AppGrid — KDE Plasma 6 Application Launcher

🧪 Release candidate: v1.8.0-rc.2 — universal package for immutable distros, opt-in in-app update checker, by-category drag-and-drop, hardened installer. Please report regressions before 1.8.0 stable ships. Type i: in the search bar to copy your system info for a report.

A grid-style application launcher for KDE Plasma 6, inspired by macOS Launchpad, COSMIC, and Pantheon. Ships as two plasmoids — a standalone centered popup (AppGrid) and a native Plasma panel popup (AppGrid Panel) — both sharing the same grid, search, categories, and config.

Website with screenshots, features, FAQ, and install instructions: appgrid.xarbit.dev. Build instructions, configuration reference, internals, and contributor notes: appgrid.xarbit.dev/docs.

Install

Distro	Command
Arch Linux + derivatives (AUR — official)	yay -S plasma6-applets-appgrid
Fedora / Ubuntu / Debian	Pre-built .rpm / .deb on the Releases page
Immutable distros (KDE Linux, Kinoite, Bazzite, Aurora, Kalpa, SteamOS)	Universal ~/.local/ tarball — see INSTALL.TXT
openSUSE (community)	OBS package by @JMarcosHP01
Gentoo (community)	Overlay by @mnalmahmud

After install: right-click the panel launcher → Show Alternatives → AppGrid.

Full per-distro guide with download links, checksums, and step-by-step terminal commands: appgrid.xarbit.dev/#install.

Build from source

Requires Plasma 6.0+ (6.4+ recommended) and the KDE Frameworks 6 development headers — see PKGBUILD for the Arch list or the spec files under packages/ for Fedora / Debian / openSUSE equivalents.

cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
sudo cmake --install build
kquitapp6 plasmashell && kstart plasmashell

Arch users can build a proper pacman package with makepkg -sf and install via sudo pacman -U plasma6-applets-appgrid-*.pkg.tar.zst.

Documentation

Full docs live on the website: appgrid.xarbit.dev/docs.

• Build from source + Dependencies (per distro) + CMake build options
• Configuration reference — every setting with default + effect
• Plasmoid variants & IDs · Favorites storage · Universal package internals · Update checker internals · Versioning scheme
• State file locations · Running the test suite · Translations workflow
• Help & troubleshooting — 1.7.x upgrade, distro ↔ universal switching, logs / debugging, bug-reporting

Contributing

• Bugs / ideas — open an issue with steps to reproduce and your Plasma version (i: in the search bar copies your system info)
• Translations — .po files live in po/; add or improve a language and open a PR
• Code — fork, branch, PR. Keep changes focused; test against both AppGrid Center and AppGrid Panel
• Packaging — if you maintain AppGrid for a distro not listed above, open an issue and I'll add it

Credits

• Jason Scurtu — author

This project is developed with Claude Code as an AI pair programmer. Context-engineered and reviewed, not vibe-coded — but if AI-assisted code gives you the ick, this might not be the launcher for you.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later