I turned my rofi launcher into a config playground

I keep ending up with the same kind of tool: something that starts as a launcher and slowly becomes a small control surface for my machine.

This one started because I wanted a better rofi launcher for my dotfiles. It ended up becoming a place where I can launch apps, search files, jump into config, and define custom commands without opening a separate app.

What it is

The launcher now does a few different jobs:

• normal app search as you type
• prefix-based file search after Enter
• bang commands like !web or !shutdown
• a :config menu for opening the launcher config files
• a visible settings entry so the options are obvious in the UI

It is still rofi, but it behaves more like a small command palette with a few specific modes.

How to get it

The source lives in my dotfiles repo once I push it:

• bin/launcher
• configs/rofi/README.md
• configs/rofi/raycast.rasi
• configs/rofi/pinned-apps
• configs/rofi/bang-commands.lua

The live files on the machine are in ~/.config/rofi/.

How it works

The main idea is simple:

• typing normally filters apps live
• entering a prefix switches to a different action
• pressing Enter tells the launcher to run that action

That matters because rofi script mode does not stream every keystroke back into the script. So I made the UI spell that out instead of pretending it is live search everywhere.

The current prefixes are:

• : for launcher commands
• :config for config files and editor shortcuts
• / for folder scopes
• /path query for scoped filename search
• *.md for filename search in home
• **text for content search in home
• !bang args for custom commands from Lua

What I added

The part I like most is the bang-commands.lua file. That gives me a tiny, data-driven way to map a shortcut to an action.

For example:

1return {2  {3    bang = '!web',4    type = 'url',5    template = 'https://www.google.com/search?q={query}',6    description = 'Search the web',7  },8}

That means I can type:

1!web rofi script mode

and it turns into the configured command.

I also added :config, so I can do things like:

• :config
• :config nvim
• :config code
• :config zed

That keeps the config files close to the launcher itself, which is the whole point of this kind of setup.

The UI part

I wanted the launcher to stop hiding the important stuff.

So the UI now keeps a visible hint bar for the available modes, and there is a settings row right in the main list. The point is not to be clever. The point is to make the available paths obvious without making me remember them.

Why I built it

Mostly because I wanted one place where I could:

• open apps quickly
• reach config files without hunting through paths
• define my own commands
• keep the whole thing inside the same launcher instead of splitting it into five tools

That is enough for me.

I like tools that become more useful the longer I use them, not tools that need their own onboarding story.