Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • •Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
  • •WebView2 Runtime (ships with Windows 11, auto-installed by Nex installer)
  • •~50-100 MB RAM when idle
  • •Rust 1.75+ (only if building from source)

Installation

Option 1: Installer (Recommended)

  1. 1.Download the latest release from GitHub Releases
  2. 2.Run the .exe installer and follow the setup wizard
  3. 3.Nex starts automatically in the background

Option 2: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/haxllo/nex.git cd nex cargo build --release --bin nex

Binary at target/release/nex.exe.

First Run

On first launch, Nex:

  1. 1.Creates config directory at %APPDATA%\Nex\
  2. 2.Writes default config.toml
  3. 3.Initializes SQLite search index
  4. 4.Scans Start Menu for installed applications
  5. 5.Registers global hotkey (Ctrl+Space by default)
  6. 6.Adds system tray icon

Verify with nex --status.

Your First Search

  1. 1.Press Ctrl+Space anywhere
  2. 2.Type an app name (e.g., notepad, chrome)
  3. 3.Press Enter to launch
  4. 4.Press Esc to dismiss

Search Syntax

InputBehaviorExample
plain textFuzzy search all itemscalc
>Search actions/commands> shutdown
@modeSwitch search mode@apps, @files
kind:...Filter by type (DSL)kind:file, ext:md

CLI Reference

CommandDescription
nexLaunch in background (default)
nex --foregroundDev mode: keep terminal attached
nex --backgroundExplicit background mode
nex --statusCheck if running
nex --status-jsonMachine-readable JSON status
nex --quitStop running instance
nex --restartRestart running instance
nex --ensure-configCreate default config if missing
nex --sync-startupSync Windows startup entry
nex --set-launch-at-startup=<true/false>Enable/disable auto-start
nex --diagnostics-bundleDump diagnostics to zip archive
nex --probe-indexPrint index statistics

Common Issues

Hotkey Not Working

Another app may be using the same hotkey. Change it in config:

hotkey = "Alt+Space"

Restart: nex --restart

Nex Fails to Start

Missing WebView2 Runtime on older Windows 10 builds. Download from Microsoft. Run nex --foreground to see error output.

"Nex is not recognized"

Binary not on %PATH%. Run from: "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Nex\bin\nex.exe"