installer from the Releases page. Run it — Nex starts in the background, ready on the Win key.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/haxllo/nex.git
cd nex
cargo build --release --bin Nex --bin NexHelper
./target/release/Nex.exe

Requirements: Windows 10/11 (64-bit), Rust 1.85+

Configuration

On first launch, Nex creates a config at %APPDATA%\Nex\config.toml.

Setting	Default	Description
hotkey	Win (Left)	Global summon shortcut — replaces Start menu
max_results	20	Results shown
show_files	false	Include files
show_folders	false	Include folders
launch_at_startup	true	Auto-start with Windows

Usage

Search Syntax

Prefix	Scope
(none)	Fuzzy search all indexed items
>	Command mode (actions, web search)
@apps	Filter to applications
@files	Filter to files
@folders	Filter to folders
kind:file / ext:md	DSL key:value filters

Using Nex (GUI app)

Nex runs in the background as a system-tray app — no commands needed for day-to-day use.

• Summon — press the Win key; type to search; Enter to launch
• Right-click a result — run as admin, copy path, open folder, uninstall, pin/unpin
• Tray icon — right-click for quit, restart, and quick-launch controls

Power-user CLI flags (rarely needed):

Command	Description
nex --status	Check if running
nex --quit	Stop the running instance
nex --restart	Restart the instance
nex --diagnostics-bundle	Dump diagnostics to zip

Project Structure

nex/
├── apps/core/           # Main Rust application
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── main.rs      # Entry point
│   │   ├── lib.rs       # Library root (nex_core)
│   │   ├── runtime.rs   # Core orchestration
│   │   ├── overlay/     # WebView2 UI (tao + wry)
│   │   ├── search.rs    # Query DSL
│   │   ├── tantivy_search.rs # Full-text engine
│   │   ├── everything_bridge.rs # Everything SDK
│   │   ├── calculator.rs
│   │   ├── clipboard_history.rs
│   │   ├── plugin_sdk.rs
│   │   ├── updater.rs
│   │   └── config.rs
│   └── Cargo.toml
├── apps/assets/         # Branding assets
├── scripts/             # Build & packaging
├── tests/               # Performance & smoke tests
└── docs/                # Architecture & plans

Architecture

Nex renders its overlay as a native Windows popup using tao (window management) and wry (WebView2 embedding). All UI is HTML/CSS/JS — no GDI or Direct2D.

Component	File	Purpose
Host	overlay/host.rs	Event loop, WebView, Win32 chrome, positioning
Model	overlay/model.rs	Event/state/theme types
Icons	overlay/icons.rs	LRU cache, base64 PNG encoding
Shim	overlay/shim.rs	Runtime-to-overlay API
Hotkey	overlay/hotkey.rs	RegisterHotKey + message loop
Tray	overlay/tray.rs	System tray + context menu
Platform	overlay/platform.rs	Theme detection, IPC signaling
Indexing	overlay/indexing_progress.rs	First-time indexing UI

Key design decisions:

• Fire-and-forget state — Rust pushes JSON snapshots to WebView via PostWebMessageAsJson. No synchronous script evaluation on the critical path.
• Warm-release — WebView stays resident for instant open. Icon cache clears ~5 seconds after hide.
• Acrylic backdrop — Rounded corners + acrylic blur via DWM APIs, with CSS fallback on older Windows.
• Cursor-anchored positioning — Window centers on the monitor under the cursor, upper-third placement (Raycast/Spotlight style).
• Force-foreground — AttachThreadInput ensures reliable focus on show; winit/tao alone isn't sufficient on Windows.
• Instance signaling — Registered window messages let a second process show/quit the running instance.
• Embedded UI — HTML, CSS, and JS compiled into the binary via include_str!, served through nexasset:// custom protocol.

Building & Testing

cargo build --bin Nex --bin NexHelper              # Debug
cargo build --release --bin Nex --bin NexHelper    # Release
cargo test -p Nex                  # Tests (broken on Windows — hangs)

Documentation

• Architecture Notes
• Changelog

License

MIT — see LICENSE.