A standalone Flow Launcher plugin for configurable DuckDuckGo-style bangs and multi-site search groups. Import and export use the same JSON format as the Custom Bang Search browser extension, so lists can move between the two. Built for Flow Launcher 2.1.3+, .NET 9, and Windows 11.
| Capability | Example |
|---|---|
| No activator required | Type yt guitar tutorial directly |
| Optional activator | Choose any prefix, for example !yt guitar tutorial |
| Custom bangs | Map a command to one or more %s search URLs |
| Search groups | shop1 headphones opens the same search on Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress |
| List tools | Search, edit, multi-select, delete, reset, import, and export |
The default activator is empty, so commands work directly at the beginning of a Flow query:
yt guitar tutorial
maps science museum
shop1 headphones
Set !, ?, or any other prefix in the plugin settings if you prefer one. Existing settings are kept when the plugin is updated. Type bangs settings to open the settings page.
First create or import the individual shortcuts—for example asd for Amazon, ede for eBay, and ali for AliExpress. Select + Search group, enter shop1 as the group command and asd, ede, ali as its comma-separated members. Now shop1 headphones opens all three searches in the Windows default browser.
Groups stay above regular bangs in the list. They can only contain existing regular shortcuts, not missing shortcuts or other groups.
The plugin reads and writes the same version 6 JSON format as Custom Bang Search, the Chrome extension this plugin's bang format is modeled on (Chrome Web Store listing); version 5 imports are also supported. This plugin itself has nothing to do with Chrome — the shared format just means a list can move between the two tools. Import replaces the current list after confirmation, so export a backup first.
Search groups use Flow's additional groupMembers field, which Custom Bang Search doesn't have and ignores on import.
tpdhd-custom-bangs-v6.json (234 entries, including the shop1 search group) starts from Custom Bang Search's own Top 250 DuckDuckGo bang list, with these changes:
- All one-character shortcuts are removed, since with an empty activator they could intercept ordinary Flow searches.
cults,mmf,thangs, andthingwere added for 3D-print model search sites, andmwnow points to MakerWorld instead of Merriam-Webster.- The
shop1search group was added, covering Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress.
lists/README.md has more detail, plus links to Custom Bang Search's own ready-made DuckDuckGo Top 10–250 lists.
Download Flow.Launcher.Plugin.CustomBangs-<Version>.zip from Releases—not the source ZIP. In Flow, install that ZIP as a local plugin (or run pm install <absolute-path-to-zip>), restart Flow, then open Settings → Plugins → Custom Bangs.
Compatibility and data format
Regular bangs keep the same fields as Custom Bang Search's version 6 format. A Flow search group adds groupMembers:
{
"version": 6,
"bangs": [
{
"keyword": "shop1",
"alias": null,
"defaultUrl": "",
"urls": [],
"groupMembers": ["asd", "ede", "ali"],
"dontEncodeQuery": false
}
]
}If a command has neither a query nor a valid defaultUrl, nothing opens. Queries are URL-encoded by default so spaces, umlauts, and special characters remain valid. Don't encode query is only for unusual templates that require raw text.
Imported aliases continue to resolve and can be edited. The current UI does not have a separate button for creating new aliases.
Curated starter list, build, and releases
The small project-owned starter catalog is curated-bangs.json. It is loaded only during first initialization and restored by Reset curated. Optional files under lists/ never overwrite an existing catalog automatically.
With the .NET 9 SDK installed on Windows, run ./build.ps1 to restore dependencies, build, test, and create an installable ZIP under artifacts/. CI builds and tests every push; a version tag creates a GitHub release.
MIT. This is an independent implementation and does not copy source code from Custom Bang Search or Flow.Plugin.Bang.