AI Tool Launcher V1.12 is a local, cross-platform web GUI for discovering and launching AI CLI tools and desktop apps from one place.

Live interactive demo: https://tjbmoose09.github.io/ai-tool-launcher/#demo

It is designed for Windows, macOS, and Linux. On first run, the user selects the OS display, scans for installed AI tools, optionally adds tools manually, and then launches the selected tools from a terminal or app launcher.

Project homepage: https://tjbmoose09.github.io/ai-tool-launcher/

What It Feels Like

The launcher is built around a terminal-first status board and a right-side command deck:

• Live running indicators for selected tools
• A status terminal that rotates version, environment, state, and last-launch details
• One-click launches for CLI tools and desktop apps
• Local settings for title, accent color, tool selection, repo updates, and reset-session flow

The GitHub Pages homepage includes the looping interactive asset used for the project marketing preview.

Features

• First-run setup for Windows, macOS, or Linux
• Scans for common AI tools such as Codex, Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter, LM Studio, Cursor, Aider, OpenCode, Ollama, Qwen Code, and ChatGPT
• Manual tool entry for custom CLIs or apps
• OS-specific command display and launch behavior
• Terminal-style status board with rotating version, environment, state, and last-launch details
• Launcher cards with running indicators and uptime
• Settings gear for rescanning, editing the launcher title, changing the accent color, and applying repo updates
• Update notification badge when the upstream repo has a newer launcher version
• One-click repo update with a reset-session prompt after the fast-forward pull completes
• Local-only config storage in the user's OS config directory
• Localhost API protected by a per-session mutation token
• No bundled API keys or personal machine configuration

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or newer
• A terminal app for CLI launches:
  • Linux: Konsole, GNOME Terminal, Kitty, Alacritty, or xterm
  • macOS: Terminal
  • Windows: Windows Terminal preferred, cmd.exe fallback

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/tjbmoose09/ai-tool-launcher.git
cd ai-tool-launcher
npm start

Then open:

On Linux/macOS you can also run:

Choose a browser explicitly:

./bin/ai-tool-launcher --browser firefox
./bin/ai-tool-launcher --browser edge
./bin/ai-tool-launcher --browser safari

Or set a default for your shell:

AI_TOOL_LAUNCHER_BROWSER=firefox ./bin/ai-tool-launcher

Supported browser values are auto, brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox, safari, and default.

On Windows:

Linux Desktop Entry

This writes ~/.local/share/applications/ai-tool-launcher.desktop.

Local Config

The app stores user choices locally and does not write them into the repository.

• Linux: ~/.config/ai-tool-launcher/config.json
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/AI Tool Launcher/config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\AI Tool Launcher\config.json

The file can contain user-selected tools and custom commands. Do not commit local config files.

Security Model

• The server binds only to 127.0.0.1
• API write actions require a random per-session token
• Known tools are launched from the registry or from user-created local config
• The repo includes a static security scan for common key/token patterns and local personal paths
• No API keys, user configs, or machine-specific paths are included

Run checks:

Development

npm run check
npm run security:scan
npm start

Versioning

Larger launcher updates use Vmajor.minor labels such as V1.10. Smaller patch updates should advance the minor label the same way, for example V1.11, while the package metadata uses semver-compatible values such as 1.10.0.

Packaging

This repository currently ships as a dependency-free Node/web application. Native packaging can be added later with Electron or Tauri while keeping the same frontend and backend contracts.