ADR 0072: Add a global plugin launcher

• Status: Accepted for implementation
• Date: 2026-08-11
• Deciders: PI-Desktop core
• Related: D211 · Settings IA · Interaction patterns · E2E-120

Context

Installed plugin panels are reachable from the Plugins destination, but opening one interrupts the user's current work and requires pointer navigation. A system-wide shortcut needs a dedicated native window: the normal renderer cannot receive keys while PI-Desktop is unfocused, and the existing plugin panel host should remain the only authority that opens plugin UI.

Chinese plugin names also need useful keyboard search without requiring an author to add aliases to every manifest.

Decision

1. Add the shared, customizable openPluginLauncher shortcut, defaulting to Alt+Space. Electron renders it as Option+Space on macOS and Alt+Space on Windows/Linux and registers it with globalShortcut after application boot. Windows reserves Alt+Space for the active window system menu, so host-core also installs a narrow low-level keyboard hook for that exact default binding. The hook consumes the chord and emits a host notification to Electron, allowing the launcher to work while another application is focused. The focused main window remains a last-resort fallback.
2. Electron main owns one centered, frameless 620×440 utility window on the display nearest the pointer. ADR 0080 supersedes its original first-use lazy creation with hidden post-boot warm-up. It is non-resizable, absent from the taskbar, always on top while visible, and hides on blur or Escape. macOS uses a panel window visible across workspaces; no platform receives native window controls.
3. The sandboxed launcher renderer uses the existing preload and the additive Electron-only toggle, dismiss, and shown channels. It lists plugins through the existing plugin API and opens a result through the existing sandboxed panel host; no plugin permission or host-core boundary changes.
4. Only enabled, ready plugins with a panel are candidates. Search normalizes name, id, and description and derives tone-free full pinyin and pinyin initials from the display name. Up/Down selects, Enter or click opens, Escape dismisses, and IME composition never dispatches.

Consequences

• A plugin panel can be opened without navigating away from the current task.
• The shortcut remains visible and resettable in Settings → Shortcuts.
• pinyin-pro is bundled into renderer output rather than shipped as a runtime package tree.
• A custom shortcut continues to use Electron's global shortcut API. The host-core hook is enabled only for Windows' reserved default chord, and a hook installation failure is logged; the focused-window fallback remains usable in that case.
• The renderer IPC additions remain Electron-local and additive; the native fallback adds one host method/notification without changing protocol v9 or storage schema v11.

Alternatives considered

Reuse global search

Rejected. Global search is part of the main renderer and cannot appear while the application is unfocused without first restoring the entire main window.

Open plugins directly from a native menu

Rejected. A static menu cannot provide Chinese/pinyin fuzzy search and would need to be rebuilt for every plugin lifecycle change.

Put pinyin aliases in plugin manifests

Rejected. It makes search quality depend on every plugin author and duplicates data that can be derived consistently at query time.