Wox is a cross-platform desktop launcher (macOS, Linux, Windows) written in Go with a custom retained-mode UI framework. It provides a keyboard-first search interface with an extensive plugin system (system plugins in Go, external plugins via WebSocket hosts for Python and Node.js). Core features include file search with content indexing (SQLite FTS5, USN journal, FSEvents), clipboard history, calculator, converter, emoji picker, screenshot with annotation, window management, AI chat with multiple providers (OpenAI, Ollama, etc.), cloud sync with encryption, and system commands (shell, timer, dictation). The architecture is a monolith with a plugin manager dispatching queries to registered plugins, rendering results in a custom widget tree with GPU-accelerated painting. It has a sophisticated settings system with typed definitions, migrations, and cloud sync. The codebase is large but well-organized, with extensive platform-specific code for Windows (COM, Win32), macOS (AppKit, Objective-C), and Linux (GTK, Wayland, X11).
Vicinae is a cross-platform desktop launcher and productivity tool written in modern C++20/23 with Qt6 and QML, inspired by Raycast. It provides a single keyboard-driven interface for launching applications, searching files, managing clipboard history, switching windows and workspaces, controlling media, running script commands, browsing fonts, picking emoji, and more. The system runs as a background server process with a CLI client, a file indexing subprocess, and a browser extension for tab management. It features a first-class extension system using TypeScript and Node.js, a custom fuzzy search library, an XDG desktop entry parser, encrypted clipboard storage, and deep platform integration for Linux (Wayland/X11, GNOME, KDE, Hyprland), macOS, and Windows. The architecture is modular with abstract service backends and a service registry for dependency injection.