Kickoff
A minimalistic fuzzy program launcher for wlroots-based Wayland compositors, written in Rust.
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About Kickoff
Kickoff is a small program launcher heavily inspired by rofi, with its own changes. It runs natively on Wayland and targets wlroots-based compositors, showing a search field where you type part of a program name and pick the match.
It is written in Rust and can be installed from the Arch User Repository or with cargo install kickoff. A Nix flake is also included in the repository for Nix users.
Strengths
- Native Wayland launcher
- Simple install through cargo or the AUR
- Nix flake included
Limitations
- Only supports wlroots-based compositors
- Small project with a narrow feature set
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source.
- License
- Open source, license not stated
- Developer
- j0ru
- Platforms
- Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Wayland users on Sway or similar compositors who want a simple rofi-style launcher
- Categories
- App launchers
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to Kickoff
Compare allSoftware that can replace Kickoff for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
fuzzel
An application launcher and fuzzy finder for Wayland compositors, inspired by rofi and dmenu.
fuzzel is a native Wayland launcher and dmenu-style picker written in C with regular releases, configured through text files.
tofi
A tiny, fast dmenu and rofi replacement for wlroots-based Wayland compositors.
tofi is a very fast dmenu and rofi replacement for wlroots compositors with bundled themes from slim bar to fullscreen.
wofi
A GTK-based launcher and menu program for wlroots Wayland compositors such as Sway.
wofi offers a GTK-styled launcher and dmenu replacement widely used with Sway, but it is not actively maintained.
rofi
A keyboard-driven window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement for Linux desktops.
rofi adds window switching and scriptable menus with MIT licensing, though configuration and theming take more effort.
sirula
A simple Rust app launcher for Wayland that starts applications from their .desktop files.
sirula is another small Rust Wayland launcher for .desktop entries, styled through CSS and maintained by one author.
Hyprlauncher
A fast, multipurpose application launcher and picker built for the Hyprland Wayland compositor.
Hyprlauncher adds emoji, Unicode, math and font providers with a daemon mode, but it is built for the Hyprland compositor.
Anyrun
A Wayland-native runner in the style of KRunner, built around plugins and customization.
Anyrun is a plugin-extendable Wayland runner with a Nix flake, but it is not open source.
Walker
A customizable GTK4 application launcher for Linux that also runs commands and does calculations.
Walker is a GTK4 launcher that also runs commands and calculations, with many options to configure, and it is not open source.
Kickoff as an alternative
Listings that name Kickoff as an alternative.
j4-dmenu-desktop
A fast desktop-entry launcher that feeds installed applications into dmenu or a compatible menu.
Kickoff is a self-contained fuzzy app launcher for wlroots Wayland compositors, installable through cargo or the AUR.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
wmenu
A dynamic menu for Wayland modeled on dmenu, for picking items from a list piped in.
bemenu
A dmenu-style dynamic menu and launcher that runs on Wayland, X11 and in a terminal.
nwg-drawer
A searchable full-screen application drawer for sway, Hyprland and other wlroots Wayland compositors.
centerpiece
A fast, minimal and plugin-extendable omnibox launcher for Wayland, written in Rust.