Walker

Walker is a multi-purpose launcher frontend for Elephant. It provides a GTK4-based UI for interacting with various data providers like desktop applications, files, clipboard, websearch, and custom menus.

Quick Start

# Install Walker and Elephant (Arch Linux)
yay -S walker elephant elephant-desktopapplications

# Enable and start Elephant service
elephant service enable
systemctl --user start elephant.service

# Launch Walker
walker

Installation

Arch Linux

yay -S walker
yay -S elephant elephant-desktopapplications

Fedora

sudo dnf copr enable errornointernet/walker
sudo dnf install walker elephant

Manual Compilation

# Dependencies
sudo zypper install git cargo gtk4-devel gtk4-layer-shell-devel libpoppler-glib-devel protobuf-devel cairo-devel go make

# Walker
git clone https://github.com/abenz1267/walker.git ~/Downloads/walker
cd ~/Downloads/walker && sudo make install

# Elephant
git clone https://github.com/abenz1267/elephant ~/Downloads/elephant
cd ~/Downloads/elephant && sudo make install

Documentation

Complete documentation in docs/. See docs/000-index.md for detailed navigation.

By Topic

Topic	Files	Description
Installation & Setup	002	Package manager install, manual compilation, service setup
Architecture & Concepts	003-004	Walker/Elephant relationship, providers architecture
Configuration	005, 008	General config, provider actions, keybinds
Customization	006-007	Themes (GTK4 CSS/XML), custom menus (Lua scripts)
Usage	009	Dmenu replacement, CLI flags
Troubleshooting	010	Performance issues, NVIDIA GPU, systemd service

By Keyword

Keyword	File
launcher	001-walker.md
frontend	001-walker.md
elephant	001-walker.md, 003-walker-walker-and-elephant.md
installation	002-walker-installation-and-launching.md
gtk4	002-walker-installation-and-launching.md, 006-walker-customization-theme.md
systemd	002-walker-installation-and-launching.md
optimization	002-walker-installation-and-launching.md
providers	003-walker-walker-and-elephant.md, 004-walker-providers.md
modular-design	004-walker-providers.md
configuration	005-walker-customization-general-config.md
keybinds	005-walker-customization-general-config.md, 008-walker-customization-provider-actions.md
settings	005-walker-customization-general-config.md
emergency-entries	005-walker-customization-general-config.md
theme	006-walker-customization-theme.md
customization	006-walker-customization-theme.md
custom-menus	007-walker-customization-custom-menus.md
lua-scripts	007-walker-customization-custom-menus.md
menu-provider	007-walker-customization-custom-menus.md
actions	008-walker-customization-provider-actions.md
fallbacks	008-walker-customization-provider-actions.md
dmenu	009-walker-dmenu.md
command-line	009-walker-dmenu.md
cli-tool	009-walker-dmenu.md
performance	010-walker-faq.md
troubleshooting	010-walker-faq.md
nvidia	010-walker-faq.md
gpu	010-walker-faq.md

Learning Path

1. Foundation: Read 001 (introduction), complete 002 (installation)
2. Core Understanding: Learn architecture from 003-004, configure with 005
3. Practical Application: Customize themes (006), create menus (007)
4. Advanced Usage: Configure provider actions (008), use as dmenu (009)
5. Reference: Troubleshooting (010)

Common Tasks

Start Walker Service for Fast Startup

-> docs/002-walker-installation-and-launching.md (Keep Walker instance running with --gapplication-service for faster subsequent launches)

Configure Default Providers

-> docs/005-walker-customization-general-config.md (Set which providers are queried by default in config.toml)

Create Custom Theme

-> docs/006-walker-customization-theme.md (Create style.css, layout.xml in ~/.config/walker/themes/)

Add Custom Menu

-> docs/007-walker-customization-custom-menus.md (Configure Elephant menu provider with Lua scripts)

Configure Keybinds

-> docs/005-walker-customization-general-config.md (Global keybinds like next, prev, activate)

Use Provider-Specific Actions

-> docs/008-walker-customization-provider-actions.md (Configure multiple actions per list item)

Use as Dmenu Replacement

-> docs/009-walker-dmenu.md (CLI flags for dmenu-style usage)

Fix NVIDIA Performance Issues

-> docs/010-walker-faq.md (Environment variable adjustments for GPU issues)

Generate Provider Documentation

-> docs/004-walker-providers.md (Run elephant generatedoc to get config docs for installed providers)

Default Providers

Walker implements these Elephant providers by default:

• bluetooth
• archlinux packages
• calc
• providerlist
• websearch
• desktopapplications
• files
• todo
• runner
• symbols
• unicode
• clipboard
• menus

Configuration

Default config path: ~/.config/walker/config.toml

Reference config: https://github.com/abenz1267/walker/blob/master/resources/config.toml