A compact, keyboard-first desktop shell for Niri, built with Quickshell.

Features · Gallery · Launcher · Dmenu mode · Installation

Slimshell

Slimshell brings my bar, notifications, and some useful menus together—replacing a collection of separate tools and increasingly complicated Bash scripts.

It is built for my own desktop: compact, opinionated, and comfortable to use from the keyboard. It isn't a desktop environment with endless customization or every bell and whistle. Borrow what you like, and adapt the rest.

Why?

Why does this exist? Because all the well-known Quickshell setups focus too much on large Material Design Menus and features that, at the end of the day, no productive user actually needs. If a widget has functions, it must also work 100% with the keyboard. Bluetooth or the Wi-Fi menus do not need to take half of your 1440p screen space. So the goal was simple = Make the most of the best features of the Quickshell in terms of usability and lightness.

Features

	What's included
Bar	Workspaces, Window title, Clock and Weather, Battery, Connections, Tray etc.
Menus	Keyboard-driven menus for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Audio, Power, and Notifications
launcher	Application launcher with: File Search, Calculator, Binary Runner, Emoji, Timers and Dmenu-mode
Tools	Clipboard, DeepL translation, and Screen recording
Session	Lock Screen, Wallpaper Picker, and Dynamic theming with Hellwal

IPC reference

Target	Calls	Effect
audio	toggle, open, close	Show or hide the audio popup
bar	toggle, hide, show, isVisible	Control or query bar visibility
bluetooth	toggle, open, close	Show or hide the Bluetooth popup
clipboard	toggle, open, close, refresh, copySelected, deleteSelected	Control the clipboard picker
idle	toggle, isDisabled, settings	Control idle handling or open its settings
launcher	toggle, open, close	Control the application launcher
lock	lock	Lock the session
locker	isSecure	Query whether the separate lock-screen process is secure
menu	packages, settings, system, close	Open a main-menu page or close it
network	toggle, open, close	Show or hide the network popup
notificationCenter	toggle, open, close	Show or hide notification history
notifications	toggleDnd, enableDnd, disableDnd, isDnd, clear, count	Control DND or notification history
power	toggle, open, close	Control the power menu
recorder	toggle, open, close, fullscreen, region, stop	Control screen recording
theme	refresh, usingHellwal	Reload or query the active theme
translator	toggle, open, close	Control the translator
volume	up, down, mute	Adjust or mute the default audio output; shows the OSD
wallpaper	toggle, open, close	Control the wallpaper picker
weather	toggle, open, close	Show or hide the weather forecast

For example, qs ipc call volume up raises the volume by one step. launcher/dmenu-runner uses the launcher's IPC internally; call the script to open a picker.

Launcher

Launcher modes. Switch directly with the shortcuts below, or cycle with Ctrl+← / Ctrl+→.

Mode	Shortcut	What it does
Apps	Ctrl+A	Search and launch desktop applications
Run	Ctrl+B	Run binaries, with recently used commands first
Emoji	Ctrl+E	Search by name and copy the selected emoji
Timer	Ctrl+T	Start timers such as 25m Focus, 45s, 1:30, or 2h

In Apps mode, /<word> searches files and =expression calculates with qalc. Plain math works too.

Dmenu mode

For scripts that use dmenu-style pickers:

printf '%s\n' Search 'New Note' TODO Delete | ./launcher/dmenu-runner -p "Notes" -l 4 --minimal-lines

• Supported options: -p / --prompt, -l N / --lines N (default 7), --minimal-lines, and --index (return the original zero-based input index; typed text returns -1).
• Enter selects, Shift+Enter returns typed text, and Esc cancels with status 1. -l 0 opens an input-only picker.

Slimshell must be running. This is a small dmenu-compatible runner, not a full dmenu/rofi replacement.

Getting started

Follow the installation guide for dependencies, Niri startup, keybindings, and optional feature setup. Install into ~/.config/quickshell, then run:

qs -p "$HOME/.config/quickshell" --no-detailed-logs

Settings

Edit root-level settings.json for appearance and behavior defaults. Changes are loaded automatically; invalid values use safe defaults, and malformed JSON keeps the previous settings. Idle timeouts, wallpaper preferences and workspace layout are adjusted through the UI and saved separately.

Audio styles are classic or circle; animation styles are fade or slide. animations.style controls menus, while notificationStyle controls toasts. Optional animations.hostStyles overrides individual menu styles (audio, network, bluetooth, or notificationCenter).

Tests

Run the offline tests with python -B tests/run.py, or select a feature, for example python -B tests/run.py launcher network. Use --list to see the available features. These tests do not start or reload the desktop shell.

Structure

shell.qml       Shell entrypoint and service wiring
settings.json   Editable appearance and behavior defaults
bar/            Bar and its modules
components/     Reusable UI and popup components
services/       Shared desktop state and integrations
launcher/       Launcher, dmenu runner, and search helpers
menus/          System and wallpaper menus
notifications/  Notification popups and history
clipboard/      Clipboard picker and previews
lock/           Lock screen components and PAM setup
recorder/       Screen recording and region selection
translator/     DeepL translator
wallpaper/      Wallpaper helpers
weather/        Weather forecast popup and helper
osd/            Volume overlay

Gallery

Clipboard picker	Translator
Wallpaper picker	Audio controls
Bluetooth menu	Network menu
Notification history	Weather forecast

Transparency

This shell was developed with LLM assistance under my supervision. I direct the design, review the changes, and test them on my own desktop. These are personal dotfiles, so review and adapt them before using them on yours.

This repository is mainly for hobby and learning, so don't expect everything to work out of the box.

ISSUES 🔨

• dmenu-runner can't display special symbols (Nerd fonts etc.)
• File structure is messy and files needs to be commented better
• There are probably plenty of other things as well. Maybe yoy can show me how to fix them or do better :)

TODO

• Put there something