Recentry

Recentry is a low-resource, native launcher for reopening recent development projects. Press a global shortcut, type to filter, then use the keyboard to open or focus a project in VS Code.

Cross-platform support is under active development. The latest public end-user build is the unsigned Windows x64 beta, v0.1.0-beta.4. This platform-scoped preview is independent of the first supported cross-platform release. Linux and macOS code, CI, and development packaging do not yet satisfy the native UI, resource, signing, or real-machine acceptance gates and are not supported releases.

Platform	Current status	Public artifacts
Windows 10/11 x64	Beta available; Windows 11 acceptance recorded	NSIS installer and portable ZIP for v0.1.0-beta.4
Linux x86_64/ARM64	In development; native UI gate blocked pending real desktops	None
macOS 13+ Intel/Apple Silicon	In development; AppKit and native acceptance pending	None

See Platform support for the evidence boundary.

Install the Windows beta

Download assets only from the v0.1.0-beta.4 release.

Installer

1. Download Recentry-0.1.0-beta.4-windows-x64-setup.exe and the Windows SHA-256 file.
2. Verify the installer hash.
3. Run the installer. It installs per-user to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Recentry without administrator privileges.
4. Leave Open Recentry selected on the final page.

This beta is unsigned, so SmartScreen may warn. Verify the checksum before choosing More info and Run anyway.

Portable ZIP

1. Download and extract Recentry-0.1.0-beta.4-windows-x64.zip.
2. Keep recentry.exe and recentry-ui.exe together.
3. Run recentry.exe.

There are no supported Linux or macOS installation instructions yet. Manually dispatched CI artifacts are explicitly named unverified-development-*; they are engineering inputs, not releases.

Use

• Press Ctrl+Alt+R to summon the launcher.
• Type ordinary text to filter VS Code's recent projects.
• Use Up and Down to move, Enter to open, and Esc to dismiss.
• Moving focus to another window dismisses the launcher.
• Use the Windows tray menu for Open Recentry, Settings, Diagnostics, or Quit.

Each result stays on one compact line: [VSCode] project-name path. An empty query preserves VS Code's recent order. Search text is only a filter; it is never treated as a path or command.

The first Windows run asks whether Recentry may start when you sign in. It writes a current-user startup entry only after confirmation. The shortcut, language, startup preference, and stable VS Code override can be changed in Settings.

Command line

recentry show
recentry settings
recentry diagnostics
recentry quit

Running recentry without arguments is equivalent to recentry show. The internal --background option is reserved for login startup and process supervision.

VS Code compatibility

• Stable VS Code only; Insiders, Cursor, VSCodium, and other editors are outside this release scope.
• Local folders, .code-workspace files, and supported VS Code remote URIs.
• Read-only access to application-shared and legacy state.vscdb locations.
• Ordinary recent files are excluded.
• Already-open targets request focus; other targets explicitly request a new window.
• Executables receive argument arrays directly; no shell-composed project command is used.

Resources and privacy

The Windows 11 x64 production baseline measured a 1.043 MiB host Private Working Set, 0% idle CPU, a 4.168 MiB active process tree, and cold/warm p95 activation of 174.852/88.725 ms over 30 samples. After the shared-host extraction and final Win32 thread-affinity fix, local regression measurements remained within the fixed gates at 0.746 MiB, 0% idle CPU, a 2.785 MiB active tree, and 160.932/93.065 ms cold/warm p95. See the original Windows acceptance report and the shared-host regression. These are Windows 11 real-machine measurements; Windows 10 real-machine acceptance remains pending.

Recentry has no telemetry, cloud synchronization, or background network requests. Stable VS Code data is read only. Diagnostics hash configuration paths and do not list project paths.

Development

Rust 1.86 is the minimum supported toolchain. Run the full local contract with:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --locked -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace --locked
cargo build --workspace --release --locked

Native CI runs the workspace on Windows x64, Linux x86_64/ARM64, and macOS Intel/Apple Silicon. Compilation or hosted CI alone never changes a platform's support status.

Authoritative development packaging commands are:

pwsh -File tools/package-windows.ps1
bash tools/package-linux.sh --development --arch <x86_64|aarch64> --appimagetool <path>
bash tools/package-macos.sh --development
bash tools/package-manifest.sh --development

Windows packaging requires NSIS 3. Linux packaging requires dpkg-deb, desktop-file-validate, and a verified appimagetool. macOS Universal 2 packaging requires Xcode command-line tools. Native smoke commands live beside their package commands under tools/. Release mode fails closed unless the protected native-acceptance and signing inputs are present.

Read Architecture, Troubleshooting, Release and rollback, and Contributing before changing platform integration or release claims.

License: MIT.