Launcher

The Launcher is a quick-launch interface built into OxideTerm that lets you open macOS applications and WSL Linux distributions without leaving the terminal environment.

Opening the Launcher

Open a new tab and select Launcher from the tab type picker.

macOS App Launcher

On first use, OxideTerm prompts you to enable the app scanner:

Enable App Launcher — The launcher scans installed applications on your Mac and caches their icons locally for quick browsing. All data stays local — nothing is sent to any server.

Once enabled, the launcher:

• Scans /Applications and other standard app directories for .app bundles
• Caches app icons as PNG files in OxideTerm’s local data directory
• Displays a searchable grid of installed apps

Using the App Launcher

1. Type in the search box to filter by app name (real-time fuzzy search)
2. Click any app to launch it immediately
3. Use Refresh to re-scan for newly installed apps

Privacy

• All scanning and icon caching is done locally
• No application data or icons are transmitted to any external server
• The cache is stored in OxideTerm’s data directory and can be cleared by disabling the launcher

To disable: click Disable Launcher in the Launcher header. This clears all cached icons. You can re-enable anytime.

WSL Distribution Launcher

On Windows, the Launcher shows a second section: WSL Distributions.

OxideTerm detects all installed WSL distributions and lets you launch a local terminal session into any of them directly:

1. The WSL Distributions section loads automatically if WSL is installed
2. Search by distribution name (“Ubuntu”, “Debian”, “Arch”, etc.)
3. Click a distribution to open a new local terminal session in that WSL environment

If no distributions are found, the launcher shows: “No WSL distributions available. Make sure WSL is installed.”

Note

WSL terminal sessions use OxideTerm’s local PTY integration, so they support all terminal features — themes, split panes, broadcast input, session recording, and the inline AI panel.

Local Shell

On macOS / Linux, the Launcher also provides a Local Shell entry:

• Default Shell — uses the system-configured $SHELL (usually zsh)
• Custom Shell — specify a path in Settings (e.g., /usr/local/bin/fish)

Click to open a local shell session in a new tab.

Use Cases

• Launch GUI apps or tools without switching to Finder / Spotlight
• Quickly switch between multiple WSL distributions in a dev workflow
• Keep your entire workflow — app launching, SSH connections, local terminals — within one OxideTerm window