Cross-Platform Desktop App · C++ & Qt6
The Bread Bin
A loaf management system for everything you actually launch.
The Bread Bin organises applications, files, configurations and scripts into structured, runnable bundles called loafs, then gives you a proper interface to build, theme and run them from.
Open source · GPL-3.0 · Linux · Windows · macOS
The core idea
What's a Loaf, exactly?
Think of a loaf as a named, saveable bundle: a group of applications, files, configs and scripts, together with the layout and runtime rules that decide how they behave.
Build a loaf once, in the Loaf Editor, and it becomes a single thing you can save, load, run and stop, rather than a checklist of apps you open by hand every time.
Each item inside a loaf keeps its own settings, and the loaf itself keeps track of layout and execution order, so the same bundle behaves the same way every time you run it.
It's a small idea with a lot of range: a development environment, a streaming setup, a set of admin scripts, or just the handful of apps you always open together.
Core functionality
What you can actually do with it.
Loaf Management
Create, edit and organise structured libraries of items from a single place.
Multi-Item Support
Applications, files, configurations and scripts can all live in the same loaf.
Runtime Rules
Define how a loaf behaves and in what order its items should run.
Custom Layouts
Organise items with flexible layout options rather than one fixed view.
Seven built-in editors
One app, every tool you need to run it.
Rather than bolting on external tools, The Bread Bin ships with its own editors and browsers, all built around the same toast-themed interface.
| Loaf Editor | Create and modify loafs through an intuitive tabbed interface. |
| Text Editor | A multi-tab text editor for files and scripts, with find and replace built in. |
| Theme Editor | Visual theme customisation with colour pickers and font selection. |
| Runtime Manager | Control and monitor your running loafs in real time. |
| App Browser | Automatically discovers and browses the applications already installed on your system. |
| Loaf Browser | View and manage every loaf file you've built, all in one place. |
| Theme Browser | Preview themes and switch between them without leaving the app. |
Built to run wherever you do.
Linux
Windows
macOS
Android
Support levels are exactly as candid as they sound, macOS works but hasn't had the same attention as Linux and Windows, and Android support hasn't started yet.
Under the hood
A properly structured C++ codebase.
The Bread Bin is written in modern C++ with Qt6, following a class-based design: object-oriented architecture with clear separation of concerns, abstract base classes for extensibility, smart pointers for safe memory management, and platform-specific code kept properly abstracted away from the rest of the app.
Underneath the interface, a Loaf is its own
class that owns a set of LoafItems, a layout,
and a table of runtime rules, and knows how to load, save,
run and stop itself. The GUI, in turn, is built from a set of
dedicated widgets, one per editor or browser, all sitting
inside a single main window.
Where it stands today
Currently on hiatus, not abandoned.
The Bread Bin is one of my favourite projects, and it's been quiet for a while as other things have taken priority. It's not dead: the plan is to bring it back with some Odoo-flavoured features, and to move it out of being a personal project and into my organisation properly. Watch this space.
Get The Bread Bin
Free, open source, and built from source.
The Bread Bin is released under the GPL-3.0 licence. Build it yourself with CMake and Qt6 on Linux, Windows or macOS.
C++ · Qt6 · CMake · GPL-3.0