CLDR — Command Line Dispatch & Route

A single tiny Rust binary that sits in your tray, pops up on a keystroke, and runs whatever you type — a sum, a path, an app, a search.

Landing page · Download the latest release · User guide · Setup guide · All projects

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_{Type anything. CLDR routes it — math, unit conversion, a path, an app, or a web search.}

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📌 What is CLDR?

CLDR is a single-binary command launcher for Windows and Linux. Bind it to a desktop shortcut or global hotkey; it stays resident in the background and summons its command window when you press the key. Type anything — CLDR routes it to the right action instantly and shows the result inline.

> 2*(3+4)/7        →  [CALC] 2*(3+4)/7 = 2
> 10 km in mi      →  [CALC] 10 km in mi = 6.213712 mi
> notes.md         →  [OK]   opened /home/you/notes.md
> code             →  [RUN]  spawned `code` (detached)
> rust lifetimes   →  [WEB]  browser → https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rust+lifetimes

✨ Features

🪟 Tray-resident, one keystroke	Lives in the background; the shortcut summons the existing window instead of opening a duplicate
🧠 Smart routing cascade	math → unit conversion → existing path → PATH binary → web search
🧮 Zero-dep calculator	+ - * / % ^ ( ) with unary minus, right-associative power, div/mod-by-zero guards
📐 Unit conversion	10 km in mi, 100 f to c, 5kg to lb — length, mass, temperature
🗂️ Slash commands	/run /open /ls /find /web /calc /sys /help /clear
⏱️ Command history	↑/↓ (or Ctrl+P/Ctrl+N), persisted between runs
📋 Copy without a clipboard crate	Ctrl+Y copies the last result via OSC 52 — works over SSH
⚙️ Config + aliases	~/.config/cldr/config.toml — search engine, caps, and alias.g = /web
🩺 Hardware diagnostics	/sys — cores, OS, hostname, user, no external tools
🪶 Near-idle	Redraws only on change; idle cost is one poll() every 250 ms
🔒 No clipboard, no telemetry, no network daemon	The only socket is loopback-only, for summon

📥 Download

Grab the latest from the Releases page.

Platform	Portable	Installer
Windows 10/11 x64	cldr-windows-x86_64.zip — extract & run cldr.exe	cldr-<ver>-setup.exe
Linux x86_64	cldr-linux-x86_64.tar.gz — extract & run ./cldr	./install.sh
Linux ARM64 (Pi 4/5)	cldr-linux-aarch64.tar.gz	./install.sh

Every release ships a SHA256SUMS.txt and SLSA build provenance.

Portable (no install)

# Windows
Expand-Archive cldr-windows-x86_64.zip -DestinationPath $env:LOCALAPPDATA\cldr
& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\cldr\cldr.exe" --summon

# Linux
tar -xzf cldr-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
./cldr-linux-x86_64/cldr --summon

Installer

# Windows — run the setup, or from a portable folder:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\install-shortcut.ps1

# Linux — installs to ~/.local/bin + menu entry + tray autostart + Super+Alt+C
./install.sh

🏁 Build from source

git clone https://github.com/drsamonline/CLDR && cd CLDR
cargo build --release          # → target/release/cldr(.exe)
cargo test                     # engine + IPC + extras unit tests
cargo run  -- --self-test      # 14 headless checks (exit 0 = pass)

No system libraries, no C toolchain beyond what Rust already needs.

🗂️ In-window commands

Command	Description
/run <binary>	spawn detached via the OS shell
/open <path>	open a file/folder in the default viewer
/ls [path]	list a directory (row-capped)
/find <name>	recursive search (depth-capped)
/web <query>	search in your default browser
/calc <expr>	arithmetic + - * / % ^ ( ) unary-
/sys	hardware diagnostics
/help · /clear	cheat sheet · clear pane
(no prefix)	auto: math → units → path → PATH app → web

Keyboard

Key	Action
Enter	submit
↑ ↓	history (empty input) / scroll results
Ctrl+P Ctrl+N	history prev / next
PgUp PgDn Home End	scroll results
Ctrl+Y	copy last result (OSC 52)
Ctrl+L	clear pane
Del	clear input
Esc / Ctrl+C	quit

⚙️ Configuration

cldr --config writes a commented starter file to ~/.config/cldr/config.toml (Linux) or %APPDATA%\cldr\config.toml (Windows). Everything is optional.

# search engine — {q} is replaced by the URL-encoded query
search_url = "https://duckduckgo.com/?q={q}"
# search_url = "https://www.google.com/search?q={q}"

max_results = 50      # /ls and /find row cap
find_depth  = 4       # /find recursion depth

# aliases: "name = replacement"; "name arg" appends arg
alias.g  = /web
alias.gh = /web github.com
alias.n  = /run nvim

🧲 How the tray + summon works

sequenceDiagram
    participant U as User (shortcut / hotkey)
    participant S as cldr --summon
    participant I as Loopback IPC (127.0.0.1, ~/.cldr/port)
    participant W as Running window
    U->>S: press shortcut
    S->>I: connect, send "SUMMON"
    I->>W: accept, reply "OK-WINDOW"
    W->>W: raise_window() (Win32 / xdotool)
    S-->>U: exits (no duplicate window)

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Loopback-only control channel — no clipboard, no privileged APIs, no firewall prompt. A detached daemon (--daemon-start) services queued open/run/sys requests from atomically-published per-request files in a private, per-user state directory.

🎯 Design goals

Goal	How
Small	4 crates total (crossterm, ratatui, open, walkdir); full LTO, one codegen unit, symbols stripped, panic=abort
Fast	Redraw only on change; a single 250 ms poll() when idle; no async runtime
Dependency-free at runtime	One binary; nothing to install, no DLLs, no Python
Private	Never reads or writes the clipboard; no telemetry; the only socket is loopback

Why a terminal window, not a native GUI? A native toolkit (winit/egui/Qt) would add tens of MB of dependencies and binary size. The terminal is the smallest possible GUI here — on Windows the console is auto-shrunk to a compact ~92×26 box; on Linux your terminal emulator sizes it.

🏗️ Project layout

src/
 ├─ main.rs     CLI router (foreground / --summon / --tray / daemon / --self-test)
 ├─ engine.rs   dispatcher, calc parser, smart cascade (+ unit tests)
 ├─ extras.rs   config, aliases, history, unit conversion, base64, self-test
 ├─ ipc.rs      loopback-TCP summon control channel
 ├─ tui.rs      ratatui command window (dirty redraw, history, compact window)
 ├─ summon.rs   window raising, autostart, tray loop
 └─ daemon.rs   detached background worker
packaging/      Windows installer (Inno Setup), Linux install/uninstall, portable notes
scripts/        shortcut installers (PowerShell + sh)
docs/           user guide, setup guide, shortcut recipes, screenshots

📚 Documentation

Document	Contents
docs/USER_GUIDE.md	walkthrough, keys, examples, troubleshooting
docs/SETUP_GUIDE.md	build, install, shortcuts, autostart, releases
docs/SHORTCUTS.md	per-DE / per-tool hotkey recipes
CHANGELOG.md	version history
CONTRIBUTING.md	dev workflow, code style, PR rules

🚀 Releases

Releases are tag-driven and fully automated:

# bump version in Cargo.toml + CHANGELOG.md, then:
git tag v1.3.0 && git push origin v1.3.0

CI builds Windows + Linux (x86_64 and aarch64), packages portable archives and the Windows installer, generates SHA256SUMS.txt, attests build provenance, and publishes the GitHub Release.

⚖️ License & attribution

© 2026 Dr. Sohil Momin (drsamonline) — MIT licensed with a mandatory attribution clause. Every source, doc, script, and asset carries an embedded watermark; any copy must retain the author's name. Removing watermarks terminates the license grant.

⭐ Star it if it saves you a keystroke. — made with ☕ and Rust by Dr. Sohil Momin