Last Updated on March 8, 2026
Hamr is an extensible launcher for Hyprland and Niri built with Quickshell.
Hamr learns from your usage patterns to surface what you need, when you need it. Type a few characters to launch apps, calculate math, search files, access clipboard history, and more.
Hamr consists of several components that work together:
- hamr-daemon: Core service that manages plugins and search.
- hamr-gtk: GTK4 launcher UI (what you see when you press the hotkey).
- hamr-cli: Command-line interface for testing and control.
- hamr-tui: Terminal UI for headless environments.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Frecency ranking – Results sorted by frequency + recency.
- Learned shortcuts – Type “q” to find QuickLinks if that’s how you found it before.
- Fuzzy matching – Fast, typo-tolerant search powered by nucleo.
- Smart suggestions – Context-aware suggestions based on time and usage.
- Extensible plugins – JSON protocol, any language (Python, Bash, Go, Rust).
- Live updates – Plugins emit real-time updates without refreshing the list.
- Rich UI – Forms, cards, sliders, gauges, preview panels, grid browsers.
Website: github.com/Stewart86/hamr
Support:
Developer: Hamr
License: MIT License
Hamr is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| GUI Application Launchers | |
|---|---|
| Ulauncher | Fast application launcher written in Python |
| Vicinae | Native launcher for your desktop — built with C++ and Qt |
| Albert | Desktop agnostic launcher, inspired by OSX’ Alfred launcher |
| Walker | Customizable application launcher built with GTK4 and Rust |
| Kupfer | Fast and lightweight desktop summoner/launcher |
| Cerebro | A launcher to improve your productivity and efficiency |
| Hamr | Fast, extensible desktop launcher |
| dmenu | Fast and lightweight dynamic menu |
| fuzzel | Application launcher for wlroots based Wayland compositors |
| lxqt-runner | LXQt application launcher |
| Kickoff | Heavily inspired by rofi |
| Kando | Pie menu to launch applications, simulate hotkeys, open URLs |
| gravel | Basic FLTK UI |
| zlaunch | Application launcher / window switcher for Wayland |
| Catapult | Launch apps, open files and do basic calculation |
| rofi | Window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement |
| Onagre | General purpose application launcher for X and Wayland |
| Raffi | Designed to sit on top of Fuzze |
| bashrun2 | Launch applications from interactive bash sessions |
| rlaunch | Fast, lightweight and modern application launcher for X11 |
| rough | GTK based application launcher |
| Marvin | Uses different modules to provide different functionalities |
| Launchy | Utility designed to help users forget about the application menu |
| Vanta | Scriptable application launcher and command palette for Wayland |
| Synapse | Semantic graphical launcher written in Vala |
| Proslenkey | Lightweight GTK4 application launcher for Wayland |
| MRunner | Keyboard-first application runner |
| Gnome-Pie | Circular application launcher made of several pies |
| Avant Window Navigator | OS X like panel for the GNOME Desktop |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |