dmenu-mac

A keyboard-only application launcher for macOS, inspired by dmenu (opens in a new tab).

Press a hotkey, type a few letters, hit Enter. No Spotlight indexing, no mouse, no waiting.

Keys

The launcher does not steal focus: the app you were in stays in front and gets the keyboard back as soon as the bar closes.

What it finds

• Apps in /Applications, /System/Applications, and ~/Applications, including symlinked folders such as the ones nix-darwin and home-manager create.
• Bundled utilities like Keychain Access, Archive Utility, and Directory Utility.
• System Settings panes, so disp opens Displays and net opens Network.
• Optionally, command-line programs from your $PATH (see below).

The list refreshes on its own when apps are installed or removed.

Running commands

If nothing matches what you typed, Enter runs the text as a shell command in your login shell, from your home directory. mpv ~/Movies/clip.mp4 plays a video without opening a terminal. Shift Enter does the same even when something matches.

Terminal programs

To launch nvim, htop, ranger, and friends in a terminal window:

• Open Settings → General and turn on List programs from $PATH.
• Pick your terminal: Terminal, iTerm2, Ghostty, Alacritty, kitty, WezTerm, or a custom command where {cmd} is replaced by the program to run.

Programs from your login shell's $PATH (Homebrew, nix, ~/.local/bin, ...) then show up alongside apps, and typed commands like nvim notes.md open in that terminal too. The first time Terminal or iTerm2 is used, macOS asks to let dmenu-mac control it.

Settings

Open Settings with ⌘ , while the launcher is up, or from the menu bar icon.

• General: the global hotkey, and the terminal setup described above.
• Appearance: bar position (top or bottom of the screen), opacity, colors for the text, selection, and background, and the font and its size. undoes it all.