Command Conventions

Yantra Launcher commands are designed to feel like terminal commands, but they live inside an Android launcher. As a result, you may feel that they are non-standard and different from what you are used to, but that is an intentional design decision to make the experience of using commands easy and enjoyable on a mobile device with soft keyboard. A few conventions make the experience much less mysterious.

Command Names

Command names are matched case-insensitively. Arguments are generally passed as space-separated words, so commands do not provide a full shell parser. In particular, do not assume that shell quotes will group words into one argument.

Flags

Flags begin with -. Some commands use a flag followed by a value, such as search -e=duckduckgo, while others use separate words, such as todo -p 1 30. The command's help page is the authority for that command's format.

Aliases

Use alias to list aliases, alias name = command to create or update one, and unalias name to remove one. Built-in command names cannot be reused as alias names. Aliases are stored in Yantra Launcher's configuration and survive launcher sessions.

Indexes

Some commands use indexes instead of names. Todo indexes are zero-based: the first item is 0, the second is 1, and so on. Check the output before marking or removing an item.

Spaces and Names

Commands that accept free text, such as echo, notify, text, and tts, can use spaces in the message. Commands that identify one stored item, such as notes or scripts, may require a single word for the name.

Suggestions and Help

The suggestion bar offers command and argument completions as you type. Long-press a primary command suggestion for a quick help popup. For the complete runtime list, use help; for one command, use help <command>.

Execution

Most commands return immediately after starting their action. Network requests, Termux commands, timers, scripts, and other long-running operations may continue or wait for an external result. Read the command page when timing matters.