Instant Answers & Keyword Features

Beyond local file search, Lertaro includes a suite of instant calculations, system tools, and keyword-triggered plugin extensions. Answers appear immediately without waiting for file search results.

1. Always Active Instant Answers

These features do not require any trigger prefix; they activate automatically whenever the input matches their patterns:

Calculator & Base Conversion

Type any arithmetic expression directly into the search bar. Results appear in real time. Press Enter to copy the evaluated result to the clipboard:

12 * (4 + 3)
100 * (1 - 0.15)

Common number base conversions are supported out of the box:

255 to hex
0xFF to dec
101010 to bin

Environment Variable Expansion & Inspection

• Expand Variables: Type %NAME% (e.g. %PATH%, %APPDATA%) to inspect its evaluated value. Multi-path variables such as PATH are split into clear line-by-line lists for inspection.
• Fuzzy Search Variables: Type % followed by a keyword (e.g. %temp) to fuzzy-search across all system and user environment variables.

Quick Command Execution

Run commands directly without launching a terminal window first:

• #<command>: Opens a command prompt and executes the command with Administrator privileges (e.g. #sfc /scannow or #net start LertaroService).
• $<command>: Opens a command prompt and executes the command with standard user permissions (e.g. $ping 1.1.1.1 or $ipconfig /all).

Under Settings → Plugins → Core Extensions → Configure → Command Executor, choose CMD (default), Windows PowerShell, or PowerShell (pwsh). Run in current directory uses the inline window's directory or the last browsed directory for quick search. If no directory has been obtained (for example, when first using quick search), it uses your user profile directory. An unavailable chosen directory stops execution.

Enable Show in Quick Navigation to add Run command in this directory. Its prompt lets you choose an interpreter and elevation for each command, always using the menu's source directory; a child folder's context menu uses that folder. Empty input opens the selected shell, and #/$ overrides the elevation checkbox. Exact cmd, powershell, or pwsh after the prefix (case-insensitive, trimming whitespace) opens that program directly; only a missing executable falls back to CMD with the original input. A missing interpreter selected for an ordinary command reports an error without changing script syntax.

CMD expands %CD% in a startup command before changing directory. If elevation or a UNC path makes Windows override the initial directory, that variable may still refer to the old directory. Choose PowerShell and use $PWD when a startup command needs to read the directory.

Direct URL Navigation

Type or paste any URL beginning with http:// or https:// and press Enter to open it immediately in your default browser. Entering a valid protocol-less web address such as example.com generates two browser instant results in the Quick Search Window: https://... and http://.... The protocol-less guess only applies to a hard-coded whitelist of common top-level domains (over a hundred suffixes such as .com, .cn, and .io, plus xn-- internationalized domains) and is not configurable; suffixes that double as common file extensions are deliberately left out, and anything else stays a file search, so abc.txt produces no browser row. Add the protocol yourself to open a URL the list does not cover. Browser rows use the two-line browser-open presentation, the query text is not modified, and an address that already includes a protocol produces a single browser row. A ping <host> row is appended after them: pressing Enter or clicking it runs the command in a command interpreter window, using the interpreter chosen for the system command runner. The host is taken from the address with its protocol, credentials, port and path stripped, and IPv4, IPv6 and internationalized domains (converted to punycode) all work.

Clipboard text in the Quick Search Window

With Settings → General → Quick Search Window → Auto-fill Quick Search box from clipboard enabled (off by default), when the Quick Search Window is summoned without prefilled text, a non-empty clipboard text is imported and selected automatically if it differs from the last clipboard value imported by that window. The same value is not imported repeatedly, and prefilled queries from a URI or from returning from the full search window are never overwritten.

2. Keyword-Triggered Plugin Extensions

By typing a short trigger keyword + space followed by your query, you can invoke dedicated plugin capabilities. All keywords can be customized under Settings → Plugins.

A half-width space, a full-width space or a tab all separate the keyword from what follows, and the keyword itself never takes part in file-name matching or highlighting. If two features answer to the same keyword, the plugin's configuration page flags it in amber under that field and names the other one -- saving is not blocked.

Default Keyword	Plugin Name	Description & Use Case	Example Usage
ps	Process Manager	Search running processes by name, PID, or window title (supports pinyin). Press Enter to terminate.	ps chrome or ps 1234
win	Window Switcher	Search and jump to active application windows with live background thumbnail snapshots.	win code or win browser
bb	Browser Bookmarks	Search bookmarks from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox profiles.	bb github
bh	Browser History	Search browsing history from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox profiles.	bh github
set	Settings Search	Fuzzy-search Lertaro's internal settings. Selecting an item jumps directly to that setting page and highlights it.	set hotkey or set fuzzy
flow	Flow Launcher Bridge	Lists loaded Flow.Launcher plugins and their action keywords, connecting with the Flow community ecosystem.	flow
cs	Content Search	Searches the text of indexed local documents and returns matching files with snippets.	cs project plan

Select a win result and open its actions menu (Ctrl+O) to access these window controls. Both use the work area of the window's own monitor, excluding the taskbar, and restore minimized or maximized windows before positioning them.

• Fit to screen and center (s): If the window's width or height exceeds the corresponding work-area dimension, reduce only that dimension to the available size minus 12 pixels, then center the window. Dimensions that fit, including exact matches, remain unchanged.
• Center window (e): Move the restored window to the center of the work area without resizing it.

3. Web Search Engines

The Web Search plugin provides built-in shortcuts for major search engines. Type the prefix followed by your query to search in your default browser:

Shortcut	Search Engine	Example	Description
bd	Baidu	bd deep learning	Search via Baidu
g	Google	g lertaro github	Search via Google
bing	Bing	bing microsoft docs	Search via Bing
gh	GitHub	gh Lertaro	Search directly across GitHub repositories
wiki	Wikipedia	wiki quantum computing	Look up Wikipedia entries
yt	YouTube	yt lofi hip hop	Search YouTube videos

You can add, edit, or remove search engines and custom URL templates under Settings → Plugins → Web Search → Configure.

4. Instant Translation

Type the default trigger tr followed by text to translate it automatically into the language currently selected in Lertaro's interface:

tr Hello, how are you today?

• Results appear asynchronously as you type; press Enter to copy the translation.
• Customize the trigger keyword under Settings → Plugins → Translator → Configure.

5. File Filters

Under Settings → Plugins → File Filters → Configure, you can bind a trigger keyword to specific folders so a normal search can be scoped to them:

• Target Folders: One path per line (e.g. D:\Engineering\Drawings); environment variables (e.g. %TEMP%) and shell virtual paths (e.g. shell:Downloads) are also accepted, and an entry that resolves to nothing is skipped. Results come from the file index, so folders should be index-covered (an enabled local drive, or added under Settings → Index → Folders, which also accepts network shares); an uncovered folder is skipped with a warning in the log.
• Matching Rules: File name patterns such as *.dwg;*.dxf (folders always included).
• Trigger Keyword: Bind a prefix (e.g. cad), then typing cad bracket_assembly in the quick search window runs the normal index search -- filename fuzzy matching, pinyin aliases included -- restricted to the bound folders. Typing the keyword alone asks you to keep typing.

6. Custom Commands

Under Settings → Plugins → Custom Commands → Configure, wrap complex scripts, tools, or applications into concise commands:

• Parameter Placeholders: Supports positional placeholders %s1, %s2... and full query capture %s, plus the clipboard text as %c (or {c}).
• Run in current directory: Overrides the fixed working directory with the Quick Navigation menu's source directory, the inline window's directory, or the last browsed directory for quick search. An unavailable directory stops execution. Disabled by default to preserve existing configurations.
• Quick Navigation Integration: Check "Show in Quick Navigation" to pin the command directly into the Quick Navigation menu, with optional / submenu paths (e.g. DevTools/RestartService).