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Command Palette

src/modules/cmdpal/README.md

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Command Palette

Windows Command Palette ("CmdPal") is the next iteration of PowerToys Run. With extensibility at its core, the Command Palette is your one-stop launcher to start anything.

By default, CmdPal is bound to <kbd>Win+Alt+Space</kbd>.

Creating an extension

The fastest way to get started is just to run the "Create extension" command in the palette itself. That'll prompt you for a project name and a Display Name, and where you want to place your project. Then just open the sln it produces. You should be ready to go 🙂.

The official API documentation can be found on this docs site.

We've also got samples, so that you can see how the APIs in-action.

[!info] The Command Palette is currently in preview. Many features of the API are not yet fully implemented. We may introduce breaking API changes before CmdPal itself is v1.0.0

Building CmdPal

Install & Build PowerToys

  1. Follow the install and build instructions for PowerToys

Load & Build

  1. In Visual Studio, in the Solution Explorer Pane, confirm that all of the files/projects in src\modules\CommandPalette and src\common\CalculatorEngineCommon do not have (unloaded) on the right side
    1. If any file has (unloaded), right click on file and select Reload Project
  2. Now you can right click on one of the project below to Build and then Deploy:

Projects of interest are:

  • Microsoft.CmdPal.UI: This is the main project for CmdPal. Build and run this to get the CmdPal.
  • Microsoft.CommandPalette.Extensions: This is the official extension interface.
    • This is designed to be language-agnostic. Any programming language which supports implementing WinRT interfaces should be able to implement the WinRT interface.
  • Microsoft.CommandPalette.Extensions.Toolkit: This is a C# helper library for creating extensions. This makes writing extensions easier.
  • Everything under "SampleExtensions": These are example plugins to demo how to author extensions. Deploy any number of these, to get a feel for how the extension API works.