vikingowl
c8aed5faf5
dmenu mode was incorrectly trying to execute the selected item as a command (via hyprctl/sh). Now it properly prints the selection to stdout, enabling standard dmenu piping workflows like: git branch | owlry -m dmenu | xargs git checkout
3.9 KiB
Owlry Roadmap
Feature ideas and future development plans for Owlry.
High Value, Low Effort
Plugin hot-reload
Detect .so file changes in /usr/lib/owlry/plugins/ and reload without restarting the launcher. The loader infrastructure already exists.
Frecency pruning
Add max_entries and max_age_days config options. Prune old entries on startup to prevent frecency.json from growing unbounded.
:recent prefix
Show last N launched items. Data already exists in frecency.json — just needs a provider to surface it.
Clipboard images
cliphist supports images. Extend the clipboard plugin to show image thumbnails in results.
Medium Effort, High Value
Actions on any result
Generalize the submenu system beyond systemd. Every result type gets contextual actions:
| Provider | Actions |
|---|---|
| Applications | Open, Open in terminal, Show .desktop location |
| Files | Open, Open folder, Copy path, Delete |
| SSH | Connect, Copy hostname, Edit config |
| Bookmarks | Open, Copy URL, Open incognito |
| Clipboard | Paste, Delete from history |
This is the difference between a launcher and a command palette.
Plugin settings UI
A :settings provider that lists installed plugins and their configurable options. Edit values inline, writes to config.toml.
Result action capture
Calculator shows = 5+3 → 8. Allow pressing Tab or Ctrl+C to copy the result to clipboard instead of "launching" it. Useful for calculator, file paths, URLs.
Bigger Bets
Window switcher with live thumbnails
A windows plugin using Wayland screencopy to show live thumbnails of open windows. Hyprland and Sway expose window lists via IPC. Could replace Alt+Tab.
Cross-device bookmark sync
Firefox and Chrome sync bookmarks across devices. Parse sync metadata to show "recently added on other devices" or "bookmarks from phone".
Natural language commands
Parse simple natural language into system commands:
"shutdown in 30 minutes" → systemd-run --user --on-active=30m systemctl poweroff
"remind me in 1 hour" → notify-send scheduled via at/systemd timer
"volume 50%" → wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.5
Local pattern matching, no AI/cloud required.
Plugin marketplace
A curated registry of third-party Lua/Rune plugins with one-command install:
owlry plugin install github-notifications
owlry plugin install todoist
owlry plugin install spotify-controls
The script runtimes make this viable without recompiling.
Technical Debt
Split monorepo for user build efficiency
Currently, a small core fix requires all 16 AUR packages to rebuild (same source tarball). Split into 3 repos:
| Repo | Contents | Versioning |
|---|---|---|
owlry |
Core binary | Independent |
owlry-plugin-api |
ABI interface (crates.io) | Semver, conservative |
owlry-plugins |
13 plugins + 2 runtimes | Independent per plugin |
Execution order:
- Publish
owlry-plugin-apito crates.io - Update monorepo to use crates.io dependency
- Create
owlry-pluginsrepo, move plugins + runtimes - Slim current repo to core-only
- Update AUR PKGBUILDs with new source URLs
Benefit: Core bugfix = 1 rebuild. Plugin fix = 1 rebuild. Third-party plugins possible via crates.io.
Replace meval with evalexpr
meval depends on nom v1.2.4 which will be rejected by future Rust versions. Migrate calculator plugin and Lua runtime to evalexpr v13+.
Plugin API backwards compatibility
When API_VERSION increments, provide a compatibility shim so v3 plugins work with v4 core. Prevents ecosystem fragmentation.
Per-plugin configuration
Current flat [providers] config doesn't scale. Design a [plugins.weather], [plugins.pomodoro] structure that plugins can declare and the core validates.
Priority
If we had to pick one: Actions on any result. It transforms every provider from "search and launch" to "search and do anything". The ROI is massive.