QuickSheet

Your desktop is a spreadsheet.

QuickSheet replaces your wallpaper with a transparent, interactive grid. Pin notes, launch apps, paste links, track numbers — all without opening a window. The idea: keep something lightweight always present in the background, instead of a static wallpaper you never interact with.

The data is a CSV file. Cells can run shell commands. Same file on Windows or Linux.

Why this exists

Most developers have a second monitor — or at least a desktop — that shows a static wallpaper doing nothing. QuickSheet turns that dead space into something useful:

• Always-on scratchpad. Click anywhere on the desktop to jot a note. No window to find, no app to open. Autosaves every 5 seconds.
• App launcher. Prefix a cell with r: code . and hit Enter. Multi-select cells to launch your whole morning stack in one keystroke.
• Link dashboard. Paste URLs into cells. They're highlighted and open on Enter — a personal start page that lives behind your windows.
• Live data. Column sums, sparklines, inline subprocesses (i: top), and 69+ extensions for weather, stocks, RSS, system monitoring, and more.
• Zero dependencies. Clone → dotnet build → run. No NuGet packages, no npm, no Docker. The entire supply chain is the .NET SDK.

If you spend your day in a terminal or IDE and want your desktop to do something, QuickSheet is for you.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/cemheren/QuickSheet.git
cd QuickSheet
dotnet run -c Release --project ExcelConsole.csproj -- --desktop

Requires .NET 9 SDK. Release mode is recommended — it feels noticeably snappier.

Tip: add it to your startup applications so your notes, links, and launchers are there every time you log in. See docs/install-startup.md for Windows (Task Scheduler / Startup folder + an opt-in -Update flag) and Linux (XDG autostart) walkthroughs.

Want to export your data? Render any CSV as a GitHub-flavored Markdown table:

dotnet run --project ExcelConsole.csproj -- mydata.csv --export-md mydata.md

Use --export-md - to write to stdout — handy in csvkit / Miller / qsv pipelines. See docs/csvkit-comparison.md for the drop-in pipeline notes.

New here? The 60-second tour is in docs/tour.md. Or jump straight to docs/recipes.md for ready-to-paste dashboard layouts. All keyboard shortcuts are in docs/keyboard-shortcuts.md. Common questions: docs/faq.md.

Using Claude Code, Copilot CLI, or Aider? dotnet run --project ExcelConsole.csproj -- examples/ai-workflow.csv --desktop opens a pre-seeded panel of the top AI-CLI launchers (claude --continue, gh copilot suggest, aider --ask), a /cost token sparkline, and the copilot-in-a-cell extension hook.

Audience-specific guides: for homelabbers (Plex / Pi-hole / *arr / Home Assistant) · for traders (P/L, watchlist, FX, news strip) · for SREs & DevOps (service health, k8s pods, TLS expiry) · for students (coursework, budget, developer tools).

A note on the code

This is a side project, and a lot of it was written with AI assistance. The hard rule the project keeps is zero NuGet dependencies — all native interop (X11, WinForms, ConPTY) is hand-written P/Invoke. That keeps the supply-chain surface area minimal: clone, build, run.

Desktop environment for developers

Type directly into cells

For quick notes, todos. Everything autosaves every 5 seconds. You can point and click to any part of your desktop to take some quick notes, use it as a buffer etc without losing focus of the application you are running.

Launcher

Prefix any cell with r: to make it a runnable command — e.g. r: code . or r: firefox. You can open or launch multiple repos with a single operation. Multi select cells, and hit enter to run.

I've used it to start the repos I want to work on for the day, and launch copilot with some saved prompts like summarize emails. Not sure how others solve this problem, but this to me is simpler than running startup scripts.

Hyper-Link Dashboard

Paste URLs into cells. They're highlighted and open in your browser on Enter/double-click. Similar to the launcher funcitonality you can open and run multiple by selecting multiple cells. I was going for a emacs buffer type of feel to save and run multiple cells.

Lightweight Data Tracking

Auto-sum (Σ) per column and auto-product (Π) per row in the status bar. Import/export CSV. I hate opening the calculator for simple operations. This helps with that.

Sparklines in a cell

Prefix a cell with s: 1,2,3,4,5,6 to render the values as a unicode bar sparkline (▁▂▃▄▅▆). Handy for tracking a small series next to other notes — paste a row of numbers, get a tiny chart, no extra column.

You can also point at a range of cells: s: A1::A10 pulls numeric values from the referenced grid range and renders them. Non-numeric cells in the range are skipped.

Section headers in a cell

Prefix a cell with # (H1) or ## (H2) to create a visually distinct section header.

• # Work → rendered in gold — ideal for top-level dashboard sections
• ## Servers → rendered in cyan — ideal for sub-sections

The prefix is hidden during display; only the label is shown. Combine with color-coded cells and links to build organized, scannable desktop dashboards.

Desktop files

Desktop files are added to cells (padded to right), which can be used in a multi-select way. Helpful for finding/launching multiple files. Not sure about usability of these yet, likely I'm going to tweak this.

Extensions — Make Your Desktop Do More

QuickSheet has a lightweight extension system that lets you bring new capabilities right into your grid. Extensions are standalone programs that communicate with QuickSheet over a simple JSON-lines protocol — install one in seconds and it just works.

Full list: see docs/extensions.md for the live directory of available extensions and the protocol spec.

Install an extension in one cell

Type ext: github:user/repo into any cell and press Enter. QuickSheet clones the repo, reads its manifest, and starts the extension automatically. That's it — no package managers, no config files.

Example: GitHub Copilot on your desktop

The quicksheet-copilot-ext extension brings AI directly into your spreadsheet grid. Ask questions, generate structured data, or summarize cell ranges — all without leaving your desktop.

ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-copilot-ext
copilot: test, 1, 1

The copilot: prefix takes a natural-language prompt followed by the number of columns and rows you want written to the grid:

copilot: <your prompt>, <columns>, <rows>

Use cases:

Use case	Example cell
Generate test data	copilot: 10 user records with name email city, 4, 10
Compare technologies	copilot: compare React Vue Angular on performance learning-curve, 3, 4
Create quiz questions	copilot: 5 Python beginner questions with answers, 2, 5
Summarize your notes	copilot: summarize key points from {A1::A20}, 1, 5
Sprint planning agenda	copilot: 8 sprint planning agenda items as task and duration, 2, 8
List best practices	copilot: 6 REST API best practices as rule and reason, 2, 6
Debug cheat sheet	copilot: common Python errors with cause and fix, 2, 8
Salary benchmarks	copilot: software engineer salaries by level junior mid senior, 2, 5

Cell references like {A1::C10} are expanded before being sent to Copilot, so it receives the actual cell contents as context — useful for summarization, analysis, or transformation of existing data.

A ready-made multi-section dashboard is available in examples/copilot-dashboard.csv — open it with quicksheet copilot-dashboard.csv to see data generation, research, learning, planning, and finance sections all in one grid.

Example: Weather forecast widget

The quicksheet-weather extension turns a cell into a live 7-day weather forecast:

ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-weather
wthr: Seattle, 2, 7

Example: TLS certificate checker

The quicksheet-tls-ext extension shows TLS cert expiry and issuer — useful as an ambient SRE dashboard:

ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-tls-ext
tls: github.com, 1, 4

More extensions

Prefix	What it does	Install
price:	Crypto prices (CoinGecko)	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-price-ext
def:	Dictionary lookups	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-define-ext
mort:	Mortgage calculator	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-mortgage-ext
stock:	Stock quotes (Stooq)	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-stock-ext
cal:	Calendar events (.ics)	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-cal
todo:	Task management	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-todo
ping:	HTTP status & latency	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-ping-ext
fx:	Currency conversion	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-fx
gha:	GitHub Actions status	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-gha
ghpr:	GitHub PR dashboard	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-ghpr
docker:	Container health	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-docker
gitst:	Git repo status	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-gitst
portck:	TCP port checker	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-portck
k8s:	Kubernetes pod status	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-k8s
cntdn:	Countdown timers	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-cntdn
1099:	US self-employment tax	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-1099-ext
mileage:	IRS mileage deduction	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-mileage-ext
budget:	Budget envelopes	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-budget
worldtm:	World clock / timezones	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-worldtm
margin:	Break-even & margin calc	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-margin-ext
depr:	Depreciation schedules	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-depr-ext
jwtdec:	JWT token decoder	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-jwtdec
cronck:	Cron expression parser	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-cronck
guid:	GUID/UUID generator	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-guid
regex:	Regex pattern explainer	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-regex
urlenc:	URL encode/decode	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-urlenc
curl:	HTTP client (Postman-in-a-cell)	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-curl
arxiv:	arXiv paper lookup	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-arxiv
pihole:	Pi-hole DNS stats	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-pihole
health:	HTTP endpoint health checker	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-health
env:	Env var inspector (lookup/filter/PATH, auto-masks secrets)	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-envck
roll:	Dice roller — 2d6+3, d20, 4d6kh3, Fudge, critical detection	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-dice
lc:	LeetCode — daily challenge, problem lookup, user stats	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-leetcode
ghst:	GitHub contribution streak — current streak, longest, sparkline	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-ghstreak
iss:	Live ISS position + people in space — lat/lon, region, crew by craft	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-iss
npm:	npm package info — version, weekly downloads, license, author; multi-package compare	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-npm
pypi:	PyPI package info — version, license, author, Python requirement, release date	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-pypi
crates:	Rust crate lookup — crates: tokio (version, downloads, description, keywords), crates: search async (top 5). Via crates.io, no API key.	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-crates
ghtrend:	GitHub trending repos — stars, forks, language, description by language or overall	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-gh-trends
co2:	Live atmospheric CO₂ from NOAA Mauna Loa — ppm, baseline, YoY, 30-day trend	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-co2
weather:	Live weather via Open-Meteo — temperature, conditions, wind, humidity, pressure (free, no API key)	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-openmeteo
ip:	IP geolocation — ISP, org, ASN, timezone, hostname, coords for any IP or your own	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-ipinfo
dns:	DNS record lookup — A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS, CNAME, PTR. dns: MX gmail.com · dns: PTR 8.8.8.8	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-dns
ssl:	SSL certificate expiry checker — status 🟢/🟡/🔴, days left, issuer. ssl: github.com · ssl: api.internal:8443	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-ssl
whois:	WHOIS domain/IP lookup — registrar, status, expiry urgency 🟡🔴, nameservers. whois: github.com · whois: 8.8.8.8	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-whois
tracert:	Network traceroute — each hop with RTT and reverse-DNS hostname. tracert: github.com · tracert: 8.8.8.8	ext: github:cemheren/quicksheet-tracert
mtr:	Route tracer with per-hop RTT stats and packet loss. mtr: google.com (full route) · mtr: ping 8.8.8.8 (ping stats: min/avg/max, loss%).	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-mtr
speed:	Network speed test — download Mbps from CDN endpoints + HTTP latency to Cloudflare/Google/GitHub. speed: · speed: download · speed: latency	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-speedtest
epoch:	Unix timestamp converter — epoch: now · epoch: 1700000000 · epoch: 2025-01-01 · epoch: diff t1 t2 · epoch: add <ts> 30d. Zero network.	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-epoch
color:	Color converter + palette — color: #ff6600 · color: rgb(255,102,0) · color: orange · color: palette #3b82f6. HEX↔RGB↔HSL↔CMYK, WCAG contrast. Zero network.	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-color
caniuse:	Browser compat lookup via caniuse-db — caniuse: css-grid · caniuse: flexbox · caniuse: webassembly. Shows support across Chrome/Firefox/Safari/Edge + usage %. No API key.	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-caniuse
gem:	Ruby gem lookup via rubygems.org — version, total downloads, authors, license, homepage, description. gem: rails (detail) · gem: search json parser (top 5). No API key.	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-rubygems
hackage:	Haskell package lookup from Hackage — hackage: aeson (version, synopsis, author, category, license, homepage) · hackage: search json (top results). No API key.	ext: github:Deskworks/quicksheet-hackage

See docs/extensions.md for the full directory with descriptions and protocol docs.

Build your own

Extensions are regular .NET (or any language) programs that read/write JSON lines on stdin/stdout. The protocol is intentionally minimal:

1. QuickSheet sends {"type":"init"} → extension replies with {"type":"register", "prefix":"xyz", ...}
2. When a user activates a cell matching the prefix, QuickSheet sends {"type":"activate", ...} → extension replies with {"type":"write", "cells":[...]} to fill the grid.

Ship a quicksheet-extension.json manifest in your repo and you're done. See the full protocol spec for message formats, coordinate system, rules, and working examples in C# and Python. Or check the weather extension for a minimal working example.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Navigation

Shortcut	Action
Arrow Keys	Navigate cells
Shift+Arrow	Extend selection / multi-select
Tab	Move right, wrap to next row
Enter	Activate cell (open URL / run command)

Editing

Shortcut	Action
F2	Edit cell in-place
Backspace	Delete last character / clear selection
Delete	Clear cell or selection
Escape	Cancel edit
Type any character	Start editing the selected cell

View & Layout

Shortcut	Action
F1	Toggle raw vs resolved cell display
F3	Rebuild grid / recalculate layout
F4	Decrease column width
F5	Increase column width

Clipboard & Search

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+C	Copy cell(s)
Ctrl+Shift+C	Copy resolved / displayed content
Ctrl+X	Cut cell(s)
Ctrl+V	Paste (supports multi-line)
Ctrl+F	Search

Undo & History

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Z	Undo last action
Ctrl+Y	Redo

Appearance

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+T	Cycle theme (Dark → Light → Nord → Solarized → SolarizedLight → Matrix → Dracula → Synthwave → Gruvbox → Monokai → HotdogStand)

File & Row Operations

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save to CSV
Ctrl+D	Delete row
Ctrl+O	Insert row below
Ctrl+P	Insert row above
Ctrl+H	Show help overlay
Ctrl+Q	Quit

License

MIT