Desktop App

Sign in, use the quick-entry window, the system tray, and command-line flags in the Vikunja desktop app.

Vikunja has a dedicated desktop application for Linux, macOS, and Windows. For download and installation instructions, see Desktop Packages.

Logging in#

The OAuth-based desktop login is available from Vikunja 2.3.0 onwards.

The first time you open the desktop app, you’ll be asked to pick which server to connect to:

  • Vikunja Cloud: connect to the hosted Vikunja Cloud service.
  • Try Demo: connect to try.vikunja.io, the public demo instance.
  • Custom Server: enter the URL of your own self-hosted Vikunja instance.

After you pick a server, the desktop app opens your browser to sign in. If your instance uses an external login provider (for example a single sign-on system), you can sign in with it here as well. Once you approve the sign-in, the browser hands you back to the desktop app and you’re signed in.

Quick-entry window#

The quick-entry window is available from Vikunja 2.3.0 onwards.

The desktop app has a dedicated quick-entry window: a small popup you can open from anywhere on your system to add a task without first switching to the main Vikunja window. It’s the same quick-entry overlay you can already open from inside Vikunja with Ctrl / Cmd + K — the desktop app just makes it available as a standalone, always-on-top window so you can reach it even when Vikunja isn’t focused.

Opening the popup#

Press the global shortcut to open the popup. The default is Ctrl + Shift + A (or Cmd + Shift + A on macOS).

You can change the shortcut in Settings > General, under the Desktop section. Click the shortcut recorder and press the key combination you want to use.

You can also open the popup from the system tray or by launching the app with the --quick-entry flag.

Creating a task#

The popup uses the same quick-entry interface as the dashboard quick-add bar, so you can use Quick Add Magic to set due dates, labels, priorities, assignees, and the target project while you type.

  • Enter creates the task and closes the popup.
  • Ctrl / Cmd + Enter creates the task and opens it in the main Vikunja window.
  • Esc closes the popup without creating a task.

System tray#

The desktop app places an icon in your system tray with these entries:

  • Show Vikunja: open or focus the main window.
  • Quick Add Task: open the quick-entry window. The current global shortcut is shown next to the menu item.
  • Quit: close the app entirely.

Command-line flags#

  • --quick-entry: launch the app and immediately open the quick-entry window. If Vikunja is already running, this opens the popup in the existing instance instead of starting a second one. This is useful if you want to bind your own shortcut or launcher to the quick-entry window.
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