Plugins in Fluent Search

Fluent Search is designed to be extensible through a robust plugin ecosystem. Plugins add new Search Apps, preview providers, automation tasks, and other capabilities — tailoring Fluent Search to your specific needs.

Types of plugins

Fluent Search supports two types of plugins:

1. C# plugins (Dotnet)

Native plugins written in C#. They integrate directly with Fluent Search's core engine, offering:

  • Custom Search Apps — new search sources (clipboard history, YouTube, Wikipedia, Firefox, etc.)
  • Custom preview providers — rich preview panels for results
  • Custom operations — new actions on results
  • Custom settings pages — app-specific configuration UI built with AvaloniaUI

C# plugins are compiled DLLs that follow a naming convention (*Fluent.Plugin.dll) and are loaded dynamically. See Authoring C# plugins for a full development guide.

2. Task plugins (YAML)

Low-code automation workflows created with the visual Task editor and shared as .yaml files. Task plugins can:

  • Add new search commands (e.g., define <word> for dictionary lookups)
  • Chain triggers, HTTP calls, scripts, and UI actions
  • Extend existing results with new operations (e.g., "Open in VS Code")

See Tasks for full documentation.

Browsing and installing plugins

From the Plugins window

  1. Open Fluent Search
  2. Open the Plugins window (search for plugins or use the system tray menu)
  3. Browse available plugins — each shows its name, description, publisher, and type
  4. Click Install to download and enable a plugin

The plugin list is sourced from the plugins-manifest.json file in the official GitHub repository.

Manual installation

C# plugins

  1. Download or compile the plugin DLL(s)
  2. Copy them to your plugins directory (see Plugin directories below)
  3. Create a pluginsInfo.json file in the plugin folder
  4. Restart Fluent Search

Task plugins

  1. Download the .yaml file
  2. Open the Tasks window
  3. Drag-and-drop the .yaml file into the Tasks window

Plugin directories

Installation Type Plugin Directory
Microsoft Store %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\21814BlastApps.BlastSearch_pdn8zwjh47aq4\LocalCache\Roaming\Blast\FluentSearchPlugins\{PluginName}\
Sideload %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\FluentSearch.SideLoad_4139t8dvwn2ka\LocalCache\Roaming\Blast\FluentSearchPlugins\{PluginName}\
EXE installer %APPDATA%\Blast\FluentSearchPlugins\{PluginName}\

Each plugin must be in its own subdirectory. C# plugins require a pluginsInfo.json file describing the plugin.

Available plugins

C# plugins

Plugin Publisher Description
Clipboard Blast Apps Search through your clipboard history using the clipboard tag
Translator Blast Apps Translate text using language tags (e.g., es, fr, translator)
Number Converter Blast Apps Convert numbers to hex/binary using hex and binary tags
Kill Process Blast Apps Kill processes by name
Firefox Blast Apps Search Firefox bookmarks and history
Wikipedia Preview Makesh Vineeth Display Wikipedia content with rich previews
DuckDuckGo Preview Makesh Vineeth DuckDuckGo instant answers and QR code generation
Units Converter Zhichao Hong Convert quantities between different units
YouTube Arkadiusz Ś Search for YouTube videos

Task plugins

Plugin Publisher Description
Dictionary Blast Apps Type define <word> for instant definitions
Change Windows Theme Blast Apps Type wt to switch between light and dark themes
Color Preview Blast Apps Type #FF5733 to preview a color
Currency Converter eikaramba Type 12 USD in EUR for live conversion
C# City Blast Apps Run C# expressions inside {}
Search Tag Switches Blast Apps Common keywords trigger useful search tags
Search Discord Blast Apps Search in Discord channels via Ctrl+T
Everything Random gsak3l Generate random names, emails, passwords, IDs
Open in VS Code yobyths Open files/folders in Visual Studio Code
Open in new WT tab rzippo Open folders in a new Windows Terminal tab
Open Apps Link Path Blast Apps Open the folder containing an app's .lnk shortcut
FS Launcher ironboy Quickly launch any Fluent Search window
Open as Admin Blast Apps Run .exe/.cmd/.bat files as administrator
Lorem Ipsum Generator mahdidev7 Generate lorem ipsum placeholder text

Managing plugins

  • Enable/disable plugins from the Plugins window or Settings
  • Uninstall by removing the plugin's folder from the plugins directory
  • Update by downloading a newer version (check the plugin's URL/repository)
  • Error logs for C# plugins are written to the plugin's directory if loading fails

Building your own

Goal Guide
Build a C# Search App plugin Authoring C# plugins
Build a Task plugin Tasks overview
Publish your plugin to the store Contributing plugins
C# API reference C# plugins API

Community and support

  • GitHub: https://github.com/adirh3/Fluent-Search
  • Task projects repository: https://github.com/adirh3/Fluent-Search-Tasks
  • Discord: https://discord.gg/W2EuWvD6GD
  • Email: support@fluentsearch.net