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 (Win by default)
  6. 6.Adds system tray icon

Verify with nex --status.

Your First Search

  1. 1.Press Win 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"