[GSoC 2026] CTI Student - First contribution inquiry & Tracker global shortcut idea

Development OS
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Hello everyone!

My name is Vlad, and I am a 1st-year Computer Science student at UPB in Romania. I have a solid foundation in C/C++ and I am very interested in applying for GSoC 2026, specifically for the “Enhancing Tracker” project.

As a first step, I am happy to share that I have successfully set up my build environment on WSL and compiled the x86_64 nightly image from source!

While exploring the OS in a VM to get a feel for the UX, I noticed that there doesn’t seem to be a default global keyboard shortcut to open a new Tracker window (similar to Win + E on Windows). I believe adding this could be a nice quality-of-life improvement.

  1. Is there a specific design reason why this isn’t implemented by default?

  2. If it’s something the community would welcome, would this be a suitable “good first issue” for me to tackle to get familiar with the codebase, the input server, and the Haiku API?

If this feature isn’t needed, could you please point me to another beginner-friendly ticket related to the Tracker UI? I am eager to start diving into the code.

Thank you for your time, Vlad

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You can add that in Preferences → Shortcuts

If you install WindowTailor, you can also define shortcuts for placing Windows, see Use WindowTailor | Haiku Insider

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Thanks for the answe,ubu, from an user perspective, that’s good to know

Since the functionality is already achievable via Preferences, I will pivot my focus. As my main goal is to get my hands dirty with the Haiku C++ codebase for GSoC, could anyone (perhaps a mentor or a core dev) point me toward an open ticket or a “good first issue” related to the Tracker UI? I am curently working on ticket no. #3214!

I have my local build environment ready and I’m eager to start fixing a bug!

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Ref: Making sure you're not a bot!

You can look at Tracker enhancements, bugs, and work history. Suggested Beta 6 tickets for the real mud wrestling.

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