noctalia-shell/README.md
2025-09-15 19:40:00 +02:00

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# Noctalia
**_quiet by design_**
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---
A sleek and minimal desktop shell thoughtfully crafted for Wayland, built with Quickshell.
Features a modern modular architecture with a status bar, notification system, control panel, comprehensive system integration, and more — all styled with a warm lavender palette, or your favorite color scheme!
## Preview
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/72c6d6dc-48b0-48a0-bd8b-c7e70990edc4
<details>
<summary>Screenshots</summary>
![Dark 1](/Assets/Screenshots/noctalia-dark-1.png)
![Dark 2](/Assets/Screenshots/noctalia-dark-2.png)
![Dark 3](/Assets/Screenshots/noctalia-dark-3.png)
![Light 1](/Assets/Screenshots/noctalia-light-1.png)
![Light 2](/Assets/Screenshots/noctalia-light-2.png)
![Light 3](/Assets/Screenshots/noctalia-light-3.png)
</details>
---
> ⚠️ **Note:**
> This shell currently supports **Niri** and **Hyprland** compositors. For other compositors, you will need to implement custom workspace logic in the CompositorService.
---
## Features
- **Status Bar:** Modular bar with workspace indicators, system monitors, clock, and quick access controls.
- **Workspace Management:** Dynamic workspace switching with visual indicators and active window tracking.
- **Notifications:** Rich notification system with history panel.
- **Application Launcher:** Stylized launcher with favorites, recent apps, and special commands (calc, clipboard).
- **Side Panel:** Quick access panel with media controls, weather, power profiles, and system utilities.
- **Settings Panel:** Comprehensive configuration interface for all shell components and preferences.
- **Lock Screen:** Secure lock experience with PAM authentication, time display, and animated background.
- **Audio Integration:** Volume controls, media playback, and audio visualizer (cava-based).
- **Connectivity:** WiFi and Bluetooth management with device pairing and network status.
- **Power Management:** Battery monitoring, brightness control, power profile switching, power menu, and idle inhibition.
- **System Monitoring:** CPU, memory, and network usage monitoring with visual indicators.
- **Tray System:** Application tray with menu support and system integration.
- **Background Management:** Wallpaper management with effects and dynamic theming support.
- **Color Schemes:** Catppuccin, Dracula, Gruvbox, Noctalia, Nord, Rosépine, Solarized, Tokyo night or generated from your wallpaper.
- **Scaling:** Per monitor scaling for maximum control.
---
## Dependencies
### Required
- `quickshell-git` - Core shell framework
- `ttf-roboto` - The default font used for most of the UI
- `inter-font` - The default font used for Headers (ex: clock on the LockScreen)
- `gpu-screen-recorder` - Screen recording functionality (Flatpak also supported)
- `brightnessctl` - For internal/laptop monitor brightness
- `ddcutil` - For desktop monitor brightness (might introduce some system instability with certain monitors)
### Optional
- `cliphist` - For clipboard history support
- `matugen` - Material You color scheme generation
- `cava` - Audio visualizer component
- `wlsunset` - To be able to use NightLight
> There is one more optional dependency.
> `xdg-desktop-portal` to be able to use the "Portal" option from the screenRecorder.
---
## Quick Start
### Installation
#### Arch Linux
<details>
<summary><strong>AUR</strong></summary>
You can install Noctalia from the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/noctalia-shell). This method will install the shell system-wide.
```bash
paru -S noctalia-shell
```
If you want the latest development version directly from the git repository, you can use the `noctalia-shell-git` package:
```bash
paru -S noctalia-shell-git
```
This will always pull the most recent commit from the Noctalia repository. Note that it may be less stable than the release version.
</details>
<details>
<summary><strong>Manual Installation</strong></summary>
This method installs the shell to your local user configuration.
Make sure you have Quickshell installed:
```bash
paru -S quickshell-git
```
Download and install Noctalia (latest release):
```bash
mkdir -p ~/.config/quickshell/noctalia-shell && curl -sL https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell/releases/latest/download/noctalia-latest.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1 -C ~/.config/quickshell/noctalia-shell
```
</details>
#### Nix
<details>
<summary><strong>Nix Installation</strong></summary>
You can run Noctalia directly using the `nix run` command:
```bash
nix run github:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell
```
Alternatively, you can add it to your NixOS configuration or flake:
**Step 1**: Add Quickshell and Noctalia flakes to your `flake.nix`:
```nix
{
description = "Example Nix flake with Noctalia + Quickshell";
inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
# you need nixpkgs unstable
quickshell = {
url = "github:outfoxxed/quickshell";
inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};
noctalia = {
url = "github:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell";
inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
inputs.quickshell.follows = "quickshell";
};
};
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, noctalia, quickshell, ... }:
{
nixosConfigurations.my-host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
modules = [
./configuration.nix
];
};
};
}
```
**Step 2**: Add the packages to your `configuration.nix`:
```nix
{
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
inputs.noctalia.packages.${system}.default
inputs.quickshell.packages.${system}.default
];
}
```
</details>
### Usage
Start the Shell with: `qs -c noctalia-shell`
`noctalia-shell` offers many IPC calls for your convenience, so you can add them to your favorite keybinds or scripts.
*If you're using the Flake installation on NixOS, replace `qs -c noctalia-shell` with `noctalia-shell`*
*If you're using the manual install (`git clone...` and have it in `~/.config/quickshell/`) you can just use `qs ipc call...`*
| Action | Command* |
| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Start the Shell | `qs -c noctalia-shell` |
| Toggle Application Launcher | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call launcher toggle` |
| Toggle Side Panel | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call sidePanel toggle` |
| Open Clipboard History | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call launcher clipboard` |
| Open Calculator | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call launcher calculator` |
| Increase Brightness | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call brightness increase` |
| Decrease Brightness | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call brightness decrease` |
| Increase Output Volume | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call volume increase` |
| Decrease Output Volume | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call volume decrease` |
| Toggle Mute Audio Output | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call volume muteOutput` |
| Toggle Mute Audio Input | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call volume muteInput` |
| Toggle Power Panel | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call powerPanel toggle` |
| Toggle Idle Inhibitor | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call idleInhibitor toggle` |
| Toggle Settings Window | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call settings toggle` |
| Toggle Lock Screen | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call lockScreen toggle` |
| Toggle Notification History | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call notifications toggleHistory` |
| Toggle Notification DND | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call notifications toggleDND` |
| Change Wallpaper | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call wallpaper set $path $monitor` |
| Assign a Random Wallpaper | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call wallpaper random` |
| Toggle Dark Mode | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call darkMode toggle` |
| Set Dark Mode | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call darkMode setDark` |
| Set Light Mode | `qs -c noctalia-shell ipc call darkMode setLight` |
### Configuration
Access settings through the side panel (top right button) to configure weather, wallpapers, screen recording, audio, network, and theme options.
Configuration is usually stored in ~/.config/noctalia.
### Some of my app icons are missing!
The issue is most likely that you did not set up your environment variables properly.
Example environment variables that you can use one of the following:
If you already have an icon theme set for GTK then you can use this one:
- `QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk3`
You can also use Qt6ct to set your icon theme, for that you can use:
- `QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt6ct`
If you don't have either of those set then you can just use:
- `QS_ICON_THEME="youricontheme"`
**Any of these environment variables should go into `/etc/environment` (you need to reboot afterwards). For NixOS you can use `environment.variables` or `home.sessionVariables`.**
### Application Launcher
The launcher supports special commands for enhanced functionality:
- `>calc` - Simple mathematical calculations
- `>clip` - Clipboard history management
---
<details>
<summary><strong>Theme Colors</strong></summary>
| Color Role | Color | Description |
| -------------------- | ----------- | -------------------------- |
| Primary | `#c7a1d8` | Soft lavender purple |
| On Primary | `#1a151f` | Dark text on primary |
| Secondary | `#a984c4` | Muted lavender |
| On Secondary | `#f3edf7` | Light text on secondary |
| Tertiary | `#e0b7c9` | Warm pink-lavender |
| On Tertiary | `#20161f` | Dark text on tertiary |
| Surface | `#1c1822` | Dark purple-tinted surface |
| On Surface | `#e9e4f0` | Light text on surface |
| Surface Variant | `#262130` | Elevated surface variant |
| On Surface Variant | `#a79ab0` | Muted text on surface variant |
| Error | `#e9899d` | Soft rose red |
| On Error | `#1e1418` | Dark text on error |
| Outline | `#4d445a` | Purple-tinted outline |
| Shadow | `#120f18` | Deep purple-tinted shadow |
</details>
---
## Advanced Configuration
### Recommended Compositor Settings
For Niri:
```
debug {
honor-xdg-activation-with-invalid-serial
}
window-rule {
geometry-corner-radius 20
clip-to-geometry true
}
layer-rule {
match namespace="^quickshell-overview$"
place-within-backdrop true
}
```
`honor-xdg-activation-with-invalid-serial` allows notification actions (like view etc) to work.
---
## Development
### Project Structure
```
Noctalia/
├── shell.qml # Main shell entry point
├── Modules/ # UI components
│ ├── Bar/ # Status bar components
│ ├── Dock/ # Application launcher
│ ├── SidePanel/ # Quick access panel
│ ├── SettingsPanel/ # Configuration interface
│ └── ...
├── Services/ # Backend services
│ ├── CompositorService.qml
│ ├── WorkspacesService.qml
│ ├── AudioService.qml
│ └── ...
├── Widgets/ # Reusable UI components
├── Commons/ # Shared utilities
├── Assets/ # Static assets
└── Bin/ # Utility scripts
```
### Contributing
1. Follow the existing code style and patterns
2. Use the modular architecture for new features
3. Implement proper error handling and logging
4. Test with both Hyprland and Niri compositors (if applicable)
Contributions are welcome! Don't worry about being perfect - every contribution helps! Whether it's fixing a small bug, adding a new feature, or improving documentation, we welcome all contributions. Feel free to open an issue to discuss ideas or ask questions before diving in. For feature requests and ideas, you can also use our discussions page.
---
## 💜 Credits
A heartfelt thank you to our incredible community of [**contributors**](https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell/graphs/contributors). We are immensely grateful for your dedicated participation and the constructive feedback you've provided, which continue to shape and improve our project for everyone.
---
## Acknowledgment
Special thanks to the creators of [**Caelestia**](https://github.com/caelestia-dots/shell) and [**DankMaterialShell**](https://github.com/AvengeMedia/DankMaterialShell) for their inspirational designs and clever implementation techniques.
---
#### Donation
While all donations are greatly appreciated, they are completely voluntary.
<a href="https://ko-fi.com/lysec">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/donate-ko--fi-A8AEFF?style=for-the-badge&logo=kofi&logoColor=FFFFFF&labelColor=0C0D11" alt="Ko-Fi" />
</a>
#### Thank you to everyone who supports the project 💜!
* Gohma
* <a href="https://pika-os.com/" target="_blank">PikaOS</a>
* DiscoCevapi
---
## License
This project is licensed under the terms of the [MIT License](./LICENSE).