# Niri Active Workspace

A bar widget that shows **only the workspace you are on**, instead of a pill
listing every workspace.

Noctalia's built-in workspaces widget always renders one slot per workspace.
With named workspaces, or under niri — which keeps a trailing empty workspace at
all times — that pill is wider than the information in it, and `inactive_pill_size`
only shrinks inactive slots to a floor of `0.25`, it cannot hide them. This
widget renders a single label and puts the full list in the tooltip.

## Plugin

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| ID | `salemsayed/niri-active-workspace` |
| Entries | Bar widget: `active-workspace` |

## Requirements

- `niri`. The plugin API exposes no compositor state, so all workspace data
  comes from niri's own IPC (`niri msg`). The widget is niri-only and will show
  a placeholder under any other compositor.

## Usage

Add it from **Settings → Bar**, choose a section, and pick **Niri Active
Workspace** from the widget list. It replaces the built-in `workspaces` widget;
remove that one if you do not want both.

The widget shows the workspace name, falling back to its index when the
workspace is unnamed.

| Gesture | Action |
| --- | --- |
| Left click | Toggle the niri overview |
| Scroll up / down | Focus the workspace above / below |

Hover for a tooltip listing every workspace on the same monitor, with `●`
marking the focused one and `○` the rest.

### Multiple monitors

Noctalia renders a bar per output. Each widget instance resolves its own
connector and tracks the workspace that is active **on that output**, so the bar
on each monitor shows that monitor's workspace rather than whichever one holds
keyboard focus. If the host cannot report the output, the widget falls back to
the globally focused workspace.

## Settings

| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `label_mode` | `select` | `name_or_index` | What to show. `name_or_index` uses the workspace name and falls back to its index; `name` shows the name only; `index` shows the index only; `both` shows `index:name`. |
| `show_position` | `bool` | `false` | Append the workspace's position among that monitor's workspaces, for example `comms 2/5`. |
| `glyph` | `glyph` | `layout-grid` | Icon shown before the label. |

## Notes

**Processes.** The widget spawns `niri msg` and nothing else:

- `niri msg --json workspaces` — once at load, and again on a 60-second tick as
  a self-heal in case the event stream dies.
- `niri msg --json event-stream` — a single long-lived subscription, the source
  of live updates. `WorkspacesChanged` and `WorkspaceActivated` are handled; all
  other events are ignored.
- `niri msg action toggle-overview`, `focus-workspace-down`,
  `focus-workspace-up` — only in response to a click or scroll.

**No network access. No filesystem reads or writes.** The widget keeps its state
in memory and writes nothing to disk.

**Workspace identity.** niri marks one workspace `is_active` per output and
exactly one `is_focused` globally. On a single monitor these are the same
workspace, so the two code paths agree.