Pal

A fast, extensible command palette for Linux. Launch apps, switch windows, control audio, manage clipboard, and more - all from a unified interface.

pal run fzf apps      # launch applications
pal run rofi pals     # pick a palette to run
pal run fzf combine   # combined view of multiple palettes

Features

• Builtin palettes - Apps, bookmarks, processes, and more - no external dependencies
• Builtin frontends - fzf, rofi, and stdin work out of the box
• Plugin system - Extend with bash, python, or any language
• Layered config - Defaults + user config + project config + env vars
• Icon support - Show icons in rofi and other frontends
• Combine palettes - Merge multiple palettes into one view

Installation

cargo install rpal

Requires Rust 1.70+ (rustup)

Quick Start

# Initialize config at ~/.config/pal/config.toml
pal init

# Run with default palette and frontend
pal

# Run specific palette with specific frontend
pal run rofi apps

# List items without frontend (useful for debugging)
pal list apps

# Show loaded configuration
pal show-config

Builtin Palettes

Builtin Frontends

Configuration

Config is loaded in order (later overrides earlier):

1. Built-in defaults
2. pal.default.toml (in current directory)
3. ~/.config/pal/config.toml (user config)
4. pal.toml (in current directory)
5. -c <path> (CLI argument)
6. PAL_* environment variables

Example Config

[general]
default_palette = "combine"
default_frontend = "fzf"

[palette]
  [palette.combine]
  base = "builtin/palettes/combine"
  icon = "view-grid"
  include = ["pals", "quickcmds"]

  [palette.quickcmds]
  icon = "utilities-terminal"
  auto_list = true
  auto_pick = true
  data = "~/.config/pal/commands.json"
  default_action = "cmd"
  action_key = "cmd"

  [palette.audio]
  base = "~/.config/pal/plugins/audio"
  icon = "audio-card"

Data Files (auto_list)

For simple palettes, use a JSON lines file:

{"id": "1", "name": "List files", "icon": "terminal", "cmd": "ls -la"}
{"id": "2", "name": "Git status", "icon": "git", "cmd": "git status"}

Plugin Development

Plugins are directories with a plugin.toml and an executable.

plugin.toml

name = "my-palette"
desc = "Description of my palette"
version = "0.1"
command = ["run.sh"]

run.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

list() {
  echo '{"id":"1","name":"Item 1","icon":"folder"}'
  echo '{"id":"2","name":"Item 2","icon":"file"}'
}

pick() {
  item=$(cat)
  id=$(echo "$item" | jq -r '.id')
  echo "Selected: $id"
}

case "$1" in
  list) list ;;
  pick) pick ;;
esac

Plugin Config Access

Plugins receive their config via environment variable:

# In your plugin
cfg=$(echo "$_PAL_PLUGIN_CONFIG" | jq -r '.my_setting')

Remote Plugins

Load plugins directly from GitHub repositories:

[palette.ip]
base = "github:zcag/pal/plugins/palettes/ip"

# With specific branch or tag
[palette.ip]
base = "github:zcag/pal/plugins/palettes/ip@v1.0"

# Data files also support github: URLs
[palette.colors]
base = "github:zcag/pal/plugins/palettes/colors"
data = "github:zcag/pal/plugins/palettes/colors/data.json"

Plugins are cloned on first use to ~/.local/share/pal/plugins/ using git sparse checkout. Requires git to be installed.

Example Plugins

The plugins/ directory contains ready-to-use plugins. Use them directly via GitHub:

[palette.audio]
base = "github:zcag/pal/plugins/palettes/audio"

Actions

Actions define what happens when an item is picked with auto_pick:

[palette.commands]
auto_list = true
auto_pick = true
data = "commands.json"
default_action = "cmd"    # run as shell command
action_key = "cmd"        # field containing the command

Create custom actions as plugins in plugins/actions/:

# plugins/actions/copy/run.sh
run() {
  cat | wl-copy
}

Environment Variables

Tips

Combine for a unified launcher

[palette.launcher]
base = "builtin/palettes/combine"
include = ["apps", "bookmarks", "quickcmds"]

Different frontends for different contexts

# Terminal
alias p="pal run fzf"

# Desktop (bind to hotkey)
pal run rofi combine

Project-specific palettes

Create pal.toml in your project:

[palette.project]
auto_list = true
data = "scripts.json"
default_action = "cmd"
action_key = "cmd"

Roadmap

• pal update to update remote plugins
• Prompt support (text input, choice, etc.)
• Caching for slow palettes
• pal doctor for config validation
• REST API frontend
• More builtin palettes (calendar, OTP, etc.)

Disclaimer

This is a rewrite of my personal bash spaghetti that I implemented over the years, covering many palettes and frontends for various stuff. Inspired by Raycast - an awesome macOS Spotlight alternative that's also quite customizable. Many of the custom palettes here are ported from my custom Raycast plugins after I left macOS.

This is also an experiment for myself on Rust and AI-assisted coding. I have minimal Rust knowledge, and this is my first time properly using an AI agent for development. Claude Code was heavily used in this project - it straight up implemented a ton of the palettes based on my descriptions and reference bash scripts from the original pal.

License

MIT