Walker

Walker is the quick launcher used by Keystone Desktop.

In Keystone, Walker provides the main desktop launcher and custom menu surface.

Keystone Desktop uses two related projects:

Walker for the visible launcher UI
Elephant for the provider and menu backend that powers custom menus and data sources

In practice, Walker is the frontend you open, and Elephant is the backend that provides custom project menus, clipboard data, files, symbols, and other searchable sources.

What it does

Walker is used to:

launch desktop applications,
find and switch to project workspaces,
reopen project terminals when they are not already running, and
surface project context that comes from Keystone notes.

Keystone launcher prefixes

Keystone configures Walker with a few high-value prefixes so you can jump directly into a provider instead of searching the default mixed launcher view.

. opens the files provider
= opens the calc provider
$ opens the clipboard provider
/ opens the providerlist view

These prefixes make Walker usable as a general desktop command surface, not just an app launcher.

Project navigation

Keystone integrates Walker with Keystone's project model. That means Walker can:

list projects from the notes index,
jump to the right Ghostty or Zellij session for a project, and

If your notes are stale, the Walker project menu will also be stale. See Notes for how project notes are synced and used as durable context.

How it fits into Keystone Desktop

The intended flow is:

Keep project notes up to date
Use Walker when you want to jump between projects from the desktop

This gives Keystone Desktop a fast project-oriented navigation model instead of just a flat application launcher.

Desktop keybindings

The most important launcher-related keybindings are:

$mod+Space opens Walker
$mod+Ctrl+V opens the clipboard manager in a terminal
$mod+Ctrl+E opens Walker in symbols mode
$mod+K opens the desktop keybindings menu