A fast macOS application launcher.
- Instant search — Fuzzy matching with typo tolerance across all installed apps
- Smart ranking — Frecency tracking with adaptive per-query learning
- Real-time monitoring — Detects newly installed/removed apps within seconds
- Configurable — Custom search paths
# Build and run
just run
# Create Lightning.app bundle
just bundle| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Toggle search panel | Option+Space (configurable) |
| Navigate results | Arrow Up / Arrow Down |
| Launch selected app | Return |
| Launch in a new window (current Space) | Cmd+Return |
| Dismiss panel | Escape |
| Open settings | Cmd+, |
Plain Return activates the app, bringing an existing window forward — which, under focus-following window managers like AeroSpace, switches you to whatever workspace that window lives in.
Cmd+Return instead opens a new window of the app in your current Space. The first time you do this for a given app, macOS asks permission for Lightning to control it (Automation) — approve it once and it works from then on. Apps that don't support scripted new windows fall back to opening a fresh instance.
mise install # Install dev tools (swiftlint, swiftformat)
just build # Debug build
just release # Release build
just test # Run unit tests
just lint # Lint Swift sources
just format # Format Swift sources
just clean # Clean build artifacts
just bundle # Create .app bundle- macOS 13.0+
- Swift 5.9+
- mise (for dev tools)