Wisplet

Keyboard-first app launcher overlay for Windows 11 — global hotkey toggle, grouped sections, Mica blur. Built with Tauri 2 + Svelte 5.

Wisplet is a Launchpad-inspired app launcher that overlays the desktop on a global hotkey. Search, browse grouped sections, launch — then it gets out of your way.

Features

• Global hotkey toggle (Alt+Space by default — same as PowerToys Run / Flow Launcher; rebindable from the settings drawer, with automatic fallback if the combo is already taken).
• Fast fuzzy search across all your apps, with the input focused on every open.
• Sections — apps are grouped (Dev, Media, Tools, …) into a masonry of cards.
• In-app app management — add, edit and remove apps from the UI (right-click a tile, or Add an app in the settings drawer); icon and title are auto-filled from the executable.
• Mica blur background (native Windows 11 windowEffect via Tauri).
• Zero white flash — Win32 layered-window alpha trick lets the WebView paint before the window is ever visible.
• Optional cover-screen mode — the window resizes to fully cover the current monitor (without using Win11's real fullscreen, which would eat the global hotkey).
• System tray with show / quit menu, single-instance lifecycle.
• Persistent settings (icon / label size, tile width, cover-screen toggle) in localStorage.

Screenshots

Settings drawer — appearance, hotkey, app management	Adding an app — native file picker, auto-filled icon & title

Requirements

• Windows 11 (Mica requires Win11; Win10 will fall back to no effect).
• WebView2 runtime (preinstalled on modern Windows).
• For LWin tap binding: AutoHotkey v2.

Installation

Grab the latest Wisplet_<version>_x64-setup.exe (NSIS) or .msi from the Releases page and run it.

Configuration

Wisplet keeps its app list in:

%USERPROFILE%\.config\wisplet\apps.json

On first run, if that file doesn't exist, Wisplet seeds it once from an existing yasb-launchpad config (%USERPROFILE%\.config\yasb\launchpad\apps.json). After that, Wisplet owns its own file.

Apps are managed from the UI — right-click a tile to edit or remove it, or use Add an app in the settings drawer. The file stays plain JSON if you'd rather edit it directly:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Visual Studio Code",
    "path": "C:\\Users\\you\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Microsoft VS Code\\Code.exe",
    "icon": "C:\\path\\to\\icon.png",
    "group": "Dev",
    "type": "app"
  }
]

Hotkey

The default hotkey is Alt+Space, registered as a global shortcut via tauri-plugin-global-shortcut. This matches the conventional launcher hotkey on Windows (PowerToys Run, Flow Launcher).

Conflict note: if Alt+Space is already taken (e.g. by PowerToys Run), Wisplet automatically falls back to Ctrl+Alt+Space, then Ctrl+Shift+Space. You can also set any combination from the settings drawer; if every fallback is taken too, Wisplet opens its settings on launch so you can pick one.

Optional: bind a single LWin tap

If you want a single Windows-key tap to open Wisplet (instead of the Start menu), use AutoHotkey v2:

#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0
#SingleInstance Force

LWin:: {
    Send "{Blind}{vk07}"     ; phantom key — suppresses Start menu on keyup
    KeyWait "LWin"
    if (A_PriorKey != "LWin" && A_PriorKey != "vk07")
        return               ; let Win+X combos pass through
    Send "!{Space}"          ; trigger Wisplet
}

Save as launchpad-bind.ahk and run it (e.g. from shell:startup).

Development

# install deps
pnpm install

# dev (hot reload, WebView devtools, full Rust rebuild on backend changes)
pnpm tauri dev

# production build (NSIS + MSI in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/)
pnpm tauri build

Stack

• Frontend: Svelte 5 (runes) + SvelteKit + Vite 6 + TypeScript
• Backend: Tauri 2 (Rust 1.95+)
• Build: pnpm 10.33 (managed via corepack)
• Toolchain: Node 22.19+, Rust 1.95+

Project layout

src/                       # Svelte UI
├── app.html               # HTML shell (transparent background)
└── routes/+page.svelte    # Full UI: search, settings drawer, anims

src-tauri/
├── src/lib.rs             # Tauri commands, tray, global shortcut, window geometry
├── tauri.conf.json        # Window config (Mica, transparent, frameless)
├── capabilities/          # Tauri 2 permissions
└── Cargo.toml

Roadmap

• In-app accent color picker
• Skins system: drop .css files in ~/.config/wisplet/skins/, hot-reload
• Plugin system: custom app sources, search providers, lifecycle hooks

Known limitations

• Acrylic + WebView2 has hover redraw glitches upstream — only Mica is exposed.
• Win11 real fullscreen blocks global hotkeys. Wisplet uses a "cover-screen" approximation (window sized to the monitor) instead.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. Keep changes focused and discuss larger features in an issue first.

License

MIT — Copyright (c) 2026 Greyfox Consulting