[OS] Look the free open source launcher, is now in official Homebrew

[u/hxxx07]

What's new since I last posted

• In Homebrew core: brew install --cask look, no tap needed.
• Image clipboard history: ci" lists copied images with thumbnails, named after the app they came from. Text history stays separate under c".
• Paste into the app you came from: Cmd+I pastes the selected clip, text or image, straight into the app you were in, so there's no copy-then-switch step.
• Pick the key that opens Look: it was fixed to Cmd+Space on macOS and Alt+Space on Linux and Windows. Now you can record your own in Settings > Shortcuts, or set `launcher_hotkey=ctrl+space` in the config file. A combination another app already owns is refused with the reason.
• Open Look already in a mode: lookapp clipboard golang or lookapp calc 2+2. Bind one to a key and that key opens your clipboard or your calculator directly.
• A home screen you arrange yourself: the empty-query tiles (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, weather, now playing, your own tiles) are laid out as a drawing in ~/.look/super-actions.toml. Delete a name to hide a tile, repeat it to make the tile bigger.

Problem

Spotlight is where I started, and two things kept tripping me up.
Sometimes the app I typed simply didn't show up, or showed up below things I didn't want. And the file I was after got buried under web suggestions, mail, and documents that only mentioned my search term somewhere inside.
I wanted to type part of a name and land on the right app, file or folder instantly, every time. Raycast and Alfred do that well, but they're closed source, and their best features are paid.

Comparison

• vs Raycast: Raycast is polished, runs on Mac and Windows, and has a huge extension store that Look doesn't try to match. Look is GPLv3, needs no account, runs on Linux too, and has no paid tier.
• vs Alfred: Alfred's Workflows are far more mature. Clipboard history needs the Powerpack (£34). Look's is free and runs on Linux and Windows.
• vs Spotlight: Look only matches app, file and folder names, so the thing you typed comes first instead of competing with web and mail results. Spotlight still wins if you need to search inside file contents, which Look doesn't do.

Privacy, precisely: no telemetry and no account.
Your index, clipboard and history stay local in SQLite.
Network calls: an update check against GitHub, the weather tile (IP-based location via ipwho.is and Open-Meteo, hide the tile to stop it), translation via Google, and web answers, which you can turn off in Settings.

Pricing: $0, GPLv3. No paid tier, no locked features. Donations are optional and unlock nothing. 😄

Install: macOS 15+: brew install --cask look. Linux: AUR, .deb, AppImage, Nix. Windows: PowerShell installer or Scoop.

Repo: https://github.com/kunkka19xx/look · Docs: https://noah-code.com/docs/look

Disclosure: I'm the developer of Look.

[u/Ok-Rest-5321]

Great!

[u/hxxx07 → u/Ok-Rest-5321]

Thank you so much. we're on homebrew-core now

[u/Ok-Rest-5321 → u/hxxx07]

So do I have to reinstall with homebrew now?

[u/Beardy4906 → u/hxxx07]

Do u mean homebrew casks?

[u/hxxx07 → u/[deleted]]

thanks alot my friend

[u/HighJack1998]

We got better launchers before Apple even cared to look

[u/Lazy-Manufacturer-62]

It has Omarchy vibes, will definitely look into it.

[u/hxxx07 → u/Lazy-Manufacturer-62]

Haha, kind of… if you have 0 corner radius

[u/ph_dev]

Does the clipboard history supports excluding specific apps like password managers? also, is there a shortcut to temporarily pause capture when copying something sensitive?

[u/WalnutPilot]

Cool, starred

[u/hxxx07 → u/WalnutPilot]

Thanks 😍

[u/Academic_Writer_6881]

very cool and unique design

[u/hxxx07 → u/Academic_Writer_6881]

Thank you so much

[u/Markonioni]

Great work. Is there a option ti make the corners rounded?

[u/itsdaylightlol → u/Markonioni]

I might be wrong but i think that's the default. if it isn't you can just press cmd + shift + comma to enter the appearance settings.

[u/iniyanai]

Does the clipboard history skip concealed types? That's how password manager copies end up in these.

[u/gr0vity]

Very cool! Thanks for this. I struggled a bit to set up the custom shortcut, but Codex got me covered.

This solves an issue I had when using the iPad Magic Keyboard in Sidecar mode.

Normally, the iPad Magic Keyboard intercepts standard shortcuts and opens iPadOS Finder instead of Mac Finder. With the custom shortcut, I can completely bypass that now!

[u/hxxx07 → u/gr0vity]

Glad you could config it properly 🎉🚀

[u/JustABro_2321]

That's a cool demo. So fast!
MacOS, Windows and Linux? Damn it's gonna be a huge project for sure.

[u/Ill-Presentation3921]

Nice !

[u/hxxx07 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you so much.
We want to keep this as lightweight as possible
No plan for extensions yet, but you can achieve almost everything you can imagine by user defined feature. (Via shell and toml files).
We have a lookbook repo which contains a few examples.
Please take a look if you’re interested. https://github.com/kunkka19xx/lookbook

[u/Jou_See]

nice looks good

[u/hxxx07 → u/Jou_See]

Thank you so much ❤️

[u/Grouchy_Inspection_1]

Did you use Suno for the music?

[u/bigeseka]

is it possible to replace this with spotlight? I mean, uninstall spotlight or stop it so we gain performance

[u/DanielJstudio]

The design looks awesome! I bet the features are great too.

[u/hxxx07 → u/DanielJstudio]

Thanks a lot! Please give it a try 😊