trance

A local screensaver host and picker.

trance is a single-binary app (and Windows screensaver host) that lists installed .scr files — the 10 library-powered scenes or any third-party .scr — and lets the user pick one. Once a scene is selected, trance launches it as a fullscreen screensaver using the OS's standard screensaver API.

trance is part of the local76 ecosystem and depends on library for the design system and widgets.

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Features

• Built-in registry. A registry.json lists the 10 known scenes with their official download URLs. Out-of-the-box experience.
• Auto-discovery. Scans %WINDIR%\System32 and %LOCALAPPDATA%\local76\screensavers for any .scr file and adds it to the picker.
• Picker. Ratatui list with live preview pane. Arrow keys, Enter to launch, d to download a missing scene from the registry, r to refresh.
• Windows screensaver host. Registers itself as the active screensaver via the standard HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\SCRNSAVE.EXE registry key. The Windows "Screen Saver Settings" control panel launches trance.scr directly.
• trance doctor. Diagnostics: registry state, scene directory, missing dependencies.

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Install

Windows

• Standalone: download trance.scr from the latest release. Right-click → Install.

Linux (companion CLI)

• Debian/Ubuntu: sudo dpkg -i trance.deb (downloaded from the release page)

On Linux, trance operates as a picker only. The screensaver runtime side is provided by the 10 screensaver-* repos.

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Usage

trance                     # launch the picker
trance.scr /s              # fullscreen mode (Windows screensaver entry point)
trance.scr /c              # configure mode (Windows screensaver entry point)
trance.scr /p <hwnd>       # preview mode (Windows screensaver entry point)
trance list                # one-shot: print installed scenes to stdout
trance doctor              # diagnostics
trance --version
trance --help

Inside the picker:

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move selection
Enter	Launch the selected scene
d	Download a missing scene from the registry
r	Refresh the scene list
q	Quit

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Configuration

• Windows: %APPDATA%\local76\app\trance\config.yaml and %APPDATA%\local76\app\trance\registry.json (auto-refreshed).
• Linux: ~/.config/local76/app/trance/config.yaml.

The default registry ships with the 10 known scenes; if a scene is missing locally, the picker shows a download link.

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Build from source

git clone https://github.com/local76/trance.git
cd trance
cargo build --release

The release artifact is target/release/trance.scr (Windows) or target/release/trance (Linux).

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License

MIT. See LICENSE.md.