Back to browse
GitHub Repository

Python interpreter at your fingertips

14 starsSwift

Plonk – Spotlight Search style Python interpreter

by JosephRedfern·May 25, 2026·1 point·0 comments

AI Analysis

●●SolidCozySolve My Problem

Spotlight for Python snippets bridges the gap between calculator and IDE.

Strengths
  • Persistent interpreter state survives between hotkey invocations.
  • Auto-detects virtualenvs and uv projects for correct context.
  • %copy command quickly dumps output to clipboard for pasting.
Weaknesses
  • macOS only, excluding Linux and Windows developers.
  • Niche utility that overlaps with existing terminal multiplexers.
Target Audience

Python developers, macOS power users

Similar To

Raycast · Alfred · IPython

Post Description

I've just released Plonk, a Spotlight Search style Python interpreter interface for macOS.

As someone who often uses Spotlight Search for quick calculations, I was left yearning for more - a way of quickly running snippets of code and bridge the gap between a calculator and a full on script. Plonk solves that problem by dropping you in to a persistent Python interpreter with a global hotkey. The `%copy` command can be used to dump the previous output to the clipboard, or `%copy <expr>` to dump the output of a specific expression/variable.

Plonk plugs into system Python by default, but is also compatible with virtualenvs or uv projects.

Source and package are available via GitHub: https://github.com/JosephRedfern/plonk

Similar Projects