EmoShelf

English | 日本語

Your personal emoji shelf.

EmoShelf is a fast, local-first Windows app for keeping the emojis, sequences, symbols, and custom images you actually use within instant reach.

Press Alt + E, choose from your Board or All, and paste. No account, cloud sync, telemetry, or remote profile is required.

The actual app, as shipped in v1.0.0.

What it does

• Personal Boards with drag-and-drop ordering, safe delete/undo, and app-specific mapping
• A permanent leftmost All tab and search across 1,949 emoji with English and Japanese names and tags
• Bundled Twemoji and OS-native emoji, with corrected native alignment across the shelf, catalog and details
• Single emoji paste, multi-emoji Compose Tray, reusable sequences, and copy-only fallback
• PNG, WebP, and sanitized SVG import with content-addressed local storage
• .emoshelf backup, preview, merge, and replace workflows
• Global shortcut, Quick/Pinned modes, system tray, autostart, monitor-aware placement, and single instance
• Dark, light, and system themes with keyboard navigation, visible focus, high-contrast support, and Reduced Motion
• Manual updates with backup guidance; automatic updates remain disabled until trusted updater keys are configured

Fast path

See the release qualification record for verified behavior and remaining compatibility checks. Automatic insertion depends on the destination app; copy-and-paste is always available as a fallback.

Alt + E → Board → emoji → target application

Keyboard controls:

Key	Action
Ctrl+F	Focus search
Arrow keys	Move through items
Enter	Paste
Ctrl+Enter	Keep open when pasting, or add a search result to the active Board
Ctrl+K	Open Board actions in the personal Shelf view
Ctrl+1..9	Switch Board
Esc	Dismiss dialog/search, return from All to Shelf, then hide EmoShelf

Normal clicks and Enter paste into the previously active editor. Open Details to inspect items without pasting on click. Copy only is an explicit setting. If automatic insertion is unavailable, return to your editor and press Ctrl+V; the shelf keeps a visible recovery message. How to use includes a private, unsaved practice editor and the steps for trying insertion in another app.

Alt+E always brings the shelf forward, including from the background or a minimized window. Use Escape or the close button to dismiss it. All opens the entire catalog; clicking it again clears the search and category filter. Personal Boards and their Ctrl+1..9 assignments are unchanged. Physical keyboard coverage and external-app compatibility are still being qualified; see the linked record.

Emoji styles

Style	How to get it
Twemoji	Included with the app; usable offline
Native / System	Uses the OS emoji font; no additional download
Fluent Emoji, Noto Emoji, OpenMoji	Signed style packs on GitHub Releases (v1.1.0 or later)

To add a style, download its .emoshelf-renderer file from the release, open Settings → Additional emoji styles → Install pack, and choose the file. Then pick it under Emoji appearance. Installed packs work offline. EmoShelf verifies each pack's signature, file hashes, and SVG content before installing and again when loading it. Emoji a style does not cover fall back to Twemoji.

Style changes affect EmoShelf's preview. Unicode pasted into another application uses that application's emoji font. See the pack specification for the format and verification rules.

Development checkpoint — September 27, 2026

v1.2.0 adds an emoji size setting (Small, Medium, Large; Medium by default) and lets you press and hold an emoji on your shelf to drag it to a new spot.

v1.1.0 added signed Fluent, Noto, and OpenMoji style packs. Its x64 installers were checked in CI to install, render, and remove all three packs.

v1.0.0 was released on September 27, 2026. In CI, the x64 installers were installed, passed the full desktop test suite and were uninstalled; the ARM64 installers were checked to launch and render the shelf.

The September 26 launch polish added bilingual download/install guidance, share metadata and a mobile layout review, render/catalog recovery, clearer manual updates, and localized shelf accessibility labels. Settings now consume Escape without also hiding the shelf. The installed-app test runner works with production binaries without a test plugin.

Pre-release results are in the launch report.

EmoShelf is distributed unsigned. ARM64 hardware acceptance, the full app/DPI/accessibility matrix, performance qualification and five business days of stable use remain required. Evidence and limitations are recorded separately from implementation completion.

Install

EmoShelf targets Windows 11 on x64 and ARM64 and is distributed without code signing. Download installers and checksums from GitHub Releases.

The current release is v1.2.0, which adds an emoji size setting and press-and-hold reordering. Windows may show an unknown-publisher or SmartScreen warning.

Each installer is installed and uninstalled in CI before a release is published. SignPath is not providing signing for the project. See the distribution policy. Local candidates and CI artifacts are not published releases.

Installing the unsigned release

EmoShelf releases are unsigned. Windows cannot verify the publisher through a certificate. Follow the source and checksum checks below. On a work- or school-managed PC, consult your administrator if unsigned applications are restricted.

Before installing, use only the linked GitHub Release, choose the matching architecture, and compare the complete SHA-256. A matching hash is not proof of publisher identity or safety. Scan the file, keep Windows protections enabled, and stop on a threat detection or policy block. Only consider the per-file SmartScreen More info → Run anyway option if the warning is solely about an unrecognized app and you trust the source. There is no automatic updater; back up and update manually.

1. Download the EXE for your PC from the official release

In Windows, open Settings → System → About → System type and check whether your processor is x64-based or ARM-based. The label "64-bit" alone does not distinguish them.

Under Assets on the official v1.2.0 release, download one of the following installers and SHA256SUMS.txt into the same folder.

PC type	Installer to download
x64 (Intel / AMD)	EmoShelf_1.2.0_windows-x86_64_UNSIGNED-setup.exe
ARM64 (such as Snapdragon)	EmoShelf_1.2.0_windows-aarch64_UNSIGNED-setup.exe

These are installers, not portable builds. The EXE is normally sufficient; you do not also need to install the MSI. Source code (zip) and Source code (tar.gz) are not ready-to-run applications.

Confirm that the source is github.com/ELRdn/EmoShelf. Do not download through search ads, unofficial mirrors, direct messages, or email attachments. Stop if your browser detects a threat. Even if the warning only says the file is not commonly downloaded, do not assume it is safe: verify the source and checksum first.

2. Compare the SHA-256 before running the installer

Open the download folder in File Explorer, type powershell in the address bar, and press Enter. Administrator privileges are not required. Run only the command matching your downloaded file. It displays the hash without launching the EXE.

x64:

Get-FileHash -LiteralPath '.\EmoShelf_1.2.0_windows-x86_64_UNSIGNED-setup.exe' -Algorithm SHA256 | Format-List

ARM64:

Get-FileHash -LiteralPath '.\EmoShelf_1.2.0_windows-aarch64_UNSIGNED-setup.exe' -Algorithm SHA256 | Format-List

Open SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release in Notepad. Compare the output's Hash with the line for the same filename. All 64 characters must match; letter case does not matter. Do not check only the beginning or end. If the downloaded filename has a suffix such as (1), adjust the command to match the actual filename, but compare against the checksum entry for the original release filename.

Do not install if the hashes differ, the file cannot be found, or there is no matching checksum entry. Download it again from the official release. If it still does not match, report the issue through GitHub Issues.

A matching hash confirms that the bytes match the published checksum. Because the checksum comes from the same source, it does not protect against compromise of that source or prove that the app is harmless. It is not a substitute for code signing. See Microsoft's Get-FileHash documentation for the command reference.

3. Scan the file, review warnings, and install

1. Update Windows and your antivirus software. Right-click the EXE and select Show more options → Scan with Microsoft Defender. If you use another antivirus product, scan with that instead. A clean scan does not guarantee safety. Microsoft's scanning instructions
2. Double-click the EXE only if no threat was detected, you verified the source and hash, and you accept the risks of using an unsigned app.
3. If SmartScreen's "Windows protected your PC" message is solely a warning about an unrecognized app, select More info to check the app name. EmoShelf may show Unknown publisher, which does not mean the publisher is verified. Choose Run anyway only if you trust the verified file and decide to proceed. If unsure, select Don't run. Microsoft's SmartScreen guidance
4. Follow the installer. If User Account Control asks to allow changes to your device, confirm that it is the installer you launched. Cancel if it names an unfamiliar program or makes an unexpected request. Do not use Run as administrator to bypass warnings.

Do not run the installer in the following cases. Stop and consult your administrator if needed.

• The file is detected as a virus, malware, or an unwanted app, or is quarantined.
• Smart App Control, an organization policy, or S mode blocks execution.
• There is no Run anyway button, or you cannot determine what the warning means.

Do not disable Defender real-time protection, SmartScreen, or Smart App Control; add antivirus exclusions; or restore a quarantined file to force installation. Do not switch to the MSI to bypass a restriction. Smart App Control does not support exceptions for individual apps. Microsoft's Smart App Control FAQ

4. Launch EmoShelf and try it in Notepad

1. Launch EmoShelf from the Start menu and choose your preferred emoji during onboarding. You can change the language and behavior in settings.
2. Click the editing area in a normally launched, non-administrator Notepad window, then press Alt+E to open EmoShelf.
3. In the normal Board view, outside edit or Compose mode, click an emoji to paste it. For keyboard use, select it with the arrow keys and press Enter. A click already pastes, so do not press Enter afterward. In copy-only mode, or if automatic pasting fails, copy in EmoShelf, return to Notepad, and press Ctrl+V. This replaces your clipboard contents.
4. If Alt+E does not respond, open EmoShelf from its system tray icon and choose a shortcut that does not conflict with another app. If the icon is hidden, open the taskbar's ∧ menu.

The window's close button hides EmoShelf in the tray; it does not quit the app. To exit completely, right-click the tray icon and select Quit. If pasting fails because the target app runs as administrator or for another reason, use manual copying rather than elevating EmoShelf.

5. Back up, update, and uninstall

EmoShelf has no automatic updater, so updates are manual. Before updating, save a .emoshelf backup using Export in settings, quit the app, and check the official Releases page for a newer version. Verify the new files using that release's checksums and signing policy; do not reuse an older release's checksums. Installing a newer version over the existing one keeps your shelf data.

To uninstall, back up your data, select Quit in the tray menu, then open Settings → Apps → Installed apps → EmoShelf → Uninstall in Windows. Do not assume that saved data will survive uninstallation; keep your backup outside the app's storage.

Report problems through GitHub Issues. Include the release version, filename, Windows version, x64/ARM64 architecture, and warning text. Hide personal information in screenshots, and do not publish clipboard contents or personal backup files.

Privacy and security

EmoShelf is local-first and does not include analytics. Optional app-aware Boards use only the foreground executable basename and monitor identifier; full paths and window titles are neither saved nor sent anywhere.

• Privacy
• Security policy
• Code-signing policy
• Third-party notices

Development

Requirements: Node.js 22+, pnpm 10+, stable Rust, WebView2, and the Tauri Windows prerequisites.

cd app
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm check
pnpm build
pnpm release:audit

cd src-tauri
cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy --locked -- -D warnings
cargo test --locked
cargo check --locked

Run the desktop app with pnpm tauri dev. Real-window E2E uses WebDriverIO and tauri-driver; see app/README.md.

Project guide

• Design specification
• Roadmap and acceptance status
• Contributor guide
• v1.0 release notes
• Engineering handoff

Publisher: ELRdn + Contributors. Support and product feedback are handled through GitHub Issues.

License

EmoShelf application code is licensed under Apache License 2.0. Emoji artwork and third-party components remain under their respective licenses.