Getting started

From nothing to the first search, plus the syntax worth memorising and the two failures that actually happen.

What you need

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
WebView2. It ships with Windows 11 and with most updated Windows 10 installs; if the panel stays blank, install the Evergreen runtime from Microsoft.
Rust 1.85 or newer, only if you are building from source.

Install

Download the latest installer from GitHub Releases and run it. Nex is a per-user install and starts in the background when it finishes. There is no window until you ask for one.

If you prefer a portable copy, the zip on the same release page unpacks and runs in place.

Build from source

The repository builds two binaries: the app and the helper that owns activation and allowlisted key simulation.

PowerShell

git clone https://github.com/haxllo/nex.git
cd nex
cargo build --release --bin Nex --bin NexHelper
.\target\release\Nex.exe

First run

On first launch Nex does five things:

Creates %APPDATA%\Nex\config.toml with the defaults.
Scans the Start menu and installed applications.
Creates the Tantivy index and SQLite state in the same folder.
Registers the global hotkey, the Win key unless you change it.
Adds a tray icon, where quit, restart, and startup controls live.

Confirm it is running with nex --status. The first index pass on a large drive takes a moment; the panel shows progress while it finishes.

The first search

Win opens the panel on the monitor under the cursor.
Type an app name. Fuzzy matching handles a missing or swapped letter.
Enter opens the selected result, Esc closes the panel.
Right-click a result for run as admin, copy path, open folder, pin, or uninstall.

Search syntax

There is one field and no modes to learn. The first characters of a query decide the scope, and everything after them is still a fuzzy search.

> restart searches actions and commands only.
@apps, @files, @folders narrow the pool before the fuzzy match runs.
kind:file and ext:md filter by type. modified:week and created:month filter by date.
AND, OR, NOT combine terms. A leading - excludes them, which is how you drop -node_modules.
4*(18+7) evaluates inline. A bare domain such as youtube.com opens in the browser.

Command line

The app is a background process. These flags are for the rare cases.

PowerShell

nex --status              # is it running
nex --quit                # stop the instance
nex --restart             # restart the instance
nex --diagnostics-bundle  # write a diagnostics zip

When something is wrong

The hotkey does nothing

Another app may own the combination. Change hotkey in the config file to "Ctrl+Space" or "Ctrl+Shift+Space", save, and run nex --restart. The Win key alone is safe because Nex registers it through a helper instead of the shell.

The panel is blank

That is almost always a missing WebView2 runtime on Windows 10. Install it from Microsoft, then restart Nex. If the panel stays opaque, the glass renderer could not start and Nex fell back on purpose.

Files are missing

Check discovery_roots. Nex scans the user folder by default and skips system, temp, and build directories such as node_modules and .git.

The configuration reference documents every key, its type, and its range. The full source lives at github.com/haxllo/nex.

Configuration reference Plugin SDK