Bin Launcher GNOME Extension

A simple GNOME Shell extension that adds a panel icon to launch scripts from ~/bin/launch/ using kitty.

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🔧 Features

• Adds an icon to your top panel
• Shows a dropdown list of scripts in ~/bin/launch/ (I recommend using symlinks in that folder)
• Clicking an entry launches the script in a detached terminal (kitty --detach)
• Displays a placeholder if the folder is empty

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📦 Installation

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/tangosox/bin-launcher.git

Copy the files to your GNOME extensions directory:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/my-bin-launcher@paul.local
cp -r bin-launcher/* ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/my-bin-launcher@paul.local

Restart GNOME Shell:
In X11:

Press Alt+F2, type r, and press Enter

In Wayland:
Log out and log back in

Enable the extension:

gnome-extensions enable my-bin-launcher@paul.local

📂 Folder Naming for GNOME

GNOME requires the extension folder name to match the uuid in metadata.json.

This project uses: "uuid": "my-bin-launcher@paul.local" So your local folder must be named:

~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/my-bin-launcher@paul.local/

If you rename the extension or change the UUID, make sure the folder name and metadata.json match.

🖥️ Changing the Terminal

By default, this extension uses:

GLib.spawn_command_line_async(`kitty --detach "${path}"`);

You can change kitty to your preferred terminal. Examples:

// GNOME Terminal:
GLib.spawn_command_line_async(`gnome-terminal -- "${path}"`);

// foot:
GLib.spawn_command_line_async(`foot -e "${path}"`);

// alacritty:
GLib.spawn_command_line_async(`alacritty -e "${path}"`);

Make sure the terminal you use supports -e or a similar flag for executing commands.

✅ Requirements

GNOME Shell 45–48

kitty (or any terminal you configure it to use)

Executable scripts or symlinks to executable scripts in ~/bin/launch/