MineLauncher (package ID: mc_inventory) is a KDE Plasma 6 plasmoid that transforms your desktop app launcher into a Minecraft Creative Inventory–inspired grid.
Browse your applications with category tabs, a favorites bar, and authentic Minecraft-style UI elements. 🧱

🔗 Also Try

💡 If you like this Launcher, you might also enjoy: MineClock on GitHub — another Minecraft-style plasmoid with similar fun vibes!

🧩 Features

✅ Grid-based launcher UI — 9×5 scrollable app grid with Minecraft-style borders
✅ Category tabs — Top and bottom tabs (like Minecraft's Creative tabs)
✅ Favorites bar — Pin up to 9 visible favorite apps for quick access (additional favorites are stored but only the first 9 are shown in the bar)
✅ Search functionality — Real-time app filtering
✅ User profile bar — Display username with Minecraft avatar support
✅ Power controls — Lock, logout, reboot, and shutdown buttons
✅ Custom scrollbar — Minecraft-style scrollbar with row snapping
✅ Color-coded categories — Apps display category colors in tooltips
✅ Configurable — Custom launcher icon, size, avatar URL, and always expanded option
✅ Built in pure QML + JS for Plasma 6

📂 Folder structure

mc_inventory
├── contents
│   ├── config
│   │   ├── config.qml
│   │   └── main.xml
│   ├── ui
│   │   ├── CategoryTab.qml
│   │   ├── CompactRepresentation.qml
│   │   ├── configGeneral.qml
│   │   ├── DashboardRepresentation.qml
│   │   ├── InventorySlot.qml
│   │   ├── main.qml
│   │   ├── StaticFavoriteGrid.qml
│   │   └── StaticGrid.qml
│   ├── minecraft-items
│   │   └── {images}
│   └── textures  
│      └── {images}
├── grass_block.png
├── LICENSE
├── metadata.json
├── preview2.png
├── preview3.png
├── preview.png
└── README.md

Component descriptions:

main.qml — Root UI file; manages app grid, category switching, and main logic
InventorySlot.qml — Represents a single app slot with icon, tooltip, and click handling
CategoryTab.qml — Renders a category tab (top/bottom) with icon and selection state
StaticGrid.qml — Draws Minecraft-style borders/background for the main app grid
StaticFavoriteGrid.qml — Draws borders/background for the favorites bar
configGeneral.qml — Implements the widget's configuration dialog UI
CompactRepresentation.qml — Handles panel/compact widget mode
DashboardRepresentation.qml — Handles dashboard/expanded widget mode
grass_block.png — Default launcher icon (Minecraft grass block)
metadata.json — Plasma package metadata and manifest
minecraft-items/ — Minecraft assets
textures/ — Minecraft assets

⚙️ Installation

Local Install (Recommended for testing)

# Create the plasmoids folder if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/

# Copy this project there
cp -r mc_inventory ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/

Then right-click desktop → Add Widgets → search for "MC Inventory".

If it doesn't appear:

kbuildsycoca6 --noincremental
killall plasmashell
kstart plasmashell

Package Install

# From the parent directory containing mc_inventory/
kpackagetool6 -t Plasma/Applet -i mc_inventory

# To update an existing installation
kpackagetool6 -t Plasma/Applet -u mc_inventory

🎮 Usage

Interactions

Left-click — Launch application
Right-click — Add/remove from favorites
Mouse wheel — Scroll through apps (snaps to rows)
Search field — Filter apps by name

Favorites Bar

Right-click any app to add it to favorites
Favorites are stored without an enforced limit; however, the in-widget favorites bar shows up to 9 pinned apps (extra favorites remain saved but are not displayed in the 9-slot bar)
Favorites appear at the bottom of the inventory (first 9 entries)
Right-click favorites to remove them

Power Controls

Located in the user bar below the main grid:

🔒 Lock — Lock screen session
🚪 Logout — End current session
🔄 Reboot — Restart system
⚡ Shutdown — Power off system

⚙️ Configuration

Right-click the widget → Configure MC Inventory...

General Settings

Launcher Icon:

Choose any system icon for the panel/desktop
Default: start-here-kde

Icon Size:

Range: 16-256 pixels
Default: 48px

Custom Avatar URL:

Leave empty to use mc-heads.net/avatar/{username}
Or provide a custom URL to any image
Example: https://mc-heads.net/avatar/Steve/100.png

Always Expanded:

Keep the launcher always visible (useful for desktop widgets)

Default: Off (click to expand)

  Label {
      text: "Note: Favorites bar displays up to 9 items; additional favorites are stored but only the first 9 are shown in the bar"
      font.pointSize: Kirigami.Theme.smallFont.pointSize
      opacity: 0.7
      Layout.fillWidth: true
      wrapMode: Text.Wrap
  }

💻 Manual Uninstall

# Remove the plasmoid directory
rm -rf ~/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/mc_inventory/

# Or use kpackagetool6
kpackagetool6 -t Plasma/Applet -r mc_inventory

Then restart Plasma:

killall plasmashell
kstart plasmashell

🧠 Development Notes

Current Status

The plasmoid is now functionally complete with all major features implemented:

✅ Full category system
✅ Search functionality
✅ Favorites management (favorites are saved without an enforced limit; the favorites bar displays up to 9 visible slots)
✅ Custom scrollbar with row snapping
✅ User profile display with avatar
✅ Power controls
✅ Configuration dialog
✅ Color-coded tooltips

Known Limitations

Favorites are stored with no hard cap, but only the first 9 favorites are visible in the in-widget favorites bar (this matches the 9-slot/hotbar visual design)
Some KDE themes may affect border appearance
Avatar images require internet connection (mc-heads.net)
Avatar images may be overridden by a custom URL in the config

Tips for contributors

Always keep "Id": "mc_inventory" in metadata.json matching the folder name
Name ("MC Inventory") is just the visible label
Check logs with journalctl --user -f | grep plasmashell
Test in a sandbox session (Xephyr) for major changes
Use Qt 6 / Plasma 6 APIs only

Development Tools

# Watch logs
journalctl --user -f | grep plasmashell

# Restart Plasma after changes
killall plasmashell && kstart plasmashell

# Test in Xephyr
Xephyr :1 -screen 1920x1080 &
DISPLAY=:1 plasmashell --replace

🤝 Contributing

Got QML experience? Plasma dev skills?
Contributions are welcome!

Areas for improvement:

Additional category icons/themes
Animation polish
Performance optimization
Accessibility features
Theme customization options

How to contribute:

Fork this repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request 🚀

🧱 Future Plans

Animation effects (fade in/out, slide transitions)
Custom category creation
Theme variants (dark mode, different Minecraft versions)
Drag-and-drop app organization
Recent apps category
Keyboard navigation support
Multi-monitor improvements

📜 License

GNU General Public License v3.0 or later

Copyright (C) 2025 CAL (calamytryx)

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

See LICENSE for full text.

🙏 Credits

Inspired by Minecraft's Creative Inventory UI
Built for KDE Plasma 6
Avatar service: mc-heads.net
Icons: KDE Breeze icon theme

💬 Fun Fact

"MineLauncher" is named after the Minecraft Creative Inventory — but here, you're not placing blocks… you're launching apps like items! 😆

📸 Screenshots

The launcher features:

9×5 scrollable grid with Minecraft-style borders
Category tabs at top and bottom
Search bar with real-time filtering
Favorites bar with up to 10 pinned apps
User profile with Minecraft avatar
Power controls for system management
Custom scrollbar matching Minecraft's UI style

Check preview.png and preview2.png for visual examples!

README.md Unescape Escape

🟩 MineLauncher — Minecraft-Style KDE Plasma App Launcher