Bragi

A lightweight, fast application launcher for Linux written in Odin, inspired by rofi and dmenu.

Building

Dependencies

Odin compiler (0.13+)
Linux with X11 or Wayland (via XWayland)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/vlshields/bragi.git
cd bragi

# Build release binary
odin build ./src -out:bragi -o:speed

# Or debug build
odin build ./src  -out:bragi -debug

Installation

# Copy to your path
sudo cp bragi /usr/local/bin/

# Or install to user directory
cp bragi ~/.local/bin/

# Or use symlinks (Recommended)
sudo ln -s $(pwd)/bragi /usr/local/bin/bragi

using a symlink is the prefered method because you don't have to remember to copy the binary again after any updates.

Usage

# Launch the application
bragi

# Bind to a hotkey in your window manager
# Example for i3/sway:
# bindsym $mod+d exec bragi

# Example for Hyprland:
# bind = $mainMod, D, exec, bragi

Keybindings

Key	Action
`Enter`	Launch selected application
`Escape`	Close launcher
`Up` / `Down`	Navigate through results
`Backspace`	Delete character from search
Any character	Add to search query

How It Works

The launcher scans for .desktop files in these directories:

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

It parses the Name and Exec fields, filters out entries marked NoDisplay=true, and presents them in a searchable list. The fuzzy matching algorithm scores results based on:

Character matches (+10 points)
Consecutive character matches (+5 bonus)
Matches at the start of words (+15 bonus)

Configuration

Currently configuration is done by modifying constants in the source:

VISIBLE_ITEMS :: 10      // Number of items shown at once
ITEM_HEIGHT :: 32        // Height of each list item in pixels
WIDTH :: 600             // Window width
HEIGHT :: 400            // Window height

Colors can be adjusted in the draw procedure.

Project Structure

.
├── src--odinlauncher.odin    # Main source file
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

Roadmap

Icon support (parse Icon= field and load from icon themes)
Launch history with frecency sorting
.desktop file and icon

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

bragi