Overview

Spotlite is a local first desktop search launcher for Windows built with C#, WPF, and WebView2. The long term vision is a semantic knowledge engine with embeddings, OCR, and relationship mapping, but the current implementation focuses on building a fast, polished launcher that feels like a native part of Windows.

Features

• Native Windows background application with system tray integration
• Global search overlay with configurable hotkeys
• Frameless acrylic interface powered by WebView2
• Metadata indexing for files, folders, and Start menu applications
• Hybrid search with exact, prefix, fuzzy, and recency based ranking
• Built in command mode and inline calculator
• Keyboard first workflow with explainable search results

Challenges

The hardest part wasn’t the search algorithm itself, it was making Spotlite feel like a real operating system utility. That meant building reliable global hotkeys, a lightweight background process, a responsive indexing pipeline, and a clean bridge between the C# backend and the WebView frontend. At the same time, the architecture had to stay modular enough that future semantic search features could slot in without major rewrites.

Highlights

Rather than chasing AI features from day one, I focused on getting the foundations right. Spotlite already behaves like a polished launcher, with fast indexing, transparent ranking, and a native feeling interface. The current search engine is entirely deterministic, but the project is structured so embeddings, OCR, and a knowledge graph can be layered on top as the next stage of development.

What’s next?

• Persistent on disk index
• Semantic search with embeddings
• OCR and document content indexing
• Knowledge graph and relationship mapping
• File previews and advanced query filters
• Plugin ecosystem