Overview

Flare is a customizable, lightweight, terminal-based application launcher for Linux. Built with Rust and Ratatui, it combines the visual list style of tools like rofi or wofi with the simplicity and speed of dmenu.

Features

• Fast scanning: Automatically detects applications from standard .desktop file locations (/usr/share/applications, ~/.local/share/applications).
• Smart ordering: Sorts applications by usage frequency, keeping your most used apps at the top.
• TUI interface: Clean, terminal-based user interface.
• Instant filtering: Real-time search filtering as you type.
• File Explorer: Browse and select files directly. Start with ~/ or / to search files exclusively, or type a path after an app name to pass it as an argument.
• Launch Arguments: Pass arguments to applications (e.g., nvim ~/file.txt).
• Sudo Support: Launch applications with elevated privileges (e.g., sudo gparted). Includes a secure, terminal-style password prompt.
• Keyboard-centric: Designed for efficiency with intuitive keybindings.
• Highly customizable: Extensive configuration options for appearance and behavior.

Installation

Ensure you have a recent stable Rust toolchain (1.77+) installed via rustup.

Quick install (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/GitanElyon/flare.git
cd flare
cargo install --locked --path .

This puts the flare binary in ~/.cargo/bin, which should be on your $PATH to run it, and already will be if you installed Rust via rustup. Update to the latest commit any time with:

cd /path/to/flare
git pull
cargo install --locked --path .

Manual build

git clone https://github.com/GitanElyon/flare.git
cd flare
cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/flare /usr/local/bin/flare

Use the manual path if you prefer to inspect the build artifacts yourself or package Flare for a distribution.

Usage

You can run flare from your terminal, or set it up as a hotkey application launcher.

Flare can easily be used as an application launcher in place of rofi or wofi. To set it up, bind your desired hotkey to open a floating terminal running the flare command.

You can also use Flare to browse files or pass arguments to applications:

• Launch with arguments: Type the app name followed by arguments (e.g., neovim ~/Documents/note.txt).
• Sudo Launch: Type sudo before an application name to launch it with elevated privileges. You will be prompted for your password within Flare. Arguments like sudo -E are supported.
• File Explorer: Type a path starting with ~/ or / (e.g., ~/Projects/ or /etc/) to browse directories exclusively. Select a file and press Enter to open it with the default application (via xdg-open) or execute it if it's a binary.

Example for Hyprland config:

bind = $mod, space, exec, [float] $terminal -e flare

Keybindings

Key	Action
Type	Filter the application list
Up / Down	Navigate the list
Left / Right	Jump to top / bottom of list
Alt + f	Toggle favorite status
Tab	Auto-complete file paths
Enter	Launch selected application
Esc	Quit Flare
Backspace	Delete character from search

Configuration

As detailed in the Flare Configuration Guide, Flare reads its configuration from ~/.config/flare/config.toml. The file is created automatically the first time you run the launcher. Edits are hot-loaded on restart.

Currently, Flare scans the following standard XDG directories:

• /usr/share/applications
• /usr/local/share/applications
• ~/.local/share/applications

License

Flare has an MIT license. Feel free to submit a PR.