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PyDoc — Full Feature List

PyDoc v1.0.0 Stable — a fast, beautiful, keyboard-first app launcher for Windows (also runs on macOS & Linux), built with Python + pywebview and a Windows 11–style web UI.

🚀 Launcher core

  • Single-folder model — only shortcuts in the Shortcuts/ folder (+ shortcuts.json) are listed; nothing else is indexed.
  • Fuzzy search with prefix/exact boosts and live match highlighting.
  • Usage ranking — most-used & recently-used shortcuts float to the top automatically.
  • Folder expansion — make a folder a shortcut and the files inside it also become searchable.
  • Pins — pin favourites to the top (Ctrl+P or the pin button).
  • Groups — tag shortcuts into groups and filter with chips.
  • Aliases — give any shortcut a keyword (e.g. vsc → VS Code).
  • Per-item global hotkeys — bind a key combo to launch any single shortcut.
  • Alt + 1…9 — instantly launch the Nth visible result.
  • Clear button in the search bar; Esc to hide.

➕ Adding shortcuts

  • Drag & drop any file, folder, or link onto the window → saved as a tiny .qllink file.
  • Add dialog (+ button or Ctrl+Win+A) with name, target, group, alias, hotkey & icon.
  • Custom entries for URLs / commands / system apps via shortcuts.json or the in-app editor.
  • Delete with Ctrl+D (confirmation prompt).

🎨 Icon system (Google Material, offline)

  • 4,200+ Material Symbols bundled as an offline font — searchable picker.
  • Choose Default (auto-guessed from file type / URL), a Material icon, an emoji/character, or your own image (.ico / .svg / .png / …, copied into Icons/).
  • No emoji clutter — clean Fluent-style glyphs throughout.

🧮 Inline tools

  • Calculator — type 23*7+1, sqrt(144), (1+2)^3, 50%… and press Enter to copy the result (safe AST evaluation, no eval).
  • Web search / open URL — type a query to search the web (configurable engine) or a domain to open it directly.

🖥️ Command runner

  • Open with the terminal button, by typing cmd / run / > <command>, or Ctrl+Win+R.
  • Runs real shell commands (cmd.exe on Windows, sh elsewhere; configurable shell) with captured output.
  • Colored output — errors red, warnings amber, success green, paths blue, numbers/IPs highlighted; the command line is syntax-highlighted.
  • Auto-correction — "Did you mean ipconfig?" suggestions (Levenshtein, learns from your history). Toggleable.
  • History — pinned commands persist to cmd_history.json; unpinned session commands clear on reboot. Copy / pin / reuse from the list; ↑/↓ to scroll.

📸 Screenshots

  • Type screenshot / snip / capture, use Ctrl+Win+S, or the tray menu.
  • Three modes: region snip, whole screen (all monitors), active window.
  • Saves a timestamped PNG to Screenshots/ and (optionally) copies to the clipboard.
  • Uses the OS-native snipper where available (Windows Snip & Sketch, macOS screencapture, Linux spectacle/gnome-screenshot/scrot); falls back to Pillow ImageGrab.
  • The launcher hides itself first so it's never in the shot.

🔒 Security — password lock & spaces

  • Password lock — require a salted-SHA-256 password to search or launch (enforced server-side, not just visual). Re-arms whenever the window hides.
  • Segmented PIN field — one box per typed character, with a show/hide eye and Caps-Lock warning.
  • Master (recovery) password — unlocks (and can disable) the lock if you forget your password; surfaced after a couple of failed attempts.
  • Alternate / hidden spaces (up to 10) — each alternate password reveals its own separate set of shortcuts stored in its own Profiles/<id>/ folder. They never appear in any list; just type that password on the lock screen to drop straight into that space. Great for work/personal separation or sensitive links.
  • Spaces auto-revert to the default on hide/re-lock.

🪟 Windows 11 look & feel

  • Mica-style layered background, rounded window, accent selection bar, smooth pop/fade animations.
  • 6 themes — Windows 11 Dark, Windows 11 Light, Graphite, Nord, Mint, Sunset (live-switch with Tab or in Settings); add your own in themes.json.
  • Flat, Windows-style lock screen.

⚙️ System integration

  • System-tray background app — Open · Run command · Screenshot · Reload · Open folders · Quit.
  • Global hotkeys (needs the optional keyboard package), all rebindable via a click-to-record control:
    Action Default
    Open / toggle launcher Ctrl+Win+N
    Add new shortcut Ctrl+Win+A
    Screenshot (region) Ctrl+Win+S
    Run command Ctrl+Win+R
  • Auto-start on Windows login (HKCU Run key) — one checkbox.
  • Click-away to close (hide on blur), with native foreground focus-grab so you can type immediately.
  • Reliable cursor focus on the right field every time the window opens.

⌨️ Keyboard cheat-sheet

Key Action
↑ / ↓, PgUp/PgDn Move selection
Enter Open selected (calc → copy)
Ctrl+Enter Open the Shortcuts folder
Alt+1…9 Launch the Nth result
Ctrl+P Pin / unpin
Ctrl+D Remove shortcut
Ctrl+N Add shortcut
Ctrl+R Command runner
Tab Next theme
Ctrl+, Settings
Esc Hide

🛠️ Settings (in-app)

  • General — theme, web-search URL, max results, show paths, show on startup, hide on blur, calculator, web search, screenshots (+ copy to clipboard), command runner (+ autocorrect), auto-start.
  • Keybinds — record any global hotkey.
  • Shortcuts — add/edit/delete custom entries; set group/alias/hotkey/icon on any item.
  • Security — enable lock, master password, alternate spaces.
  • Themes — visual picker.
  • About — version & summary.

📦 Packaging & distribution

  • PyDoc.spec — one-file PyInstaller build (pyinstaller PyDoc.spec → dist/PyDoc.exe), bundling the web UI, offline font and themes; runtime data is created next to the exe. Frozen-aware paths.
  • version_info.txt — Windows version resource embedded in the exe.
  • install.cmd / uninstall.cmd — register/unregister auto-start and Start-Menu shortcut.
  • GitHub Actions:
    • pages.yml — auto-deploy the marketing site (site/) to GitHub Pages.
    • build.yml — build PyDoc.exe on tag pushes and attach it to a Release.

🌍 Platform support

Window Tray Hotkeys Auto-start Screenshots
Windows 10/11 ✅ WebView2 ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
macOS ✅ ✅ ⚠️ perms ➖ ✅
Linux ✅ GTK/Qt ✅ ⚠️ root ➖ ✅

🧩 Tech

  • Pure-Python logic (core.py) + pywebview host (launcher.py) + a Windows-11 web UI (web/).
  • Optional deps: keyboard (hotkeys), pystray + pillow (tray & screenshots), pyinstaller (build).
  • Requires Python 3.11+.