stafford williams

project-switch: Paprika grocery list in the launcher and CLI

Sun, 25 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The launcher picked up its first non-project integration this week: the Paprika shopping list. Adding milk is now ALT+SPACE, grocery milk, Enter.

Added

grocery launcher item to add and remove Paprika grocery items
project-switch grocery subcommand for Paprika grocery lists

project-switch: Per-command browser choice, launcher hotkeys, tab completion

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The launcher got faster to drive this week. Favourite commands can be bound to their own key combo, and Tab completes a key before you type arguments. One link can also open under different browser profiles, with the launcher remembering which one you used last.

Added

Per-command hotkey (e.g. alt+a, ctrl+shift+1) that runs the command with one keystroke in the GUI launcher
A command's browser can be a list of {label, value} entries (e.g. one Firefox profile each), picked from a prompt in terminal list and in the GUI launcher
The last browser picked for each command is remembered in ~/.project-switch-browser-choices.yml and offered first next time
Tab in the GUI launcher completes the input to the highlighted item's key, ready for typed arguments

project-switch: Built-in switch item in the launcher

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Switching clients is now built into the launcher instead of needing a config workaround. A switch row is always in the list and shows where you are. macOS also started honouring per-command browser arguments such as profiles.

Added

Built-in switch item in every launcher list, showing the active client and project (e.g. apm / web); in the GUI it opens the client and project picker, in the terminal it runs the switch prompt

Changed

Config commands that re-invoke project-switch switch are no longer intercepted and should be removed in favour of the built-in item

Fixed

Browser arguments (e.g. a profile flag) are now applied on macOS when the browser is already running, by launching a new instance with open -n

project-switch: Multiple tray webservers, webview navigation

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The tray can now run several local web UIs side by side, in WSL or natively, each on its own port. Webview commands can also send an already-open window to a specific page without a reload. Along the way, Windows instance cleanup stopped relying on the retired wmic tool and the launcher got its instant startup back.

Added

navigate: true on a webview command sends its URL to an already-open webview window, routing same-origin URLs client-side so single-page apps update without reloading
webservers list in config: the tray can run several webservers, each with its own submenu, port, log file and a target of wsl or native (the old single webserver key still works)

Changed

The GUI launcher moved to eframe 0.36

Fixed

The launcher opens instantly from the hotkey again
The webview page gets keyboard focus when the window opens or is brought to the front
Closing earlier instances on Windows uses Win32 APIs instead of wmic, which is missing on newer Windows builds

project-switch: macOS config error dialog

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The macOS launcher now tells you when your config is broken. It shows the error in a dialog you can copy from, as Windows already did.

Fixed

Config errors in the GUI launcher on macOS now appear in a native dialog with Copy Error and Open Config buttons, instead of failing silently

project-switch: Relevance-ranked launcher matches

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The launcher got better at guessing what you meant. Typing part of a key now ranks the obvious match first, and pressing Enter opens what's at the top of the list instead of whatever comes first alphabetically.

Fixed

start-hotkey.sh strips CLAUDE* session variables before starting the tray, so apps launched from it don't inherit a Claude Code session environment
Launcher matches are ranked exact key first, then prefix, then mid-string, and Enter on a partial match opens the top suggestion shown (typing mer now gives mercury before commercials)

project-switch: Client and project picker in the GUI launcher

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Switching clients now works from the hotkey window. Before, the GUI launcher couldn't run switch because it needs a terminal, so the launcher now has its own client and project picker that offers the same choices.

Fixed

A command that runs project-switch switch now opens a client and project picker inside the GUI launcher instead of trying to start a terminal prompt with no console

project-switch: Link previews in the Windows webview

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A single fix this week. On Windows the webview again shows where a link goes before you click it, as a normal Edge window does.

Fixed

Hovering a link in the Windows webview shows its target URL in the bottom-left status strip again

project-switch: macOS utility apps in the launcher

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A single fix this week. Apple's bundled utility apps were missing from the launcher because their folder wasn't searched. It now is, so Activity Monitor and friends turn up again.

Fixed

macOS utilities such as Activity Monitor and Terminal, which live in /System/Applications/Utilities, now appear in the launcher

project-switch: Configurable webserver port, webview external-link freeze

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A small webserver and webview week. The tray-managed webserver can now run on any port, and handing a link off to a slow-starting browser no longer locks up the webview window.

Added

webserver.port config (default 3100) used for the tray's Open in browser link and for detecting and stopping the server

Fixed

Clicking an external link in the webview no longer freezes it ("Not Responding") while the browser starts up

project-switch: Webserver shell marker, Windows instance cleanup

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A small plumbing week. Shell profiles can now tell when they're being loaded for the tray-managed webserver, and on Windows the hotkey closes the old launcher again without touching open webview windows.

Added

The tray-launched webserver runs with PROJECT_SWITCH_WEBSERVER=1 (passed into WSL via WSLENV), so shell profiles can detect it and skip interactive setup

Fixed

On Windows, pressing the hotkey again closes the previous launcher while leaving open webview windows alone; the process query it relied on was invalid WQL

project-switch: macOS webview menu bar and clipboard shortcuts

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A single fix this week. The macOS webview window had no menu bar, which meant copy, paste and quit shortcuts did nothing inside it.

Fixed

The macOS webview has a menu bar again, so Cmd+Q and Cmd+X/C/V/A work in it

project-switch: In-app webview window, pinned commands, tray-managed webserver

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

project-switch started hosting web apps itself this week. A command can open in a borderless window that comes back with the hotkey, and the tray can now keep the local assist web UI running. Favourite commands can also be pinned so they're always first in the list.

Added

Webview windows reload with Cmd+R / Ctrl+R and are titled after the command that opened them
webserver config and a tray submenu (Enabled, Restart, Open in browser, View logs) that keeps the assist webserver running in the background, inside WSL on Windows and natively on macOS
pinned: true on a command keeps it at the top of the launcher's recent list
webview: true on a URL command opens it in a reusable borderless in-app window on Windows and macOS instead of a browser; links to other sites go to the default browser
Tray, Dock and window icons now use the project logo

Fixed

Stopping the webserver only kills the process listening on its port, and the macOS process kill matches the exact process name instead of anything containing it
Terminal links clicked inside the macOS webview now open
The switcher and webview windows show the right taskbar icon on Windows

project-switch: Store and MSIX apps in the Windows launcher

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A single fix this week. Windows apps installed from the Store or as MSIX packages were missing from the launcher because they have no shortcut file. They're now read straight from the shell's Apps folder.

Fixed

Store and MSIX-packaged apps on Windows, which have no Start Menu .lnk, now appear in the launcher via the shell AppsFolder

project-switch: macOS launcher fixes

Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two macOS fixes this week. When a monitor is selected the launcher window shows up again, and Apple's built-in apps now appear in the launcher alongside everything else.

Fixed

The launcher window on macOS no longer stays invisible off-screen when a monitor is selected
Built-in macOS apps in /System/Applications (Calculator, Notes, etc.) now appear as shortcuts

project-switch: Clients with nested projects

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

project-switch now has two levels: clients, each with their own projects. If you juggle several repos for one client, they can share the client's links while still having their own, and existing configs are migrated automatically.

Added

Clients can contain nested projects, with commands resolved project > client > global; switch picks a client first, then the client itself or one of its projects

Changed

Config top level renamed from projects/currentProject to clients/currentClient; existing local and included configs are migrated in place on first load
The add command is removed

project-switch: Launcher selection and typed arguments together

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A single fix this week. Last week's two launcher fixes were undoing each other: either the highlighted item opened or your typed arguments were kept, but not both. Now both work.

Fixed

Pressing Enter in the GUI launcher opens the highlighted item and still keeps any arguments typed after its key

project-switch: Recent actions, monitor selection, GUI error dialogs, faster hotkey

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The new GUI launcher got polished for everyday use. It opens instantly and on the right monitor, remembers what you used last, and when something goes wrong it shows an error instead of failing silently.

Added

Errors are appended to ~/.project-switch.log (capped at 64KB) and shown in a native dialog in GUI mode instead of being lost
Monitor submenu in the tray to choose which screen the launcher appears on, saved to config and passed as list --gui --monitor N
The launcher opens showing up to 10 recent actions, including calculator expressions and file paths, stored in ~/.project-switch-history.yml; typing switches to the full list

Changed

Windows terminal commands are spawned through cmd again instead of a Windows Terminal tab, so .cmd scripts resolve on PATH and the launcher doesn't wait for them
Unfinished calculator expressions like =5+ show = 5+... while you type instead of an error

Fixed

Arguments typed after a URL command's key in the GUI launcher (e.g. g some text) are no longer dropped
Pressing Enter in the GUI launcher opens the highlighted item, not always the first one
The launcher window appears without the half-second delay after ALT+SPACE and reliably takes focus

project-switch: Native egui launcher window, hotkey merged into main binary

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The launcher moved out of the terminal this week and into a native window. One ALT+SPACE now brings up an instant egui picker with everything the terminal version had, and the hotkey daemon started moving into the main binary so there's a single program to run.

Added

Native launcher window (list --gui, built with egui) with the same commands, shortcuts, calculator, URL opening and file path browsing as the terminal picker; directories offer both open and browse
The hotkey now opens the native window instead of a terminal, and the window hides when it loses focus
Running project-switch with no subcommand starts the hotkey and tray daemon from the main binary
On Windows the hotkey app copies itself to %LOCALAPPDATA%\project-switch and relaunches from there, so the build output can be rebuilt while it runs

Changed

Terminal commands on Windows run in a new Windows Terminal (wt.exe) tab so interactive commands get a console
The hotkey and launcher windows no longer show Dock icons on macOS

Fixed

Slashes in typed URL arguments are kept as path separators instead of being encoded to %2F

project-switch: Explicit terminal commands, stricter config, always-encoded search args

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The config format got clearer this week. Terminal commands now have their own command field, typos in config keys show up as errors instead of being silently ignored, and search arguments are always encoded properly. Errors also stay on screen long enough to read when list was opened from the hotkey.

Added

command field for entries that run in the terminal instead of a browser; the config is rejected if an entry sets both url and command, or both command and browser
list --debug prints the full command and arguments before running them

Changed

Unknown keys in ~/.project-switch.yml are now a config error instead of being silently ignored
Errors pause with "Press Enter to exit" so they stay readable when list was opened from the hotkey
Arguments typed after a URL command's key are always URL-encoded; the url_encode option is removed

Fixed

A command's args on a URL entry are now passed to the browser as flags, not appended to the URL

project-switch: Windows URLs with spaces

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A one-fix week. On Windows, URLs with spaces now reach the browser as a single address instead of being split apart by PowerShell.

Fixed

URLs containing spaces (e.g. a search with unencoded arguments) no longer get split into several tabs when opened in a named browser on Windows

project-switch: Inline calculator in list

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A small quality-of-life week. The ALT+SPACE launcher can now do quick sums too, so you don't need to open a separate calculator.

Added

Calculator mode in list: type = followed by an expression (e.g. =5*1.1) to see the result live as you type

project-switch: Global hotkey tray app, app shortcuts, shared config with git sync

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

project-switch became a keyboard launcher this week. A tray app puts list one ALT+SPACE away on Windows and macOS. The picker gained installed apps and file paths next to project links, and a shared config that syncs through git means the same commands follow you between machines.

Added

project-switch-hotkey tray app for Windows and macOS: a global ALT+SPACE hotkey that opens project-switch list in a terminal (Windows Terminal, or iTerm/Terminal on macOS), closing any instance already open
Tray menu with Open, a Shortcuts toggle and Exit; the hotkey app replaces older copies of itself on start and creates the config file if it's missing
Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts (.lnk/.url) on Windows and .app bundles on macOS appear in list as launchable entries, configurable via shortcuts.enabled, extraPaths and exclude
include config key that merges a shared config (e.g. from a dotfiles repo) into the local ~/.project-switch.yml, matching projects by name and commands by key
The hotkey app keeps an included config that lives in a git repo in sync, pulling and committing/pushing local changes every 30 seconds
File path autocomplete in list: typing a drive letter or UNC path browses folders and files to open

Changed

list works without a current project, showing global commands and shortcuts
~/.project-switch.yml is created automatically on first run
Terminal commands launched from list now wait for the command to finish

project-switch: Direct URL opening, open deprecated

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The prompt now doubles as a quick address bar: type any domain and it opens in the right browser. list also became the single way in, with open deprecated and hidden.

Added

Typing a URL or bare domain (e.g. example.com) that matches no command opens it directly in the project's browser, adding https:// when it's missing

Changed

open is deprecated and hidden from help in favour of list

project-switch: Autocomplete selection fix, tidier config saves

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A short fix-up week. list's autocomplete now selects suggestions correctly, and switching projects no longer leaves the hand-edited YAML config reordered and full of nulls.

Fixed

Saving ~/.project-switch.yml keeps the file's existing key order instead of rewriting it
Saving the config no longer writes empty fields as null or url_encode: false
Picking a highlighted suggestion in list fills in just its key, without the coloured → url text that broke the match

project-switch: Global commands, terminal commands, typed arguments, browser profiles

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A single day's work turned project-switch from a bookmark opener into a general launcher. Commands can now be shared across projects, run things in the terminal, take arguments typed at the prompt (search queries, ticket numbers) and open in a chosen browser profile.

Added

url_encode option per command that URL-encodes typed arguments before they're appended to the URL
Browser strings can carry arguments (e.g. firefox -P work) to open URLs in a specific browser profile
Typed arguments in list: enter key some args to append the args to the command's URL or pass them to its terminal command
Commands whose url isn't an http link now run as terminal commands, with optional args from config
Top-level global command list that's available in every project, with project commands taking precedence

Changed

list is now a type-to-filter autocomplete prompt instead of a fixed select menu

project-switch: Interactive list picker, Windows browser launching

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The week added list, so you no longer need to remember a project's link keys: you just pick from a menu. Opening a browser on Windows was also fixed so it works no matter which directory you launch from.

Added

list command: an interactive picker over the current project's URLs, sorted by key, that opens the chosen one in its configured browser

Fixed

Opening URLs on Windows now goes through PowerShell Start-Process from C:\, so it works when launched from a WSL or UNC working directory

project-switch: Rust rewrite, native Windows and Linux binaries

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

project-switch dropped Node and was rewritten in Rust. It's the same tool and config, but it now ships as a single native binary that starts almost instantly, which matters for something you run constantly from the terminal.

Added

Docker cross-compilation build (docker-compose up build) that outputs bin/windows/project-switch.exe and bin/linux/project-switch

Changed

Rewrote the CLI in Rust with clap, keeping the switch, add, current and open commands and the existing ~/.project-switch.yml format
Startup time drops from roughly 100-200ms under Node to a few milliseconds as a native binary

project-switch: First release, project switching, per-project URL shortcuts

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The first week of project-switch: a small Node CLI that remembers which project you're working on and opens its related URLs (docs, staging, prod, GitHub) in the right browser with a single short key.

Added

project-switch CLI (TypeScript, built on commander) with switch, add and current commands for picking and tracking the current project
open <key> command that launches a URL configured for the current project, on Windows, macOS and Linux
Browser selection per command, per project or globally via defaultBrowser, falling back in that order
YAML config stored at ~/.project-switch.yml, with an example-config.yml to start from