Owlry

A lightweight, owl-themed application launcher for Wayland, built with GTK4 and Layer Shell.

Features

• Provider-based architecture — Search applications, commands, system actions, SSH hosts, clipboard history, bookmarks, emoji, and more
• Fuzzy search with tags — Fast matching across names, descriptions, and category tags
• Configurable tabs — Customize header tabs and keyboard shortcuts
• Filter prefixes — Scope searches with :app, :cmd, :tag:development, etc.
• Calculator — Quick math with = 5+3 or calc sin(pi/2)
• Web search — Search the web with ? query
• File search — Find files with / filename (requires fd or locate)
• Frecency ranking — Frequently/recently used items rank higher
• GTK4 theming — System theme by default, with 9 built-in themes
• Wayland native — Uses Layer Shell for proper overlay behavior

Installation

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S owlry
# or
paru -S owlry

Build from Source

Dependencies:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S gtk4 gtk4-layer-shell

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libgtk-4-dev libgtk4-layer-shell-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install gtk4-devel gtk4-layer-shell-devel

Optional dependencies:

# Clipboard history
sudo pacman -S cliphist wl-clipboard

# File search (choose one)
sudo pacman -S fd       # recommended
sudo pacman -S mlocate  # alternative

Build (requires Rust 1.90+):

git clone https://somegit.dev/Owlibou/owlry.git
cd owlry
cargo build --release
# Binary: target/release/owlry

Usage

owlry                      # Launch with defaults
owlry --mode app           # Applications only
owlry --providers app,cmd  # Specific providers
owlry --help               # Show all options

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	Launch selected item
Escape	Close launcher / exit submenu
↑ / ↓	Navigate results
Tab	Cycle filter tabs
Shift+Tab	Cycle filter tabs (reverse)
Ctrl+1..9	Toggle tab by position

Search Prefixes

Prefix	Provider	Example
:app	Applications	:app firefox
:cmd	PATH commands	:cmd git
:sys	System actions	:sys shutdown
:ssh	SSH hosts	:ssh server
:clip	Clipboard	:clip password
:bm	Bookmarks	:bm github
:emoji	Emoji	:emoji heart
:script	Scripts	:script backup
:file	Files	:file config
:calc	Calculator	:calc sqrt(16)
:web	Web search	:web rust docs
:uuctl	systemd	:uuctl docker
:tag:X	Filter by tag	:tag:development

Trigger Prefixes

Trigger	Provider	Example
=	Calculator	= 5+3
calc	Calculator	calc sqrt(16)
?	Web search	? rust programming
web	Web search	web linux tips
/	File search	/ .bashrc
find	File search	find config

File Locations

Owlry follows the XDG Base Directory Specification:

Path	Purpose
~/.config/owlry/config.toml	Main configuration
~/.config/owlry/themes/*.css	Custom themes
~/.config/owlry/style.css	CSS overrides
~/.local/share/owlry/scripts/	User scripts
~/.local/share/owlry/frecency.json	Usage history

Configuration

Copy the example files:

# Config
mkdir -p ~/.config/owlry
cp /usr/share/doc/owlry/config.example.toml ~/.config/owlry/config.toml

# Optional: CSS overrides
cp /usr/share/doc/owlry/style.example.css ~/.config/owlry/style.css

# Optional: Example script
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/owlry/scripts
cp /usr/share/doc/owlry/scripts/example.sh ~/.local/share/owlry/scripts/

Example Configuration

[general]
show_icons = true
max_results = 10
tabs = ["app", "cmd", "uuctl"]  # Header tabs (Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, etc.)
# terminal_command = "kitty"    # Auto-detected
# launch_wrapper = "uwsm app --" # Auto-detected

[appearance]
width = 700
height = 500
font_size = 14
border_radius = 12
# theme = "owl"  # Or: catppuccin-mocha, nord, dracula, etc.

[providers]
applications = true
commands = true
uuctl = true
calculator = true
websearch = true
search_engine = "duckduckgo"
system = true
ssh = true
clipboard = true
bookmarks = true
emoji = true
scripts = true
files = true
frecency = true
frecency_weight = 0.3

Tab Configuration

Customize which providers appear as header tabs:

[general]
# Available: app, cmd, uuctl, bookmark, calc, clip, dmenu,
#            emoji, file, script, ssh, sys, web
tabs = ["app", "cmd", "ssh", "sys"]

Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9 map to tab positions.

Providers

Provider	Description	Trigger
Applications	.desktop files from XDG directories	:app
Commands	Executables in $PATH	:cmd
System	Shutdown, reboot, suspend, lock, BIOS	:sys
SSH	Hosts from ~/.ssh/config	:ssh
Clipboard	History via cliphist	:clip
Bookmarks	Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi	:bm
Emoji	300+ searchable emoji	:emoji
Scripts	User scripts	:script
Calculator	Math expressions	= or :calc
Web Search	Configurable engine	? or :web
Files	fd/locate search	/ or :file
systemd	User services with actions	:uuctl

Tags

Items are tagged for better search:

• Applications: Categories from .desktop files (development, utility, etc.)
• System: power, system
• SSH: ssh
• Scripts: script
• systemd: systemd, service

Filter by tag with :tag:tagname:

:tag:development     # Show development apps
:tag:utility vim     # Search utilities for "vim"

Scripts

Create executable scripts in ~/.local/share/owlry/scripts/:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/owlry/scripts
cat > ~/.local/share/owlry/scripts/backup.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
rsync -av ~/Documents /backup/
notify-send "Backup complete"
EOF
chmod +x ~/.local/share/owlry/scripts/backup.sh

Theming

Built-in Themes

Theme	Description
owl	Dark theme with amber accents
catppuccin-mocha	Soothing pastel
nord	Arctic blue palette
rose-pine	Natural pine vibes
dracula	Dark vampire theme
gruvbox-dark	Retro groove
tokyo-night	Tokyo city lights
solarized-dark	Precision colors
one-dark	Atom's One Dark

[appearance]
theme = "catppuccin-mocha"

Custom Theme

Create ~/.config/owlry/themes/mytheme.css:

:root {
    --owlry-bg: #1e1e2e;
    --owlry-bg-secondary: #313244;
    --owlry-border: #45475a;
    --owlry-text: #cdd6f4;
    --owlry-text-secondary: #a6adc8;
    --owlry-accent: #f38ba8;
    --owlry-accent-bright: #f5c2e7;
}

CSS Overrides

For tweaks without a full theme, create ~/.config/owlry/style.css:

/* Larger search input */
.owlry-search {
    font-size: 18px;
    padding: 12px 16px;
}

/* Hide tag badges */
.owlry-tag-badge {
    display: none;
}

CSS Variables

Variable	Description
--owlry-bg	Main background
--owlry-bg-secondary	Secondary surfaces
--owlry-border	Border color
--owlry-text	Primary text
--owlry-text-secondary	Muted text
--owlry-accent	Accent color
--owlry-accent-bright	Bright accent
--owlry-font-size	Base font size
--owlry-border-radius	Corner radius

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE.

Acknowledgments

• GTK4 — UI toolkit
• gtk4-layer-shell — Wayland Layer Shell
• fuzzy-matcher — Fuzzy search