Catch

Catch is a native download manager for Omarchy: a bar widget shows the queue, a Rust backend owns the transfers, and browser extensions hand downloads over from the Chromium and Firefox families.

Features

• Browser hand-off — left-click a download in a connected browser, or right-click for links, page media, selected links, video, or audio.
• One or many links — paste a link or list; each unique http(s) link becomes a row.
• Video and audio — YouTube/Vimeo links use yt-dlp; audio-only is in the browser menu.
• Resumable queue — 1, 3, 5, or 10 transfers run at once; pause or stop keeps partial data. Re-sending a saved link asks before a second copy.
• Segmented downloads — large files use parallel ranges when supported, with a plain fallback. See segmented downloads.

Requirements

Catch ships a prebuilt Linux x86_64 backend in bin/dist; nothing is compiled. It uses programs already on an Omarchy machine, except yt-dlp:

Program	Needed for	Source
yt-dlp	Video and audio downloads	install this one
wl-paste, wl-copy	Clipboard access	wl-clipboard
xdg-open	Opening files and folders	xdg-utils
systemctl, omarchy-notification-send	Schedule, alerts	systemd, Omarchy

Only yt-dlp is not part of Omarchy: omarchy pkg add yt-dlp.

Install

omarchy plugin add https://github.com/tahadx/catch --enable
~/.config/omarchy/plugins/io.github.tahadx.catch/install.sh

The first command puts Catch on the bar. The installer links catch and catch-host into ~/.local/bin, writes host files, registers the extension, and asks before adding Super+D (n skips; --yes adds it). Re-running is safe.

Restart the browser once, then follow browser support.

Browser support

Browser family	Extension
Chromium, Brave stable/Origin, Edge	Loads next start if a flags file exists
Google Chrome, Brave beta/nightly	One-time Load unpacked
Firefox, Zen, Floorp, LibreWolf, Waterfox	Load Temporary Add-on each launch

Flatpak browsers may block the host; use the distro package. Vivaldi, Opera, and other unlisted browsers are unsupported. Details: browser support.

Usage and keyboard shortcuts

Left-click the bar icon or press Super+D; right-click opens the download folder.

• Add links. Paste one link or a list and press enter; each unique http(s) link becomes its own row. ctrl+v pastes from anywhere in the panel.
• From the browser. Left-clicking a file link sends it to Catch. Right-click → Catch for links, page media, selected links, video, or audio; Download with browser bypasses Catch, Copy page URL copies only the URL.
• Videos. YouTube and Vimeo links use yt-dlp; Catch as video forces it for other supported sites.
• Control the queue. Each row has a mark, a stop, and a bin. Stop keeps partial data; the bin removes it and the row but keeps a finished file. r gives a failed or stopped row a new address, reusing bytes only for the same file.
• Already saved links. Sending a link whose file is in the download folder asks whether to open, save another copy, or replace it, even after its row is gone.

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / j k	Move between rows
space / a	Mark a row / all rows
p / x	Pause or resume (marked rows too) / stop, keeping data
r	Give a failed or stopped row a new address
c / delete	Remove marked rows / cursor row; finished file stays
d	Delete marked files from disk
enter	Open a finished file
tab / ctrl+v	Switch field/rows / paste links
o / s	Open folder / settings
esc / q	Back one screen / close

Configuration

The gear icon or s opens settings, stored in ~/.config/omarchy/shell.json (also editable from Omarchy's settings).

Setting	Default	Notes
Download folder	~/Downloads/catch	Empty uses $XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR/catch when set
Parallel transfers	3	1, 3, 5, or 10
Connections per file	4	1, 2, 4, or 8; 1 disables segmented downloads
Bandwidth	unlimited / 0 KB/s	Mode (balanced, low) plus optional global cap
Schedule	off	e.g. 02:00–06:00; enabling installs a systemd timer
Panel position	bar	bar, top, center, left, right, bottom

Headless overrides: CATCH_MAX_PARALLEL, CATCH_SEGMENTS, CATCH_BW_MODE, CATCH_BW_CAP_BPS; connection controls are in segmented downloads. CATCH_CATEGORIES=on sorts files into type folders.

Update and uninstall

To update:

omarchy plugin update io.github.tahadx.catch

Restart the browser to pick up extension changes.

Remove Catch

Run Catch's cleanup before removing the plugin:

~/.config/omarchy/plugins/io.github.tahadx.catch/bin/uninstall
omarchy plugin remove io.github.tahadx.catch

Setup → Remove Plugin is not a substitute for the first command. For a git checkout Omarchy deletes the plugin directory with rm -rf and does not run anything inside it, so the cleanup script disappears with it. The leftovers are Catch's path in the Chromium/Brave --load-extension line, the native-messaging host files, the catch/catch-host links, the Super+D binding, and the scheduler timer.

bin/uninstall removes all of those. Your queue and ~/Downloads/catch stay.

The same script is installed as ~/.local/bin/catch-uninstall, so it survives Remove Plugin. If the plugin directory is already gone, run:

catch-uninstall

If that helper is missing too (older installs), recover it with a fresh clone:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/tahadx/catch
./catch/bin/uninstall

Restart Chromium or Brave afterwards. If it still reports

Failed to load extension from: . Manifest file is missing or unreadable

the cleanup did not run, or another browser process was still open. Close every Chromium/Brave window and start the browser again. If Catch was loaded manually instead of through the flags file, remove it once from brave://extensions or chrome://extensions.

Development

The panel and service are Panel.qml, Service.qml, and Model.js; the backend, extensions, and tooling live in crates/catch, extensions/, and bin/.

bin/refresh-dist          # rebuild bin/dist from source
cargo test -p catch       # backend tests
node tests/model.test.js  # panel model tests
bin/check-release         # version and shipped-binary consistency

Release steps: release.

License

MIT © 2026 Taha Sadough. See LICENSE.