MLaunchy is a native macOS menu-bar app launcher. It lets you search and launch applications, Siri Shortcuts and System Settings panes with aliases, favorites, acronym and fuzzy matching.

Which keyboard shortcut opens MLaunchy?

Control+Space, Command+Space and Option+Space are all preconfigured. You can add, remove or remap any combo in Settings.

Does MLaunchy collect telemetry?

No. MLaunchy stores all data locally on your Mac. No usage analytics, sessions, hangs, or performance traces are ever sent. A crash-only Sentry integration is available but disabled unless you configure your own DSN.

What exactly is sent to Sentry when I configure it?

Only crash reports. Performance tracing, profiling, app-hang tracking, MetricKit and HTTP-failure capture are all disabled in code. If you do not configure a Sentry DSN, nothing is sent at all.

Can I turn crash reporting off entirely?

Yes. Open Settings, scroll to the Privacy section, and switch off 'Send crash reports'. The Sentry SDK is shut down immediately and nothing is uploaded, even if a DSN is configured.

Does MLaunchy track which apps I launch?

Only locally. The Usage tab keeps a count of launches per app so you can see your own habits and so favorites can reflect real usage. The list is stored in a JSON file in Application Support, never uploaded, and the whole feature can be switched off in Settings → Usage.

Does MLaunchy integrate with other amzu apps?

Yes. Sibling apps like MShot and MExplorer ship provider manifests that MLaunchy loads at startup. Select the app in the launcher and press Tab to filter and run its actions directly — MShot surfaces Full Screen, Window and Region captures; MExplorer surfaces Favorites and Recent folders.

Yes. MLaunchy is provided free of charge, as is, without warranty. Use at your own risk.

MLaunchy

A fast, lightweight menu-bar app launcher for macOS.

Install with Homebrew:

brew tap amzu-ch/tap https://dev.azure.com/amzu-ch/Homebrew/_git/homebrew-tap

brew install --cask mlaunchy

Download for macOS Explore features

Native macOS app · Apple silicon (M1 or newer) · Free · Use at your own risk

Why MLaunchy

Everything you need, one shortcut away.

Instant Launch

Press ⌃Space, ⌘Space or ⌥Space to summon the launcher. Register any number of custom hotkeys on top.

Smart Ranking

Alias prefix, name prefix, substring, acronym and fuzzy subsequence matching — find what you want with the fewest keystrokes.

Lightweight

Native SwiftUI app. Lives in your menu bar — no dock icon, no background bloat, all data stays on your Mac.

App Launcher

Launch anything in milliseconds.

Search apps, Siri Shortcuts, and 43 System Settings panes from one place. Favorites float to the top, aliases let you type "ff" for Firefox, and Tab lets you hand the query to the selected app.

Multiple Hotkeys. Preconfigured with ⌃Space, ⌘Space and ⌥Space. Add, remove or remap any combo in Settings.
Favorites. Pin your most-used apps so they always appear first in results.
Aliases. Create custom shorthand names for any app. Type "calc" to launch Calculator.
Smart Ranking. Alias prefix, name prefix, substring, acronym ("vsc" → Visual Studio Code) and fuzzy subsequence matching — in that order.
Tab Search. Press Tab on a browser to open a Google search in that browser, or on System Settings to filter panes inline. Sibling apps like MShot and MExplorer surface their own actions here instead — see Works With.
Auto-Indexing. FSEvents monitors your Applications folders in real time. Add custom folders too.
Siri Shortcuts. Your macOS Shortcuts are indexed and runnable straight from the launcher.
System Settings Panes. All 43 panes (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Displays, Privacy, …) are searchable.
Exclude Apps. Right-click to hide apps you never use from search results.
Drag to Reposition. Drag the panel anywhere on screen. Position is remembered per display.

Customization

Make it yours.

MLaunchy Settings window showing the General tab with Startup, Shortcuts and Search sections — Settings → General. Tabs for Favorites, Aliases, Excluded and Usage sit alongside.

Layout Controls

Tune icon size, row spacing and maximum number of results. The panel adapts its height to the settings you pick.

Hotkey Manager

Record multiple trigger combos with a click. Ships with ⌃Space, ⌘Space and ⌥Space preconfigured.

Reindex Interval

Choose between 1, 5, 10, 30 and 60 minutes. FSEvents also re-indexes in real time when apps are added or removed.

Launch at Login

One toggle in Settings enables automatic startup via macOS Service Management.

Usage Insights (Opt-In)

A dedicated Usage tab shows how many times you launched each app, shortcut or settings pane — with last-used timestamps. Stored locally, nothing leaves your Mac, and the toggle is right at the top of the tab.

Works With

Sibling apps plug in with one keystroke.

Select another amzu app in the launcher and press Tab. Instead of a web search, MLaunchy loads that app's action menu — filter with arrow keys, Return to run, Esc to exit. Each app publishes its own action list through a provider manifest in ~/Library/Application Support/MLaunchy/providers/. No configuration, no plugins, no polling.

MShot → screenshot actions

Select MShot, press Tab, and kick off a Full Screen, Window or Region capture without touching the menu bar. Captures drop straight into MShot's vault.

MExplorer → folder shortcuts

Select MExplorer and Tab straight to your Favorites and Recent folders. MExplorer keeps the manifest in sync as you reorder favorites or visit new locations.

Filter inline

Typing after the chevron narrows the action list the same way System Settings filtering does. Arrow keys select, Return launches.

Graceful fallback

Apps without a manifest keep the classic Google-search Tab behaviour. Malformed or future-schema manifests are silently skipped — MLaunchy never crashes on a bad drop-in.

Install

Up and running in under a minute.

Download MLaunchy.zip and unzip it.
Drag MLaunchy.app into your /Applications folder.
Open it. If macOS asks about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open.
Press ⌃Space, ⌘Space or ⌥Space to summon the launcher.
Open Settings from the menu bar to customize hotkeys, favorites, aliases and more.

Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later on Apple silicon (arm64). Intel Macs are not supported.

Under the Hood

Built for macOS. No compromises.

Single Instance

Automatically detects and prevents duplicate instances. Only one MLaunchy runs at a time.

Persistent Settings

Favorites, aliases, excluded apps and extra folders stored as JSON in Application Support. Survive upgrades.

Privacy First

All data stays on your Mac. No cloud sync, no telemetry, no usage tracking, no analytics.

Crash-Only Telemetry

If and only if you configure your own Sentry DSN, MLaunchy sends crash reports only — no performance traces, no hangs, no metrics, no sessions, no usage events. Out of the box, nothing leaves your Mac.

You Can Turn It Off

Settings → Privacy → Send crash reports lets you disable Sentry entirely with one click. The SDK shuts down immediately and nothing is uploaded, even if a DSN is configured.

Built-in Bug Report

Menu bar → "Report a Bug…" opens your mail client with version, build, macOS version, architecture and locale prefilled.

Minimal Permissions

No Accessibility prompt on normal use. Global key monitoring is requested only when you record a new hotkey in Settings.

Extra Folders

Point MLaunchy at any directory of .app bundles — perfect for portable apps or bundled development tools.

Local Usage Stats

MLaunchy can count how many times you launched each app, shortcut or settings pane — stored only on your Mac. Toggle the whole feature off in Settings → Usage any time.

No warranty — use at your own risk

MLaunchy is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

In no event shall the authors or amzu solutions GmbH be liable for any claim, damages, data loss or other liability arising from the use of this software. You are responsible for evaluating whether MLaunchy is suitable for your environment before running it.

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Found a bug? Use Menu Bar → Report a Bug… in MLaunchy, or email .