A bar widget showing only the focused niri workspace instead of a pill listing every workspace. Reads niri IPC (snapshot plus event-stream) since the plugin API exposes no compositor state.
76 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
76 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
# Niri Active Workspace
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A bar widget that shows **only the workspace you are on**, instead of a pill
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listing every workspace.
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Noctalia's built-in workspaces widget always renders one slot per workspace.
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With named workspaces, or under niri — which keeps a trailing empty workspace at
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all times — that pill is wider than the information in it, and `inactive_pill_size`
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only shrinks inactive slots to a floor of `0.25`, it cannot hide them. This
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widget renders a single label and puts the full list in the tooltip.
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## Plugin
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| Field | Value |
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| --- | --- |
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| ID | `salemsayed/niri-active-workspace` |
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| Entries | Bar widget: `active-workspace` |
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## Requirements
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- `niri`. The plugin API exposes no compositor state, so all workspace data
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comes from niri's own IPC (`niri msg`). The widget is niri-only and will show
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a placeholder under any other compositor.
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## Usage
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Add it from **Settings → Bar**, choose a section, and pick **Niri Active
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Workspace** from the widget list. It replaces the built-in `workspaces` widget;
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remove that one if you do not want both.
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The widget shows the workspace name, falling back to its index when the
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workspace is unnamed.
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| Gesture | Action |
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| --- | --- |
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| Left click | Toggle the niri overview |
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| Scroll up / down | Focus the workspace above / below |
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Hover for a tooltip listing every workspace on the same monitor, with `●`
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marking the focused one and `○` the rest.
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### Multiple monitors
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Noctalia renders a bar per output. Each widget instance resolves its own
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connector and tracks the workspace that is active **on that output**, so the bar
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on each monitor shows that monitor's workspace rather than whichever one holds
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keyboard focus. If the host cannot report the output, the widget falls back to
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the globally focused workspace.
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## Settings
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| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| `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`. |
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| `show_position` | `bool` | `false` | Append the workspace's position among that monitor's workspaces, for example `comms 2/5`. |
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| `glyph` | `glyph` | `layout-grid` | Icon shown before the label. |
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## Notes
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**Processes.** The widget spawns `niri msg` and nothing else:
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- `niri msg --json workspaces` — once at load, and again on a 60-second tick as
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a self-heal in case the event stream dies.
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- `niri msg --json event-stream` — a single long-lived subscription, the source
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of live updates. `WorkspacesChanged` and `WorkspaceActivated` are handled; all
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other events are ignored.
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- `niri msg action toggle-overview`, `focus-workspace-down`,
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`focus-workspace-up` — only in response to a click or scroll.
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**No network access. No filesystem reads or writes.** The widget keeps its state
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in memory and writes nothing to disk.
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**Workspace identity.** niri marks one workspace `is_active` per output and
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exactly one `is_focused` globally. On a single monitor these are the same
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workspace, so the two code paths agree.
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