Search apps, files, clipboard history, emoji, calculations, password managers and more from one background service that launchers such as Walker query.
What you can do with Elephant
Serve search results and actions to a launcher or desktop widget over a Unix socket.
Rename actions open to menus:open and default to menus:default, rename %RESULT% to %VALUE%, and set value explicitly on entries: it no longer defaults to the entry text.
Open a desktop file for editing straight from the app search.
Details
desktopapplications gained an edit action and exposes Flatpak and Snap ids as item state; calc results use locale digit grouping by default; go.mod now requires Go 1.27.1.
v2.22.1; building from source needs Go 1.27.1.
Improved: Search and launch installed desktop applications, r…Behavior changed: Calculate and convert units from the launcher, with…Action required / inferred
Improved / inferred: Browse and reuse text and image clipboard history.Improved: Copy passwords and one-time codes from 1Password, B…Added / inferred: Search, install and remove packages with apt.
Switch audio devices and volume from the launcher.
Details
New wireplumber provider; elephant can generate a config file; the windows provider lists workspaces, with show_empty_workspaces. Groups v2.20.0 to v2.20.2.
v2.20.2; audio control needs PipeWire and WirePlumber.
Added: Configure audio devices through PipeWire and WirePl…Improved: Find an open window by title or app and focus it.
New niri actions provider; todo items with a time can be created without entering creation mode; copying files stores them as text/uri-list. Groups v2.19.0 and v2.19.1.
v2.19.1; niri actions need niri.
Added: Search and run niri compositor actions.Improved: Keep a todo list with due times and notifications.
Clipboard items can be pinned; new Bitwarden and DNF packages providers; Bluetooth shows battery level, turns the adapter on and off and connects or disconnects all devices. Groups v2.18.0 to v2.18.2.
v2.18.2; Bitwarden needs its CLI, DNF packages need Fedora.
Improved: Browse and reuse text and image clipboard history.Improved: Copy passwords and one-time codes from 1Password, B…Added / inferred: Search, install and remove packages with DNF.Improved: Connect, disconnect, pair, trust and remove Bluetoo…
Websearch opens a query that is a URL, and always_show_default keeps a search entry visible; menus RefreshOnChange watches and refreshes; files gained watch and watch_dirs plus a reload action. Groups v2.17.0 to v2.17.2.
v2.17.2.
Improved: Search the web with search engines you define.Improved: Find files, preview them, and open them or copy the…Now works: List, install and remove Arch Linux and AUR package…
Send a file or clipboard item to another device with LocalSend.
Details
Files and clipboard gained a LocalSend action; files fd_flags became a string array; todo times are set with > (for example 'in 5d > 15:00'). Groups v2.16.0 and v2.16.1.
Action required: Find files, preview them, and open them or copy the…Improved: Find files, preview them, and open them or copy the…Behavior changed: Keep a todo list with due times and notifications.
New bookmarks and 1Password providers; todo and bookmarks can sync to a git repository through location; elephant query --json; providers that cannot run (such as niri sessions outside niri) are disabled automatically. The clipboard recopy option was removed. Groups v2.14.0 to v2.15.0.
Also: Arch packages: custom commands, terminal wrapping, open the package URL; before_load commands; rename providers' display names.
v2.15.0; 1Password needs the op CLI; git sync needs SSH access to the repository.
Added: Save and search bookmarks and open them in a chosen…Added / inferred: Copy passwords and one-time codes from 1Password, B…Improved: Keep a todo list with due times and notifications.Behavior changed: Browse and reuse text and image clipboard history.Improved: Serve search results and actions to a launcher or d…
Focus an app that is already open instead of starting a second copy.
Details
desktopapplications gained window_integration, single_instance_apps and wm_integration (moves apps to the workspace they were launched from, niri); menus can be written fully in Lua with Lua functions as actions; elephant community install|list|readme|remove fetches extra menus from elephant-community. Groups v2.7.2 to v2.13.2.
Also: Clipboard pause and unpause; files fd_flags and search_dirs; websearch expands environment variables in URLs; ignored_providers config.
v2.13.2.
Improved: Search and launch installed desktop applications, r…Improved: Define your own menus with entries and actions.Action required: Define your own menus with entries and actions.Action required: Serve search results and actions to a launcher or d…Added: Install, list and remove community-made menus with…Action required / inferred: Keep a todo list with due times and notifications.Improved: Browse and reuse text and image clipboard history.
Find and focus your open windows from the launcher.
Details
New providers: windows, snippets (needs wtype) and niri sessions. Menus can build entries in Lua; %CLIPBOARD% can stand in for the query in menus and websearch. Files moved to a SQLite index without fuzzy matching. Groups v2.2.4 to v2.7.1.
Also: Clipboard auto_cleanup and ignore_symbols; todo categories; files ignored_dirs.
v2.7.1; snippets need wtype, niri sessions need niri.
Added: Find an open window by title or app and focus it.Added: Type saved text snippets found by keyword.Added: Open a predefined set of apps on niri workspaces in…Improved: Define your own menus with entries and actions.Behavior changed: Find files, preview them, and open them or copy the…Improved: Browse and reuse text and image clipboard history.
Copy images from Firefox and Chromium into clipboard history.
Details
Clipboard handles browser image copies and clears stored images on cleanup; the runner can run any command typed alone; global_search was removed from custom menus. Groups v2.1.4 to v2.2.3.
v2.2.3.
Action required: Define your own menus with entries and actions.Now works: Browse and reuse text and image clipboard history.Improved: Run commands from a list you define or from executa…
Give custom menu entries several actions and a parent menu to go back to.
Details
v2.0.0 changed the wire format (items now list their possible actions); custom menus gained multiple actions per entry and a parent field; websearch gained engines_as_actions, text_prefix and a fallback to the default engine. Groups v2.0.0 to v2.1.3.
Also: Desktop app search also matches the Exec key.
v2.1.3; frontends must speak the v2 protocol.
Action required / inferred: Serve search results and actions to a launcher or d…Improved: Define your own menus with entries and actions.Action required: Define your own menus with entries and actions.Improved: Search the web with search engines you define.Improved: Search and launch installed desktop applications, r…
Give a launcher one backend that searches apps, files, clipboard history, emoji and more.
Details
State before October 2025: a service that talks to frontends over a Unix socket with Protocol Buffers, with providers loaded as plugins from ~/.config/elephant/providers, and `elephant service enable` to install a systemd user service.
Arch: yay -S elephant plus elephant-<provider> packages; or build with Go.
Added: Serve search results and actions to a launcher or d…Added: Run elephant as a systemd user service.Added: Search and launch installed desktop applications, r…Added: Find files, preview them, and open them or copy the…Added: Connect, disconnect, pair, trust and remove Bluetoo…Added: Browse and reuse text and image clipboard history.Added: Run commands from a list you define or from executa…Added: Find emoji, symbols and Unicode characters in sever…Added: Calculate and convert units from the launcher, with…Added: Define your own menus with entries and actions.Added: Search the web with search engines you define.Added: List, install and remove Arch Linux and AUR package…Added: Keep a todo list with due times and notifications.
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