A scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor.
Windows are arranged in columns on an infinite strip going to the right. Opening a new window never causes existing windows to resize.
Every monitor has its own separate window strip. Windows can never "overflow" onto an adjacent monitor.
Workspaces are dynamic and arranged vertically. Every monitor has an independent set of workspaces, and there's always one empty workspace present all the way down.
The workspace arrangement is preserved across disconnecting and connecting monitors where it makes sense. When a monitor disconnects, its workspaces will move to another monitor, but upon reconnection they will move back to the original monitor.
- Scrollable tiling
- Dynamic workspaces like in GNOME
- Built-in screenshot UI
- Monitor screencasting through xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
- Touchpad gestures
- Configurable layout: gaps, borders, struts, window sizes
- Live-reloading config
niri.mp4
A lot of the essential functionality is implemented, plus some goodies on top. Feel free to give niri a try. Have your waybars and fuzzels ready: niri is not a complete desktop environment.
Note that NVIDIA GPUs might have rendering issues.
Niri is heavily inspired by PaperWM which implements scrollable tiling on top of GNOME Shell.
One of the reasons that prompted me to try writing my own compositor is being able to properly separate the monitors. Being a GNOME Shell extension, PaperWM has to work against Shell's global window coordinate space to prevent windows from overflowing.
There are several community-maintained distribution packages that you can use to install niri. Here are some of them:
- Fedora COPR (I maintain this one myself): https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/yalter/niri/
- AUR: niri, niri-bin, niri-git
- NixOS Flake: https://github.com/sodiboo/niri-flake
- FreeBSD Ports: https://www.freshports.org/x11-wm/niri
- Gentoo GURU: https://gpo.zugaina.org/Overlays/guru/gui-wm/niri
First, install the dependencies for your distribution.
-
Ubuntu 23.10:
sudo apt-get install -y gcc clang libudev-dev libgbm-dev libxkbcommon-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libwayland-dev libinput-dev libdbus-1-dev libsystemd-dev libseat-dev libpipewire-0.3-dev libpango1.0-dev
-
Fedora:
sudo dnf install gcc libudev-devel libgbm-devel libxkbcommon-devel wayland-devel libinput-devel dbus-devel systemd-devel libseat-devel pipewire-devel pango-devel cairo-gobject-devel clang
Next, get latest stable Rust: https://rustup.rs/
Then, build niri with cargo build --release.
We have a community-maintained flake which provides a devshell with required dependencies. Use nix build to build niri, and then run ./results/bin/niri.
If you're not on NixOS, you may need NixGL to run the resulting binary:
nix run --impure github:guibou/nixGL -- ./results/bin/niri
The recommended way to install and run niri is as a standalone desktop session. To do that, put files into the correct directories according to this table.
| File | Destination |
|---|---|
target/release/niri |
/usr/bin/ |
resources/niri-session |
/usr/bin/ |
resources/niri.desktop |
/usr/share/wayland-sessions/ |
resources/niri-portals.conf |
/usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/ |
resources/niri.service |
/usr/lib/systemd/user/ |
resources/niri-shutdown.target |
/usr/lib/systemd/user/ |
Doing this will make niri appear in GDM and, presumably, other display managers.
cargo run --release
Inside an existing desktop session, it will run in a window. On a TTY, it will run natively.
To exit when running on a TTY, press SuperShiftE.
If you followed the recommended installation steps above, niri should appear in your display manager. Starting it from there will run niri as a desktop session.
The niri session will autostart apps through the systemd xdg-autostart target.
You can also autostart systemd services like mako by symlinking them into $HOME/.config/systemd/user/niri.service.wants/.
A step-by-step process for this is explained on the wiki.
Niri also works with some parts of xdg-desktop-portal-gnome. In particular, it supports file choosers and monitor screencasting (e.g. to OBS).
This wiki page explains how to run important software required for normal desktop use, including portals.
See the wiki page to learn how to use Xwayland with niri.
You can communicate with the running niri instance over an IPC socket.
Check niri msg --help for available commands.
The --json flag prints the response in JSON, rather than formatted.
For example, niri msg --json outputs.
For programmatic access, check the niri-ipc sub-crate which defines the types. The communication over the IPC socket happens in JSON.
When running on a TTY, the Mod key is Super. When running in a window, the Mod key is Alt.
The general system is: if a hotkey switches somewhere, then adding Ctrl will move the focused window or column there.
| Hotkey | Description |
|---|---|
| ModShift/ | Show a list of important niri hotkeys |
| ModT | Spawn alacritty (terminal) |
| ModD | Spawn fuzzel (application launcher) |
| ModAltL | Spawn swaylock (screen locker) |
| ModQ | Close the focused window |
| ModH or Mod← | Focus the column to the left |
| ModL or Mod→ | Focus the column to the right |
| ModJ or Mod↓ | Focus the window below in a column |
| ModK or Mod↑ | Focus the window above in a column |
| ModCtrlH or ModCtrl← | Move the focused column to the left |
| ModCtrlL or ModCtrl→ | Move the focused column to the right |
| ModCtrlJ or ModCtrl↓ | Move the focused window below in a column |
| ModCtrlK or ModCtrl↑ | Move the focused window above in a column |
| ModHome and ModEnd | Focus the first or the last column |
| ModCtrlHome and ModCtrlEnd | Move the focused column to the very start or to the very end |
| ModShiftHJKL or ModShift←↓↑→ | Focus the monitor to the side |
| ModCtrlShiftHJKL or ModCtrlShift←↓↑→ | Move the focused column to the monitor to the side |
| ModU or ModPageDown | Switch to the workspace below |
| ModI or ModPageUp | Switch to the workspace above |
| ModCtrlU or ModCtrlPageDown | Move the focused column to the workspace below |
| ModCtrlI or ModCtrlPageUp | Move the focused column to the workspace above |
| Mod1–9 | Switch to a workspace by index |
| ModCtrl1–9 | Move the focused column to a workspace by index |
| ModShiftU or ModShiftPageDown | Move the focused workspace down |
| ModShiftI or ModShiftPageUp | Move the focused workspace up |
| Mod, | Consume the window to the right into the focused column |
| Mod. | Expel the focused window into its own column |
| ModR | Toggle between preset column widths |
| ModF | Maximize column |
| ModC | Center column within view |
| Mod- | Decrease column width by 10% |
| Mod= | Increase column width by 10% |
| ModShift- | Decrease window height by 10% |
| ModShift= | Increase window height by 10% |
| ModShiftF | Toggle full-screen on the focused window |
| PrtSc | Take an area screenshot. Select the area to screenshot with mouse, then press Space to save the screenshot, or Escape to cancel |
| AltPrtSc | Take a screenshot of the focused window to clipboard and to ~/Pictures/Screenshots/ |
| CtrlPrtSc | Take a screenshot of the focused monitor to clipboard and to ~/Pictures/Screenshots/ |
| ModShiftE | Exit niri |
Niri will load configuration from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/.config/niri/config.kdl or ~/.config/niri/config.kdl.
If this fails, it will load the default configuration file.
Please use the default configuration file as the starting point for your custom configuration.
Niri will live-reload most of the configuration settings, like key binds or gaps or output modes, as you change the config file.
We have a Matrix chat, feel free to join and ask a question: https://matrix.to/#/#niri:matrix.org