Run Command

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This item type is used to execute any command. You can use this to run applications, scripts, or any other command that you can run in a shell.

Getting the Command to Run an App

Currently, Kando does not have a built-in way to list installed applications. You will need to know the command to run the application you want to launch. Depending on your operating system, this can be different. Usually searching online for “how to run application xyz from the command line” will give you the answer. Here are some tips to get you started:

Windows

On Windows, the steps for launching an application on Windows depends on where it is and what type of application it is.

Find the application launcher in your start menu.
Right-click on the application and select “Open file location”.
Right-click on the application shortcut and select “Properties”.
In the properties window, you will find the “Target” and “Start in” fields. The “Target” field contains the command you need to run the application. The “Start in” field contains the working directory of the application. Note both of these down.
For the command in Kando, use the following format and copy the “Start in” and “Target” fields into the command:
Terminal window
```
start "" /D "Start in" "Target"
```

Press Win + R.
Type in shell:appsfolder and press OK or Enter.
Drag the icon for the UWP application you want to launch in a folder, preferably the Desktop for easy access. Optionally, you can right-click on the icon, click “Create shortcut”, and click “Yes” on the prompt.
Right-click on the application shortcut and select “Properties”.
In the properties window, you will find the “Target” and “Start in” fields. If they do not seem cut off, you can move on to step 7. If they do seem cut off, or the command did not find the application with what you typed, continue to the next step instead.
Use an application like Easy Link File Viewer or LECmd to view your shortcut file. You should see it in the “Target” field in Easy Link File Viewer and the “App User Model ID” field in LECmd.
For the command in Kando, use the following format and replace Application with the name of your UWP app:
Terminal window
```
start "" "shell:appsfolder\Application"
```
For example, the launch command for Notepad in Windows 11 would be:
Terminal window
```
start "" "shell:appsfolder\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App"
```

Right-click on the application and select “Create shortcut”.
Right-click on the application shortcut and select “Properties”.
In the properties window, you will find the “Target” and “Start in” fields. The “Target” field contains the command you need to run the application. The “Start in” field contains the working directory of the application. Note both of these down.
For the command in Kando, use the following format and copy the “Start in” and “Target” fields into the command:
Terminal window
```
start "" /D "Start in" "Target"
```

macOS

On macOS, you can usually run an application from the terminal by using the open command.

open -a "Application Name"

Linux

On Linux, this is pretty straightforward. Just use the command you would use to run the app from a terminal. If you do not now this, you can have a look at the desktop file of the app you want to run. This file is usually located in /usr/share/applications/ or ~/.local/share/applications/. The Exec line in this file contains the command you need to run.

The Delayed Option

The item has an optional Delayed property which you can enable or disable. If enabled, the command will be executed after the Kando window is closed. This can be useful if the command targets another window which needs to be focused.

Placeholders

You can use placeholders in the command which will be replaced by some actual values when the command is executed. This allows for some very advanced use-cases! Below are the available placeholders:

{{app_name}}: The name of the application which was focused when the menu was opened.
{{window_name}}: The title of the window which was focused when the menu was opened.
{{pointer_x}}: The x-coordinate of the mouse pointer when the menu was opened.
{{pointer_y}}: The y-coordinate of the mouse pointer when the menu was opened.

Example Configuration

If you happen to edit your menus.json file by hand, you can create a Command item with something like the following. You can read more about the structure of the menus.json file in its documentation.

The data property of the menu item must contain a command property which contains the shell command to execute. The optional delayed property will ensure that the command is executed after the Kando window is closed.

// ...
{
  "name": "Inkscape",
  "type": "command",
  "icon": "inkscape",
  "iconTheme": "simple-icons",
  "data": {
    "command": "/usr/bin/inkscape",
    "delayed": false
  }
},
// ...