Nox — Raycast-style Application Launcher
Building Nox meant wiring together Qt6, QML, and modern C++ so the UI felt snappy while the backend handled fuzzy search, plugins, and system-wide hotkeys.
Each keystroke is routed through a multithreaded indexing pipeline, letting the launcher stay under 50 ms across 10,000+ entries. That performance gave the app the same “instant” feel Raycast sets, even when querying files, apps, or shortcuts in the same frame.
Key highlights:
- Tools: Qt6, QML, C++, CMake, GitHub for source control and releases.
- Launcher core: Keyboard-driven surface with fuzzy search that combines apps, documents, and custom commands into a single palette.
- Plugin architecture: Modular QtQuick panels (calculator, clipboard history, web search) plus a system tray presence and global hotkeys for Linux/Windows.
- Concurrency: Indexing runs on worker threads that keep the UI responsive while reflecting changes immediately.
Building Nox also meant fine-tuning the QML animations so the launcher slides in smoothly, then routing the chosen command back to the C++ backend to execute.
Will resume later