MiniT — Mini Tools Launcher

A clean, fast, extensible WinUI 3 launcher for your everyday tools.

v0.1.0 · Windows · .NET 8 · WinUI 3

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MiniT is a lightweight desktop shell that lets you organize small tools — web-based or local — into Spaces, open them in tabs, and access them instantly with keyboard-driven search.

It is designed for everyday utilities such as converters, generators, dashboards, local HTML tools, and other small applications that you would otherwise keep as separate browser tabs or programs.

Features

• 🗂️ Spaces — group tools into custom workspaces
• 🧩 Tool cards with folders — organize tools visually
• 🌐 Local & Online tools — run both web-based and local HTML tools through WebView2
• 📇 Tool Registry — JSON-based tool definitions
• 🪟 Tabs — keep multiple tools open at once
• 🔍 Instant search (Ctrl+K) — quickly find and open tools
• ⭐ Favorites — mark frequently used tools
• 🎨 Light / Dark / System theme
• ⌨️ Keyboard-first navigation
• 🧪 UUID Generator — included built-in tool
• 💾 Local data only — user data is stored locally in %LocalAppData%\MiniT\
• 🧱 MVVM — built with CommunityToolkit.Mvvm

Requirements

• Windows 10 (build 19041+) or Windows 11
• .NET 8 SDK
• Windows App SDK 1.6
• Visual Studio 2022 (17.8+) or the dotnet CLI

Getting Started

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/swwwrrr/MiniT.git
cd MiniT

Restore dependencies:

dotnet restore

Build for x64:

dotnet build -f net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0 -r win-x64

Run:

dotnet run -f net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0 -r win-x64

Alternatively, open MiniT.csproj in Visual Studio 2022, select the x64 platform, and press F5.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Ctrl+K	Open search
Escape	Close search / close active tab
Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+3	Switch to the 1st / 2nd / 3rd open tool

Tool Types

MiniT supports two main tool types: Online and Local.

Type	What it is	How it opens
Online	A tool available at a web URL	Embedded in WebView2
Local	A local HTML tool stored on disk	Embedded in WebView2 from a local HTML file
Local (built-in)	A tool implemented directly in MiniT using XAML and C#	Rendered natively as a WinUI page

Local (built-in) is technically represented by the same Local tool type. MiniT determines how to open it based on the tool definition: local HTML tools provide a local entry path, while built-in tools use an Entry value that maps to a page registered in BuiltInToolViewFactory.

Adding Tools

From the UI

The Add Tool button allows you to add Online and Local HTML tools.

Online tools

Provide:

• Name
• URL
• Description
• Category

The tool is opened inside MiniT using WebView2.

Local tools

Provide:

• Name
• Description
• Category
• A folder containing the tool

MiniT searches the selected folder for index.html or index.htm. If neither is found, it can fall back to another .html file, including files one level deep in folders such as dist or build.

The selected tool is then opened through WebView2.

User-added tools are stored under:

%LocalAppData%\MiniT\Tools\<id>\

with their corresponding manifest.json.

Built-in Tools

Built-in tools are implemented directly inside the MiniT source code using XAML and C#.

To add a new built-in tool:

1. Create a new page in UI/Pages/:

UI/Pages/MyToolPage.xaml
UI/Pages/MyToolPage.xaml.cs

2. Register the page in BuiltInToolViewFactory.cs:

"MyToolPage" => new MyToolPage(),

3. Add the corresponding tool definition to Registry/tools.json if it should be included in the tool registry.

4. Add the tool to a Space through MiniT's configuration.

Architecture

MiniT/
├── Core/
│   ├── Models/
│   │   ├── MiniTSettings.cs
│   │   ├── SpaceDefinition.cs
│   │   └── ToolDefinition.cs
│   └── Services/
│       ├── BuiltInToolViewFactory.cs
│       ├── SettingsService.cs
│       ├── SpaceService.cs
│       ├── ToolLauncher.cs
│       └── ToolRegistry.cs
│
├── UI/
│   ├── Controls/
│   │   ├── SimpleWrapPanel.cs
│   │   ├── ToolCard.xaml
│   │   └── ToolCard.xaml.cs
│   ├── Helpers/
│   │   ├── AddToSpaceMenu.cs
│   │   └── Motion.cs
│   ├── Pages/
│   │   ├── SettingsPage.xaml
│   │   ├── SpaceContentPage.xaml
│   │   ├── UuidGeneratorPage.xaml
│   │   └── WebToolPage.xaml
│   └── ViewModels/
│       ├── MainViewModel.cs
│       ├── SpaceViewModel.cs
│       ├── TabItem.cs
│       ├── ToolCardVM.cs
│       └── ToolSearchItemVM.cs
│
├── Registry/
│   └── tools.json
│
├── App.xaml
├── MainWindow.xaml
├── MiniT.csproj
└── app.manifest

Data Location

MiniT keeps user data locally:

%LocalAppData%\MiniT\
├── config\
│   ├── settings.json
│   └── spaces.json
│
└── Tools\
    └── <user-installed-tool>\
        └── manifest.json

MiniT does not upload or synchronize this data.

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature ideas are welcome.

If you find a bug or have an idea for MiniT, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

License

MiniT is licensed under the MIT License.