Flow Launcher

Flow.Launcher.Core is the central engine of the Flow Launcher ecosystem. It provides the foundational logic required to build and run plugins and manage the application lifecycle. Its primary responsibilities include:

• Query Handling: Processing user input and routing it through the plugin system.
• Plugin Management: Orchestrating both system-level plugins and user-defined plugins.
• Exception Management: Providing a standardized set of Flow Launcher exceptions.
• Theme Management: Handling the visual styling of the launcher interface.
• Internationalization (i18n): Managing multi-language support.
• Update & Version Management: Handling application updates and version tracking.

To develop a plugin for Flow Launcher, you should reference the Flow.Launcher.Plugin package. Depending on your preferred development environment, follow the specific guides provided by the Flow Launcher documentation:

• For a general overview of plugin development, use the General plugin development guide.
• If you are building a plugin using .NET, use the .Net plugin development guide.
• For detailed technical specifications of the plugin interfaces, refer to the Package API Reference.

Flow Launcher uses a pull-request-based development model.

• Merged vs. Released: Some features may be merged into the dev branch but not yet included in the current official release. These are available via pre-release downloads.
• Milestones: Pull requests are marked with milestones indicating the planned release version.
• Best Practice: Before starting a new change, search through open and closed pull requests to ensure your intended change hasn't already been implemented.
• Contribution Areas: You can contribute to the main C# codebase, documentation (Markdown), or the website (HTML/CSS).

Flow Launcher distinguishes between two categories of plugins based on how they are triggered via action keywords:

1. System plugins: These plugins use * as their action keyword. They do not require a specific prefix and are typically integrated into the core search experience to provide global functionality.
2. User plugins: These plugins use customized action keywords. They are triggered by typing a specific command or keyword defined by the plugin developer.

You can manage plugins in Flow Launcher using two primary methods:

1. Plugin Store UI: Open the Plugin Store menu within the Flow Launcher Settings to view the full list and install plugins visually.
2. Command Line Interface (CLI): Type the following commands directly into the Flow Launcher search window:
   • pm install <plugin name>
   • pm uninstall <plugin name>
   • pm update <plugin name>

To develop or debug Flow Launcher, ensure your environment meets the following requirements:

1. Target Framework: .NET 9
2. IDE: Visual Studio 2022 (version 17.12 or higher)
3. SDK: .NET 9 SDK

You can install the .NET 9 SDK using one of these methods:

• Via the Visual Studio Installer
• Via winget: winget install Microsoft.DotNet.SDK.9
• Manually from the official .NET download page.

Flow Launcher supports a wide range of plugins. Developers can create and publish plugins using several different languages and frameworks. Supported development environments include:

• .NET: Create plugins using C# or F#.
• Python: Develop plugins using Python.
• Node.js: Develop plugins using JavaScript or TypeScript.

For detailed guides and samples, refer to the official documentation for each language.

You can quickly access your configuration and log files using commands within the Flow Launcher search bar:

• Open User Settings: Type flow user data to open the folder containing your saved user settings.
• Open Logs: Type open log location to open the folder where logs are saved (this folder is located alongside your user settings folder).

Default Paths

• Roaming Installation: %APPDATA%\FlowLauncher
• Portable Installation: %localappdata%\FlowLauncher\app-<VersionOfYourFlowLauncher>\UserData

Flow Launcher can be installed via standard Windows installers or package managers.

Manual Installation

• Windows 10+ Installer: Download the .exe from the latest releases.
• Portable Version: Download the .zip from the latest releases.

Note: If Windows raises a security warning because the code is unsigned, you can safely continue if you downloaded it from the official repository.

Package Managers

Use the following commands for automated installation:

# Using Winget
winget install "Flow Launcher"

# Using Scoop
scoop install Flow-Launcher

# Using Chocolatey
choco install Flow-Launcher