+0.23 Tuna: A new, modern, modal launcher for macOS (tunaformac.com S:+0.28 )
97 points by inatreecrown2 5 days ago | 40 comments on HN | Mild positive Landing Page · v3.7 · 2026-02-26 03:33:40 0
Summary Digital Access & Transparency Acknowledges
Tuna is a macOS launcher application landing page that presents a minimalist, open-design approach to software. The content demonstrates mild positive signals regarding privacy (no tracking infrastructure), freedom of expression (transparent communication and open roadmap), freedom of association (Discord community), and participation in creative endeavors (open extension ecosystem). The evaluation reflects compatibility with privacy and openness principles rather than explicit human rights advocacy.
Article Heatmap
Preamble: ND — Preamble Preamble: No Data — Preamble P Article 1: ND — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood Article 1: No Data — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood 1 Article 2: ND — Non-Discrimination Article 2: No Data — Non-Discrimination 2 Article 3: ND — Life, Liberty, Security Article 3: No Data — Life, Liberty, Security 3 Article 4: ND — No Slavery Article 4: No Data — No Slavery 4 Article 5: ND — No Torture Article 5: No Data — No Torture 5 Article 6: ND — Legal Personhood Article 6: No Data — Legal Personhood 6 Article 7: ND — Equality Before Law Article 7: No Data — Equality Before Law 7 Article 8: ND — Right to Remedy Article 8: No Data — Right to Remedy 8 Article 9: ND — No Arbitrary Detention Article 9: No Data — No Arbitrary Detention 9 Article 10: ND — Fair Hearing Article 10: No Data — Fair Hearing 10 Article 11: ND — Presumption of Innocence Article 11: No Data — Presumption of Innocence 11 Article 12: +0.18 — Privacy 12 Article 13: ND — Freedom of Movement Article 13: No Data — Freedom of Movement 13 Article 14: ND — Asylum Article 14: No Data — Asylum 14 Article 15: ND — Nationality Article 15: No Data — Nationality 15 Article 16: ND — Marriage & Family Article 16: No Data — Marriage & Family 16 Article 17: ND — Property Article 17: No Data — Property 17 Article 18: ND — Freedom of Thought Article 18: No Data — Freedom of Thought 18 Article 19: +0.28 — Freedom of Expression 19 Article 20: +0.23 — Assembly & Association 20 Article 21: ND — Political Participation Article 21: No Data — Political Participation 21 Article 22: ND — Social Security Article 22: No Data — Social Security 22 Article 23: ND — Work & Equal Pay Article 23: No Data — Work & Equal Pay 23 Article 24: ND — Rest & Leisure Article 24: No Data — Rest & Leisure 24 Article 25: ND — Standard of Living Article 25: No Data — Standard of Living 25 Article 26: ND — Education Article 26: No Data — Education 26 Article 27: +0.34 — Cultural Participation 27 Article 28: ND — Social & International Order Article 28: No Data — Social & International Order 28 Article 29: ND — Duties to Community Article 29: No Data — Duties to Community 29 Article 30: ND — No Destruction of Rights Article 30: No Data — No Destruction of Rights 30
Negative Neutral Positive No Data
Aggregates
Editorial Mean +0.23 Structural Mean +0.28
Weighted Mean +0.26 Unweighted Mean +0.26
Max +0.34 Article 27 Min +0.18 Article 12
Signal 4 No Data 27
Volatility 0.06 (Low)
Negative 0 Channels E: 0.6 S: 0.4
SETL -0.12 Structural-dominant
FW Ratio 59% 13 facts · 9 inferences
Evidence 8% coverage
4M 27 ND
Theme Radar
Foundation Security Legal Privacy & Movement Personal Expression Economic & Social Cultural Order & Duties Foundation: 0.00 (0 articles) Security: 0.00 (0 articles) Legal: 0.00 (0 articles) Privacy & Movement: 0.18 (1 articles) Personal: 0.00 (0 articles) Expression: 0.26 (2 articles) Economic & Social: 0.00 (0 articles) Cultural: 0.34 (1 articles) Order & Duties: 0.00 (0 articles)
HN Discussion 10 top-level · 10 replies
inatreecrown2 2026-02-25 04:14 UTC link
here is a presentation by the author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkm-ZFlivyI
tolerance 2026-02-25 04:14 UTC link
I don’t like this. I am content with Alfred! The landing page is so concise. The demo so straight forward and enticing. It all appears so novel.

Great work.

alwillis 2026-02-25 05:18 UTC link
This looks awesome! I’m excited to try it out.

Loved Quicksilver back in the day.

jauntywundrkind 2026-02-25 06:55 UTC link
Also saw open-source Raycast-aloke RustCast go by today, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47141912 https://github.com/unsecretised/rustcast
SebastianKra 2026-02-25 11:34 UTC link
This composability was also a defining feature of Launchbar.

I loved it, but eventually found that Raycasts approach of having predefined plugins for each use case is more performant , discoverable and usable.

Kinda like how the unix philosophy was beaten by integrated full-stack applications.

* since anything can be composed, everything must be in the same search index. This slows down the index, and means you need to sift through more irrelevant results.

pxtail 2026-02-25 12:25 UTC link
Butchered fish meat piece as the app icon is kind of weird from my perspective.
mikker 2026-02-25 12:43 UTC link
Hey nerds! I made Tuna – happy to answer any and all questions. Thank you for posting it OP!
Brajeshwar 2026-02-25 15:27 UTC link
If this is to replace Alfred (the replacement for Quicksilver), you need to list the details of all features. Currently, the website looks too polished, as if the demo is “too good to be true.”

I started teaching my daughters to use Alfred because my multiple attempts at staying native with Spotlight has failed despite its recent advancements.

https://brajeshwar.com/2026/alfred/

1123581321 2026-02-25 18:10 UTC link
Looks nice! You have a good foundation in modal input order. How’s your file indexing and search compared to Alfred’s? RayCast struggles with this. Alfred’s is solid, especially stands out with `in` search.

Custom search query strings/results is important, too. I couldn’t tell how you support that from the marketing site.

insane_dreamer 2026-02-25 20:25 UTC link
I've been a satisfied Alfred user for ~10 years but there's always room for new tools like this. Kudos.

As others have mentioned, a clear list of features would be useful.

mikker 2026-02-25 12:46 UTC link
Never forget! I've dm'ed with and shown Tuna to Alcor and he's been kind enough to bless both the app and my efforts. Great guy
mikker 2026-02-25 12:46 UTC link
If it looks like I'm excited it's only because I am
mikker 2026-02-25 12:47 UTC link
Haha ... so ... it worked?
mikker 2026-02-25 12:47 UTC link
Why?
n8henrie 2026-02-25 13:45 UTC link
Quicksilver is still around!
Permik 2026-02-25 15:11 UTC link
Ain't so different from a severed piece of a reproductive organ as a logo of a company :D (I'm talking about an apple tree and it's fruit)
steve_adams_86 2026-02-25 17:31 UTC link
I came to ask about why I'd use this over Raycast, but watched your video before typing and wwwwow, this looks incredible. Much more in line with how I think and work.

At first I thought "ehhh, new conventions to learn, not so eager to do that", but by the end of the video you've convinced me there's something here worth learning. It seems very intuitive.

For what it's worth—as far as future extensions go—according to Raycast the things I did most in 2025 were:

  - timers (ti, tab, enter hh:mm:ss values, return)
  - dictionary (dw, tab, type word, return)
  - inline calculator
  - currency conversion
  - focus sessions
  - port manager
Edit to add:

When I fired up Tuna, onboarding began and I had to restart to grant disk access. It didn't restart at first. I then started it manually, and onboarding didn't resume. I had to manually choose "show onboarding" from the menu bar.

_rend 2026-02-25 18:27 UTC link
This is awesome! Love to see something new in this space, especially so heavily inspired by QuickSilver. The UI is slick and fast, and the fuzzy matching (and the match UI itself) is excellent.

If you're taking feedback, I've been a >decade-long user of LaunchBar, and I've yet to find another launcher that handles my most common actions quite as well (except maybe Alfred):

1. I launch a ton of URLs directly from LaunchBar, and it's a killer feature for me to be able to start typing a URL (not intending to match anything) and as soon as I type a period, LaunchBar converts the search to a URL (and inserts 'https://' and '.com'). e.g., if I type "abc.", LaunchBar will expand to "https://abc.com" with the ".com" highlighted for replacement (and hitting Return will open the URL immediately). Right now, if I want to do the same with Tuna and my default mode is Fuzzy Mode, I believe I need to hit '"' to enter Text Mode, type the URL, hit Tab, then search for the "Open URL" action (which also won't recognize a "bare" URL without the scheme, so won't show up for, e.g., "abc.com") — but happy to be wrong! I think it'd be swell if it were possible to configure Tuna to, on '.', convert into text mode, automatically insert "https://" and ".com", and automatically pre-populate the "Open URL" action so I could just hit Return to confirm and launch

2. I use the inline calculator a lot, and really like the "auto math" switch when typing digits (and really like the carve-out for 1Password, where typing '1' will show 1Password in fuzzy search instead of switching to the calculator); switching to text mode automatically on numeric input would be really helpful to do the same

3. I have a few custom search templates in LaunchBar I use all the time (several different search engines), and I'm not sure if it's possible to set up something similar directly inside of Tuna yet without writing custom services or an extension

Obviously, this is just how I use LaunchBar, and may not fit in with your vision of Tuna, but figured it might be some helpful food for thought! Thanks for your work on this :)

mikker 2026-02-25 21:15 UTC link
I need to what? The website?
mikker 2026-02-25 21:16 UTC link
Love that you're calling it a "marketing site" Indexing is meant to be as fast as possible. It's good enough for my needs. You can add custom folders and/or their contents to the global index. Which I think would be the equivalent of "in" search?
Editorial Channel
What the content says
+0.30
Article 27 Cultural Participation
Medium Practice
Editorial
+0.30
SETL
-0.13

Product is built on open-source principles ('built from the ground up'), and planned extension system enables creative participation. Developer credits Quicksilver for original ideas, acknowledging intellectual heritage.

+0.25
Article 19 Freedom of Expression
Medium Practice
Editorial
+0.25
SETL
-0.12

Product emphasizes open design philosophy and is open-source adjacent (extension ecosystem planned). Developer publishes work on Discord, indicating commitment to transparent communication.

+0.20
Article 20 Assembly & Association
Medium Practice
Editorial
+0.20
SETL
-0.11

Discord community and planned extension ecosystem indicate structural support for peaceful assembly and association.

+0.15
Article 12 Privacy
Medium Practice
Editorial
+0.15
SETL
-0.10

No explicit discussion of privacy, but freemium model with no mandatory tracking or subscription suggests privacy-respecting approach.

ND
Preamble Preamble

Landing page does not directly engage with preamble concepts of human dignity, freedom, or justice.

ND
Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood

No content addressing equality or rights of all humans.

ND
Article 2 Non-Discrimination

No discussion of non-discrimination or protected categories.

ND
Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security

No content engaging with right to life, liberty, or security.

ND
Article 4 No Slavery

No engagement with slavery or servitude.

ND
Article 5 No Torture

No content about torture or cruel treatment.

ND
Article 6 Legal Personhood

No engagement with right to recognition before law.

ND
Article 7 Equality Before Law

No discussion of equal protection or law.

ND
Article 8 Right to Remedy

No engagement with remedy or judicial relief.

ND
Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention

No content about arbitrary arrest.

ND
Article 10 Fair Hearing

No discussion of fair trial.

ND
Article 11 Presumption of Innocence

No engagement with presumption of innocence.

ND
Article 13 Freedom of Movement

No content engaging with freedom of movement.

ND
Article 14 Asylum

No discussion of asylum or protection.

ND
Article 15 Nationality

No engagement with nationality.

ND
Article 16 Marriage & Family

No discussion of marriage or family.

ND
Article 17 Property

No engagement with property rights.

ND
Article 18 Freedom of Thought

No content about freedom of thought or religion.

ND
Article 21 Political Participation

No content addressing political participation.

ND
Article 22 Social Security

No explicit engagement with social security or economic rights.

ND
Article 23 Work & Equal Pay

No content about work rights or labor conditions.

ND
Article 24 Rest & Leisure

No engagement with rest or leisure.

ND
Article 25 Standard of Living

No discussion of health, food, or adequate standard of living.

ND
Article 26 Education

No content about education.

ND
Article 28 Social & International Order

No engagement with social and international order.

ND
Article 29 Duties to Community

No explicit discussion of community duties or limitations on rights.

ND
Article 30 No Destruction of Rights

No content about prevention of rights abuse.

Structural Channel
What the site does
Element Modifier Affects Note
Legal & Terms
Privacy
No privacy policy or privacy-related content observable on landing page.
Terms of Service
No terms of service observable on landing page.
Identity & Mission
Mission
Mission implicit in product description: modern macOS launcher application emphasizing open design philosophy.
Editorial Code
No editorial code of conduct observable.
Ownership
Single developer (mikker) identified as creator. Sole proprietor model apparent.
Access & Distribution
Access Model
Freemium model: free with soft limits, one-time unlock for full version. No subscription model.
Ad/Tracking
No advertising or tracking infrastructure observable on landing page. Minimal third-party scripts detected.
Accessibility
No accessibility statement observable. Page structure suggests basic semantic HTML but no explicit accessibility features documented.
+0.35
Article 27 Cultural Participation
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.35
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
-0.13

Landing page explicitly mentions extension ecosystem and open design. Developer publicly shares work and invites participation. 100% native Swift code is transparent technical choice.

+0.30
Article 19 Freedom of Expression
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.30
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
-0.12

Landing page is simple, unobstructed, and information is clearly presented. GitHub/open ecosystem signals commitment to transparency and shared knowledge.

+0.25
Article 20 Assembly & Association
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.25
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
-0.11

Landing page explicitly invites users to join a community (Discord). Extension ecosystem enables users to associate around shared interests.

+0.20
Article 12 Privacy
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.20
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
-0.10

DCP notes minimal third-party scripts and no tracking infrastructure observable. Freemium monetization avoids surveillance-based ad tracking.

ND
Preamble Preamble

No structural signals related to preamble values.

ND
Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood

No observable structural provision for equality or dignity.

ND
Article 2 Non-Discrimination

Product appears open to all macOS users without visible discrimination.

ND
Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 4 No Slavery

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 5 No Torture

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 6 Legal Personhood

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 7 Equality Before Law

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 8 Right to Remedy

No observable support mechanisms.

ND
Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 10 Fair Hearing

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 11 Presumption of Innocence

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 13 Freedom of Movement

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 14 Asylum

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 15 Nationality

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 16 Marriage & Family

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 17 Property

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 18 Freedom of Thought

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 21 Political Participation

No observable structural signals related to governance or voting.

ND
Article 22 Social Security

Freemium model with affordable access may implicitly support accessibility, but not explicitly addressed.

ND
Article 23 Work & Equal Pay

Single developer model; no labor practices observable.

ND
Article 24 Rest & Leisure

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 25 Standard of Living

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 26 Education

No observable educational resources or accessibility barriers documented.

ND
Article 28 Social & International Order

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 29 Duties to Community

No observable structural signals.

ND
Article 30 No Destruction of Rights

No observable structural signals.

Supplementary Signals
How this content communicates, beyond directional lean. Learn more
Epistemic Quality
How well-sourced and evidence-based is this content?
0.66 low claims
Sources
0.7
Evidence
0.6
Uncertainty
0.5
Purpose
0.8
Propaganda Flags
No manipulative rhetoric detected
0 techniques detected
Emotional Tone
Emotional character: positive/negative, intensity, authority
measured
Valence
+0.3
Arousal
0.4
Dominance
0.3
Transparency
Does the content identify its author and disclose interests?
0.67
✓ Author
More signals: context, framing & audience
Solution Orientation
Does this content offer solutions or only describe problems?
0.68 solution oriented
Reader Agency
0.7
Stakeholder Voice
Whose perspectives are represented in this content?
0.55 2 perspectives
Speaks: individualscorporation
Temporal Framing
Is this content looking backward, at the present, or forward?
prospective short term
Geographic Scope
What geographic area does this content cover?
global
Complexity
How accessible is this content to a general audience?
accessible low jargon general
Longitudinal · 5 evals
+1 0 −1 HN
Audit Trail 25 entries
2026-02-28 14:19 model_divergence Cross-model spread 0.26 exceeds threshold (4 models) - -
2026-02-28 14:19 eval_success Lite evaluated: Neutral (0.00) - -
2026-02-28 14:19 eval Evaluated by llama-3.3-70b-wai: 0.00 (Neutral)
reasoning
Tech product page
2026-02-26 23:11 eval_success Light evaluated: Neutral (0.00) - -
2026-02-26 23:11 eval Evaluated by llama-4-scout-wai: 0.00 (Neutral)
2026-02-26 20:15 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Tuna: A new, modern, modal launcher for macOS - -
2026-02-26 20:13 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b - -
2026-02-26 20:12 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b - -
2026-02-26 17:41 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Tuna: A new, modern, modal launcher for macOS - -
2026-02-26 17:39 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b - -
2026-02-26 17:38 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b - -
2026-02-26 17:37 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b - -
2026-02-26 14:42 eval_success Evaluated: Mild positive (0.18) - -
2026-02-26 14:42 eval Evaluated by deepseek-v3.2: +0.18 (Mild positive) 9,227 tokens
2026-02-26 09:14 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Tuna: A new, modern, modal launcher for macOS - -
2026-02-26 09:12 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=mistral-small-3.1 - -
2026-02-26 09:11 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=mistral-small-3.1 - -
2026-02-26 09:10 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=mistral-small-3.1 - -
2026-02-26 09:09 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Tuna: A new, modern, modal launcher for macOS - -
2026-02-26 09:09 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Tuna: A new, modern, modal launcher for macOS - -
2026-02-26 09:09 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Tuna: A new, modern, modal launcher for macOS - -
2026-02-26 09:07 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=hermes-3-405b - -
2026-02-26 09:07 rate_limit OpenRouter rate limited (429) model=llama-3.3-70b - -
2026-02-26 03:33 eval Evaluated by claude-haiku-4-5-20251001: +0.26 (Mild positive) 10,377 tokens +0.14
2026-02-26 02:37 eval Evaluated by claude-haiku-4-5-20251001: +0.12 (Mild positive) 10,612 tokens