Ask Claude from KRunner. Press Alt+Space, type your question, get the answer in a terminal.
A KDE Plasma 6 KRunner plugin that pipes your query straight to the Claude Code CLI.
Type claude <anything> into KRunner and press Enter. The text after
claude is handed to the claude CLI and the answer opens in a terminal window
that stays open until you dismiss it.
No daemon sits in the background. KRunner starts the runner over D-Bus the first time you use it, and it costs nothing until then.
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/Batushn/krunner-claude.git
cd krunner-claude
./install.shThat is the whole thing. The installer:
- installs
python-dbus/python-gobjectif they are missing (pacman, apt, dnf and zypper are all handled) - copies four files into your home directory — nothing system-wide, no root needed for the install itself
- reloads the session D-Bus and restarts KRunner
- verifies the runner actually answers over D-Bus before it exits, so you are never left guessing
Run ./install.sh --help for --yes (unattended) and --no-restart.
| Desktop | KDE Plasma 6 (developed and tested on 6.7) |
| Python | python-dbus, python-gobject — installed for you |
| CLI | claude on your PATH |
| Terminal | konsole, alacritty, kitty, wezterm, foot, ghostty, gnome-terminal, xfce4-terminal or xterm |
./uninstall.sh # or: make purge, to drop the workspace directory tooA PKGBUILD is ready in packaging/ and builds cleanly, but the
package is not on the AUR yet — new account registration and package
submission are currently restricted following the
AUR malicious packages incident.
It will be published once that lifts. To build it yourself in the meantime:
cd packaging && makepkg -siAll optional. Set them where your Plasma session will see them — e.g.
~/.config/environment.d/krunner-claude.conf — then log out and back in.
| Variable | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
CLAUDE_RUNNER_TERMINAL |
auto-detected | Force a terminal, e.g. alacritty |
CLAUDE_RUNNER_CLAUDE_BIN |
found on PATH |
Absolute path to the claude binary |
CLAUDE_RUNNER_PRINT |
unset | 1 runs claude -p — print the answer and exit instead of opening the interactive session |
CLAUDE_RUNNER_CWD |
~/.local/share/krunner-claude/workspace |
Directory the session runs in |
CLAUDE_RUNNER_ICON |
claude-runner |
Any icon theme name, or an absolute path |
CLAUDE_RUNNER_LANG |
your locale | en or tr |
KRunner supports runners that live outside its own process and speak
org.kde.krunner1 over D-Bus.
This project is one of those, in about 200 lines of Python.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
~/.local/bin/claude_runner.py |
The D-Bus service implementing Match, Run, Actions and Teardown |
~/.local/share/krunner/dbusplugins/claude-runner.desktop |
Metadata telling KRunner the runner exists (X-Plasma-API=DBus2) |
~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/org.kde.claude.runner.service |
Lets D-Bus start the runner on demand |
~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/claude-runner.svg |
The icon next to results |
Match() only answers when the query starts with claude followed by a space,
so it never competes with your other runners. Run() resolves the terminal and
the claude binary itself, because a D-Bus-activated process inherits a minimal
environment where your usual PATH does not exist.
Nothing happens / The name is not activatable
The session bus has not noticed the new .service file. This is the single most
common reason a hand-rolled version of this setup silently does nothing — the
files are all in the right place and the bus simply never rescanned:
busctl --user call org.freedesktop.DBus /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus ReloadConfiginstall.sh does this for you.
It answers on D-Bus but never appears in KRunner
Restart KRunner, then check it is enabled under System Settings → Search → Plasma Search:
kquitapp6 krunner; sleep 1; setsid krunner &On some builds the metadata is read from ~/.local/share/krunner/runners/
instead of dbusplugins/. Copying the .desktop file to both is harmless.
A "Command Line — Run claude …" entry appears above the Claude result
That is Plasma's built-in shell runner (plugin id shell), which offers to run
any executable on your PATH. It is unrelated to this project. Both entries
report maximum relevance, so there is no way to outrank it from a plugin. Either
press ↓ once, or disable the built-in:
kwriteconfig6 --file krunnerrc --group Plugins --key shellEnabled false && kquitapp6 krunner; sleep 1; setsid krunner &Claude asks "do you trust the files in this folder?"
It asks once per directory. The runner always starts in one dedicated,
otherwise-empty directory so you accept once and are never asked again. If you
repoint CLAUDE_RUNNER_CWD, expect one prompt for the new directory.
claude not found when the terminal opens
A D-Bus-activated process gets a minimal environment. The runner already
prepends ~/.local/bin, ~/bin and /usr/local/bin to PATH; if your CLI
lives elsewhere, set CLAUDE_RUNNER_CLAUDE_BIN to its absolute path.
Reading the runner's own errors
journalctl --user -f | grep -i claude_runnerbusctl --user call org.kde.claude.runner /claude org.kde.krunner1 Match s 'claude hello'To prove KRunner itself loads the plugin — not just that D-Bus works — kill the runner and let KRunner start it:
pkill -f claude_runner; qdbus6 org.kde.krunner /App org.kde.krunner.App.querySingleRunner claude-runner "claude hello"; sleep 3; pgrep -af claude_runnerA listed claude_runner.py process means KRunner loaded the plugin and
activated it over D-Bus.
Issues and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.
make check runs the shell and Python linters.
MIT.
The bundled icon is an original drawing made for this project. This is an unofficial community integration, not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic or KDE.
Keywords — KDE Plasma 6 KRunner plugin · Claude Code CLI integration · Anthropic Claude on Linux · KRunner D-Bus runner · Arch Linux · AI assistant launcher · ask AI from the desktop · Plasma search provider · Python KRunner runner example