n16-shell

base16 themed layershell components for niri

n16-shell is a collection of shell components for my nixos rice, focusing on the niri window manager and using the wayland layer_shell protocol to appear as a non-tiling window.

It uses base16 theming for integration with stylix and my nixos configuration as a whole.

n16-shell is written in rust for better compatibility with niri and because rust is one of the most accesible systems programming languages currently. (C is cringe and you can't change my mind)

Components

• App launcher

  • Loads desktop entries according to the XDG desktop standard
  • Loads icon themes according to the XDG icon standard (theme selection planned, current behavior defaults to hicolor)
  • Search for applications by name (category search planned)
  • Non-application actions (power management, calculator)
  • (Planned) Customizable application catagories (messaging, games, etc)

• (Partial) Colapsable bar

  • Barebones bar that shows the time
  • (Planned) Hidden during normal use
  • (Planned) Slides up from bottom on keybind activation
  • (Future) Shows niri workspaces and open applications

Installation

Run nix shell github:dj-laser/n16-shell to try the program without permanantly installing.

Run n16-daemon to start the backend program. This will launch the bar and listen for messages to control the bar and launcher

Run n16 to control the backend by sending messages for example n16 launcher open. Use n16 <subcommand> help to see the available options

For permanant instalation, add github:dj-laser/n16-shell as a flake input.

This flake exports a packages.x86_64-linux.n16-shell, or you can use the overlays.default to add n16-shell to pkgs.

Finally, configure n16-daemon to run on login.

This could be done a fwe ways, such as a systemd service or through the window manager.

Example using niri-flake

programs.niri = {
  settings.spawn-at-startup = [
    # Assuming n16-shell has been added to your packages
    {command = ["n16-daemon"];}

    # More explicit way to define it
    # {command = ["${pkgs.n16-shell}/bin/n16-daemon"];}
  ];
};

Configuration

n16-shell currently looks for a config file at $XDG_CONFIG_DIR/n16-shell/config.kdl (kdl 1.0)

The only options at the moment are changing the theme colors. base00 through base0F

// In config.kdl

theme {
  base00 "#FFFFFF"
  base01 "#FFFFFF"
  base02 "#FFFFFF"

  // ...

  base0f "#FFFFFF"
}

Technologies used

• iced: ui framework (https://crates.io/crates/iced)
• iced_layershell: iced integration with the wayland compositor (https://crates.io/crates/iced_layershell)
• freedesktop-desktop-entry: find and parse desktop entries (https://crates.io/crates/freedesktop-desktop-entry)
• tini: parser for XDG standard ini files, including icon themes (https://crates.io/crates/tini)
• nix (❤️): provides a reproducible dev environment and package build