Nova Launcher

A macOS-first productivity launcher inspired by Raycast. The first version focuses on local app launching through a keyboard-first command palette.

Screenshots

Features

• Option-Space global launcher hotkey
• Fast local app index for /Applications, /System/Applications, and user apps
• Fuzzy app and command search with arrow-key navigation and Return-to-open
• Direct web URL opening in the default browser, including domains without a scheme
• Basic focused-window commands for left half, right half, maximize, and next desktop
• Menu bar utility with reindex, settings, and quit actions
• Native Settings window for launch-at-login, theme, and shortcut customization
• Dark, light, and system appearance modes
• Local-only indexing; no network service or remote search

Run

./script/build_and_run.sh

The script builds the SwiftPM target, stages dist/NovaLauncherDev.app, and opens the app bundle as a foreground macOS application.

Local run, debug, log, telemetry, and verify commands build the development app by default as NovaLauncherDev.app. It uses the Nova Launcher Dev display name, the app.nova-launcher.dev bundle identifier, and a badged development icon so it can run beside the production Homebrew app.

To stage the production app locally:

./script/build_and_run.sh --bundle --production

Install with Homebrew

The Homebrew cask lives in suho/homebrew-tap. Tagged releases publish a versioned app zip and automatically update the cask checksum.

Prerequisites:

• macOS Tahoe 26.0 or newer
• Homebrew
• Xcode Command Line Tools with Swift 6.2 or newer

Install without manually tapping the repo:

brew install --cask suho/tap/nova-launcher

If you previously tapped this repository directly, remove the old tap first:

brew untap suho/nova-launcher

To upgrade:

brew upgrade --cask suho/tap/nova-launcher

To uninstall:

brew uninstall --cask suho/tap/nova-launcher

Release

The release workflow runs when a v* tag is pushed. It builds the app on GitHub Actions, signs and notarizes the app, creates a GitHub release with NovaLauncher-<version>.zip, computes the SHA-256 checksum, and dispatches suho/homebrew-tap to update the cask.

Signing uses fastlane match to install the Developer ID Application certificate into a temporary CI keychain. Notarization uses an App Store Connect API key with notarytool.

The suho/nova-launcher repository must have these GitHub Actions secrets:

• MATCH_GIT_URL: private fastlane match repository URL.
• MATCH_PASSWORD: fastlane match encryption password.
• MATCH_GIT_BASIC_AUTHORIZATION: optional HTTPS credential for the match repo, base64-encoded as username:token.
• MATCH_GIT_PRIVATE_KEY: optional SSH private key contents for the match repo.
• APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_ID: App Store Connect API key ID.
• APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_ISSUER_ID: App Store Connect API issuer ID.
• APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_BASE64: base64-encoded App Store Connect .p8 API key.
• HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN: fine-grained GitHub token scoped to suho/homebrew-tap with Contents read/write permission.

The match repository must already contain a Developer ID Application certificate. CI runs fastlane match developer_id --readonly and only installs existing signing assets. For a private match repository, provide either MATCH_GIT_BASIC_AUTHORIZATION or MATCH_GIT_PRIVATE_KEY.

Encode the App Store Connect .p8 key with:

base64 -i AuthKey_<key-id>.p8 | pbcopy

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

After adding or rotating signing secrets, run the release workflow manually with an existing tag to replace that release asset and update the tap checksum.