dictionary

A fast, native dictionary app in the spirit of macOS Dictionary.app, built with Rust and GPUI Kit. It reads the same dictionaries as Dictionary.app: compiled Apple .dictionary bundles and Dictionary Development Kit (DDK) source XML.

Dictionaries are imported once into the app's own memory-mapped format, so the app opens instantly and searches as you type. No dictionaries are bundled; you import your own.

Installing with Nix

The flake builds the app for x86_64-linux and aarch64-linux. CI pushes the builds of main to the dbrockman Cachix cache, so Nix downloads the binary instead of compiling it. Nix asks whether to use the cache the first time; answer yes.

nix run github:dbrockman/dictionary            # try it
nix profile install github:dbrockman/dictionary

On NixOS, add the flake as an input and install the package:

{
  inputs.dictionary.url = "github:dbrockman/dictionary";

  outputs = { nixpkgs, dictionary, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules = [
        ({ pkgs, ... }: {
          environment.systemPackages = [ dictionary.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];
          nix.settings = {
            substituters = [ "https://dbrockman.cachix.org" ];
            trusted-public-keys = [ "dbrockman.cachix.org-1:oUXtudDZ0/g0qNzHvdMJSf93Orf8Fn+9NUJMUQJXP9I=" ];
          };
        })
      ];
    };
  };
}

There is also overlays.default, which adds pkgs.dictionary.

Don't make the input follow your own nixpkgs (inputs.dictionary.inputs.nixpkgs.follows). The cached binaries are built against this flake's locked nixpkgs. With a different one, Nix compiles the app locally, which takes a while and needs a recent Rust.

Building

On NixOS (or anywhere with Nix), the dev shell provides the libraries GPUI needs:

nix develop
cargo run --release

Common tasks are in the justfile (run just to list them): just run, just test, just lint, just import-data, just update and so on. They enter the Nix dev shell automatically.

Elsewhere, install the GPUI Linux prerequisites (Wayland/X11, xkbcommon, Vulkan loader and fontconfig) and use cargo directly.

Importing dictionaries

From the app, open Settings (gear button or Ctrl+,), click Add… and choose a .dictionary bundle or a DDK project folder. Or use the command line:

dictionary import ~/Downloads/Oxford.dictionary MyProject/

On a Mac, Apple's dictionaries live in /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_DictionaryServices_dictionaryOSX/*/AssetData/*.dictionary and /Library/Dictionaries/. They are licensed content, so only copy them to machines you're entitled to use them on.

Imported dictionaries are stored in ~/.local/share/dictionary/ (Linux), ~/Library/Application Support/Dictionary/ (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Dictionary (Windows). Override this with --library DIR or DICTIONARY_LIBRARY.

Settings are saved in settings.json under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dictionary/ when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set (on any platform), otherwise ~/.config/dictionary/ (Linux), ~/Library/Application Support/Dictionary/ (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Dictionary (Windows). What the app restores at the next start, such as the selected dictionary, is saved in state.json under $XDG_STATE_HOME/dictionary/, otherwise ~/.local/state/dictionary/ (Linux), ~/Library/Application Support/Dictionary/ (macOS) or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Dictionary (Windows).

Using

Key	Action
type anywhere	search
↑ / ↓	move through results
Esc	clear the search
Ctrl+L / Ctrl+F	focus the search field
Alt+← / Alt+→ (Ctrl+[ / Ctrl+])	back / forward
Ctrl+,	settings: enable, disable, add and delete dictionaries
Ctrl+Q	quit

dictionary WORD opens the app showing WORD. --timings prints startup timings.

Layout

Crate	Purpose
crates/dictdb	The .dictdb storage format: an fst key index, postings, and zstd-compressed blocks of entry HTML, all memory-mapped.
crates/import	Importers for Apple bundles (Body.data/KeyText.data) and DDK XML, plus the simplifier that turns Apple's class-styled XHTML into plain semantic HTML at import time.
crates/app	The GPUI Kit application.

The compiled Apple format is undocumented. The importer follows the community's reverse-engineered description of it (see the module docs in crates/import/src/apple_bundle/), and reports unsupported variants as errors instead of guessing.

Testing

cargo test --workspace                 # unit and integration tests
cargo bench -p dictdb                  # open/search/fetch benchmarks
cargo run -p dictdb --example dump -- ~/.local/share/dictionary/X.dictdb word

Put real bundles in testdata/ (git-ignored) and cargo test -p import will import each one.