v0.1.2 — Fix launch freeze + Docker findable

Fixes

• No more freeze when launching heavy apps. NSWorkspace.open(url) was synchronous — Docker/Xcode froze the launcher window for 1-3s while LaunchServices spun up. Now uses async openApplication(...) — window dismisses instantly.
• Docker (and other menubar apps) now searchable. Previously any app with LSUIElement=1 was filtered as a background helper. New heuristic: keep LSUIElement apps that live in /Applications or ~/Applications and have a CFBundleIcon* — covers user-installed menubar apps (Docker, 1Password, Tailscale) while still hiding pure system agents under /System.

Numbers

• Index: 180 → 198 apps on a typical install
• Scan: 27ms (budget 100ms)
• Search avg: 0.21ms (budget 0.3ms)
• Self-test: 13/13

Install

Unzip and drop Launcher.app into /Applications. Click the dock icon to use.

v0.1.1 — 2.5x faster search

Performance and reliability pass.

What changed

Search 2.5x faster

• Pre-computed UTF-8 byte arrays at index time, not per-query
• Replaced grapheme-aware String ops with memcmp-based byte loops
• Added first-byte rejection as cheap pathological-case guard
• Bench: 0.460 → 0.182 ms / query (180 apps)

Reliability

• FSEvents watcher — new apps appear without restart
• CFBundleDisplayName fallback — finds apps whose displayed name differs from filename
• Stale entries auto-removed when index points to deleted .app
• Filter background services (LSUIElement, LSBackgroundOnly) so the index isn't polluted with loginwindow and friends
• Finder explicitly indexed (lives in /System/Library/CoreServices/, not in scan roots)
• Setapp + /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/ added to scan roots
• Symlinks resolved for proper dedup
• Multi-screen support — window centers on screen with mouse cursor
• Empty-state UI ("No Results")
• Esc reliably hides via NSApp.hide
• 0 leaks (verified with leaks and vmmap)

Diagnostic CLI

• Launcher --self-test — 13 scenario tests
• Launcher --bench — scan + search timing
• Launcher --integrity — verify all indexed paths exist
• Launcher --probe \"<query>\" — show variants and top 10 matches

Install

1. Download `Launcher-v0.1.1.zip`
2. Unzip, drag `Launcher.app` to `/Applications`
3. First launch: right-click → Open (ad-hoc signed)
4. Right-click dock icon → Options → Keep in Dock

Verify

```
shasum -a 256 Launcher-v0.1.1.zip
3a0ac11e2f088c097e3b7213ef83a72bb83fb67fa4e0608b057c366eb256682f
```

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
• Universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel)

v0.1.0 — Initial Release

First release of Launcher — a minimal, fast macOS app launcher.

Install

1. Download Launcher-v0.1.0.zip
2. Unzip, drag Launcher.app to /Applications
3. First launch: right-click → Open (ad-hoc signed, Gatekeeper needs the override once)
4. Right-click dock icon → Options → Keep in Dock

Features

• Cold start < 30 ms, search < 1 ms per query
• Fuzzy matching (ntn → Notion, fndr → Finder)
• Keyboard layout swap (type тщешщт on Russian layout → finds Notion)
• Auto-reindex via FSEvents (new apps appear without relaunch)
• Recents boost
• Indexes /Applications, ~/Applications, /System/Applications, Utilities, Setapp, Finder

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel (universal binary)

Verify

shasum -a 256 Launcher-v0.1.0.zip
6982aad9551954b7630b475ab3a42533124b07310e9791a08bd27244e8c399da

See README for usage and CLI diagnostic flags.