Launch anything. Native to KDE Plasma Plasma.

Lightning-fast, focused & beautiful.
An application launcher for everyone.

v1.9.3 KDE Plasma 6.4+ Install via package manager

Features

AppGrid Center variant, a standalone window AppGrid Panel variant, a native Plasma popup

Two variants, one launcher

AppGrid (Center) is a standalone window with its own blur, opacity and corner radius. AppGrid (Panel) is a native Plasma popup anchored to the panel icon, the way Kickoff sits. Same grid, same search. Both ship together, so pick whichever suits you.

AppGrid compact mode, light AppGrid compact mode, dark

Compact mode

Like to search first? Compact mode keeps the grid hidden until you type, leaving just a search bar in the KRunner style. Press Down any time to bring the full grid back. Run it as the Center variant and bind a shortcut like Alt+Space to open it from anywhere, a clean drop-in for KRunner.

Search results ranked best match first in AppGrid

Smart ranking

AppGrid usually knows what you want before you finish typing. A couple of letters and the right app is already on top. Closer name matches rank higher, the apps you open most edge up, and everyday picks like your browser or editor come before the rest. Inline completion fills in the word for you, so it is often a key or two and Enter.

Apps and KDE search plugin results side by side in AppGrid

KRunner & KDE search plugins

The search box also runs KDE's own helpers: calculator, unit and currency conversion, dictionary, file search, web shortcuts, bookmarks and more. Do quick maths, convert a value or open a file without leaving the launcher. Their results sit right next to your apps, ready for Alt+1 to 9.

AppGrid favorites shared with Plasma

KActivities & favorites

AppGrid stores favorites in KDE's activity-aware backend, not a private list of its own. The Center and Panel variants share one list, and it survives removing and re-adding the widget. Every app you launch is logged to Plasma's activity history, so it shows up in the Activity Switcher and recent results across your desktop. That same usage data (KActivities-Stats) feeds search, so the apps you reach for most rise to the top.

Quick command prefixes in AppGrid

Quick commands

Switch modes right from the search bar. Type t: for the terminal, : for a shell command, / to browse files, i: for system info, h: for hidden apps, or ? for help. Each prefix opens its own focused view.

Category bar styles in AppGrid

Categories

Browse your apps by category: Development, Graphics, Internet and the rest. Alt plus a letter jumps straight to one. Use AppGrid's built-in grouping, or read your live categories from the KDE Menu Editor. You can style the bar too, showing categories as plain text, icons only, or icons with text.

Drag, drop & multi-select

Drag any app onto your panel to pin it, onto the desktop to make a launcher, or onto the Favorites strip to favorite it. Drag favorites around to reorder them. Want several at once? Ctrl or Shift click to build a selection, then pin, launch, hide or remove the whole batch together.

Right-click jumplist and Discover actions in AppGrid

Application actions & discovery

Right-click any app to reach its jumplist, the New Private Window or New Document style entries that come from its .desktop file. Pin it, add it to the desktop or hide it from there too. AppGrid shows where each app came from, whether that is Flatpak, Snap or your repos, marks freshly installed apps with a badge, and can open it in Discover to update or remove it through KDE's software centre.

AppGrid settings panel

Make it yours

Tune the grid and icon size, blur, opacity, corner radius, dividers, tooltips, session buttons, the category bar, the recents row and label visibility, all saved per variant. It stays Plasma-native throughout, following your accent colour, fonts and animation speed.

At your fingertips

Search, switch tabs, reorder favorites, launch. All keyable.

Navigation

  • Toggle AppGrid Super
  • Close Esc
  • Navigate results ↑ ↓ ← →
  • Page through results PgUp PgDn
  • Jump to first / last result Home End
  • Launch top result Enter
  • Cycle apps + runners Tab
  • Cycle backwards Shift +Tab
  • Launch by number Alt +1-9
  • Jump to category Alt +letter
  • Step through categories Alt +←→
  • Move favorite by one cell Ctrl +Shift +↑↓←→

Multi-select

Build a selection in Favorites, All, or by-Category, then drag, pin, launch, or remove the whole batch at once.

  • Toggle selection of clicked app Ctrl +click
  • Range-select from anchor to click Shift +click
  • Toggle selection on focused app Space
  • Extend range selection Shift +↑↓←→
  • Select all in current view Ctrl +A
  • Remove selected from Favorites Delete
  • Clear selection Esc

Quick commands

Type these in the search bar to switch modes.

  • Run in terminal t:command
  • Run shell command :command
  • Browse files /path
  • Browse home ~/path
  • System info (copyable) i:
  • Hidden apps manager h:
  • Show quick commands help ?
Release

What's new in v1.9.3

Full changelog, downloads and SHA256 checksums on the release page.

View release notes

Install AppGrid

Install straight from your distro's package manager — a PPA, Copr, or the AUR — or grab the universal ~/.local/ package that runs anywhere Plasma 6.4 does. Source builds work too.

Pick a path. Packaged distro → use the tab for yours. Immutable distro or no native package → jump to Universal. Compiling? See Build from source.

Select release channel

Current stable release — recommended for most users.

Official build — published by AppGrid's author and rebuilt from the project's own CI on every release.

Via yay
yay -S plasma6-applets-appgrid
Or via paru
paru -S plasma6-applets-appgrid

Official AUR package, maintained by the author. Works on Arch and any derivative with AUR access — EndeavourOS, CachyOS, Manjaro, Garuda.

Community packages

Maintained by third-party contributors, not by the AppGrid project. Listed here as a convenience for users of those distros — we do not build, sign, audit, or vet these packages and cannot vouch for what each maintainer ships. Please report packaging issues against the linked overlay or package page first.

Community-maintained on the openSUSE Build Service by @JMarcosHP01. Not an official AppGrid release — please report packaging issues to the OBS package page first.

Packaged version v1.9.3

Select your openSUSE version

OBS package v1.9.3 for Tumbleweed.

1 — Add the OBS repository
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/JMarcosHP01/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:JMarcosHP01.repo
2 — Refresh
sudo zypper refresh
3 — Install
sudo zypper install plasma6-applet-appgrid

Full package list and other distro builds on the OBS package page: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:JMarcosHP01/plasma6-applet-appgrid

Installed — now switch your launcher to AppGrid

  1. Right-click your current panel launcher (Kickoff / Kicker / dashboard icon).
  2. Pick Show Alternatives…
  3. Choose AppGrid (or AppGrid Panel for the Kickoff-style popup) and click Switch.

Prefer to keep your old launcher? Right-click the panel → Add Widgets → search AppGrid to add it as a second widget instead.

Help out

AppGrid is a side project. Stars, bug reports, and translations all help — pick whichever fits.

Star on GitHub · 403

Costs you a click, helps the project show up in GitHub search.

Open repo →

Report a bug or idea

Found something broken? Want a feature? Open an issue with steps to reproduce or a clear use case.

Open issues →

Translate

Open a PR against the po/ directory to add or improve a language.

Browse translations →

Package for your distro

Distro maintainer? Help ship AppGrid in your distro's official repos — Nixpkgs, openSUSE Factory, Void, NixOS, Solus, anything. Open an issue to coordinate (dependency list is in the docs).

Open a packaging issue →

Discuss

Casual chat, design ideas, configs, screenshots — anything that doesn't fit an issue.

Matrix chat

Real-time questions and casual chat. Public space with rooms for general, random, and contributors. Open with Element or any Matrix client.

Join the space →

GitHub Discussions

Long-form ideas, Q&A, show your setup. Discussions stay tied to the repo so they're searchable next to issues and code.

Open discussions →

Code contributions? Open a pull request — keep changes focused and include a short rationale.

Frequently asked questions

Quick answers. Open an issue on GitHub if you don't see yours.

Is AppGrid free?
Yes. AppGrid is Free and Open Source Software released under the GPL-2.0-or-later license. No ads, no donations required.
Can AppGrid replace Kickoff or Kicker?
Yes. Right-click your existing panel launcher → Show Alternatives → AppGrid. You can also add it as a new widget without removing the others.
Center variant or Panel variant: which should I pick?
AppGrid (Center) is a standalone window that opens in the middle of the screen with its own blur, opacity and corner radius settings. AppGrid (Panel) is a native Plasma popup anchored to the panel icon, Kickoff-style, with the same grid and search but no separate window settings. Pick whichever fits your workflow; both ship together.
Does it work on Wayland and X11?
Wayland is the primary target and where most testing happens. X11 works but is less polished: the Center variant uses frameless window flags and manual positioning instead of LayerShellQt. The Panel variant uses Plasma's native popup, so it works the same on both. KDE retires the Plasma X11 session in Plasma 6.8 (due October 2026), going Wayland-only, and AppGrid will drop its small amount of X11-specific code at that point.
Does it work on KDE Plasma 5?
No. AppGrid targets KDE Plasma 6.0 and later (6.4+ recommended; required for the Universal Package). Plasma 5 uses Qt 5 / KF5 APIs that AppGrid no longer supports.
Why is there no .plasmoid file on the KDE Store?
AppGrid has a C++ backend (app discovery, window management, blur effects, session actions). The .plasmoid format only supports pure-QML plasmoids, so it can't install the compiled .so where Plasma expects it. Instead AppGrid ships as native packages (Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE OBS) and a Universal Package (user-local) for everything else.
What does the universal package do, and who is it for?
It's the Universal Package that installs AppGrid into ~/.local/ on any Plasma 6.4+ system, no root needed. Grab appgrid-universal-<version>-<arch>.tar.gz from the Releases page, extract, run ./install.sh. The installer detects your distro, checks SHA256 checksums, and verifies every required library resolves via ldd before writing anything. It's the primary install path for immutable distros (KDE Linux, Kinoite, Bazzite, Aurora, Kalpa, SteamOS) and a valid alternative on regular distros if you'd rather not add a repo or your distro has no native package yet. It's still in beta, so please report any issues you hit.
I already have AppGrid from my distro's package manager: can I switch to the universal package?
Yes, but uninstall the system-wide copy first. Otherwise Plasma will see two AppGrid plasmoids registered (one in /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/, one in ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/) and will load whichever comes first in its discovery order, usually leaving you on the old version. Remove first with: sudo pacman -R plasma6-applets-appgrid (Arch), sudo dnf remove plasma-applet-appgrid (Fedora), sudo apt remove plasma-applet-appgrid (Debian/Ubuntu), sudo zypper remove plasma6-applet-appgrid (openSUSE), or sudo emerge -C kde-misc/plasma6-applet-appgrid (Gentoo). Then run ./install.sh from the Universal Package and log out + back in once.
Does the in-app update checker phone home?
Only if you ask it to. The check only exists in the universal-tarball build (APPGRID_UNIVERSAL_BUILD=ON); distro packages leave it out because your package manager already handles updates. Even on the universal build it's off by default; turn it on in Settings → "Check the AppGrid website for new releases". When enabled, AppGrid pings the project website once a day for the latest version. If a new release is out a small indicator appears next to the session buttons; clicking it opens the release notes. Never auto-installs.
How do I add or reorder favorites?
Add: drag an app from any tab (All, By Category, even another launcher) onto the Favorites strip. Reorder: drag a favorite to its new position, or use Ctrl+Shift+arrow to nudge the highlighted one. Remove: right-click → Remove from Favorites. Order saves automatically.
Can I drag apps out of AppGrid onto my panel or desktop?
Yes, from any view: All, Favorites, or By Category. Drag onto the taskbar to pin, onto the desktop to create a launcher, or onto the Favorites strip to add it as a favorite.
How does search ranking work?
Each result gets a relevance tier: name prefix (best) > name substring > generic name > keyword > no match. Within the same tier, most-used apps (by launch count) come first. A heavily-used app can jump up exactly one tier: a frequently-launched keyword match can beat a never-launched generic match, but a strong name-prefix match always wins over a distant keyword match. Default-application bindings (e.g. your default browser ranks above other browsers) also factor in.
How are most-used apps tracked?
AppGrid keeps a per-app launch count, updated every time you launch something from the grid. That count feeds two things: (1) the optional "most used" header section at the top of the All / by-Category view, and (2) the search relevance bump described above. Disable the section in Settings to hide the header. Counts are stored locally in your Plasma config, with no network calls.
What are the two category modes?
By default AppGrid uses a simplified built-in mapping (Development, Graphics, Internet, Multimedia, Office, System, Utilities). Enable "Use system categories" in settings to read categories directly from KDE. Changes you make in KDE Menu Editor (rename, reorganize, create custom categories) are reflected automatically. Right-click any category to open the Menu Editor.
Does AppGrid collect any data?
No telemetry, no analytics, no tracking. AppGrid runs locally on your machine and makes no network calls by default. The one exception is the optional update indicator in the universal-tarball build (off by default; see the update-checker FAQ above). The website itself uses no cookies and no third-party scripts; see the privacy notice for hosting details.
Install