SLINTLU / OVERVIEW

SlintLu

A toolkit for Wayland desktop shells written in the Slint language: bars, docks, launchers, overlays and lock screens, run without compiling.

Build complete Wayland desktop shells — bars, docks, launchers, notifications, wallpapers, lock screens, overlays — in the Slint language. Similar in spirit to Quickshell, with Slint as the UI language and Rust at the core.

Status: early development. The Wayland platform and the slintlu runtime work; system services are being added (see Roadmap).

Features

Write the shell in Slint, run it with slintlu. Files are compiled at runtime and reloaded on save; a broken edit keeps the running shell and prints diagnostics.
Native Wayland through smithay-client-toolkit, no winit:
- wlr-layer-shell panels with anchors, margins, exclusive zones, keyboard modes, per-screen instances and show/hide for popups and drawers;
- xdg-shell windows for settings dialogs and the like;
- multi-monitor with hot-plug, fractional scaling (fractional-scale-v1 + viewporter), clipboard and primary selection, cursor-shape-v1, key repeat, virtual keyboards.

Three renderers with automatic fallback

`--renderer` / `SLINTLU_RENDERER`	Implementation	Graphics API
`vulkan`	FemtoVG on wgpu	Vulkan
`opengl`	FemtoVG	OpenGL ES 2/3 via EGL (`libEGL` loaded at runtime)
`software`	Slint software renderer	`wl_shm`, no GPU required
`auto` (default)	first that works: Vulkan → OpenGL → Software

Compatibility: every compositor implementing layer-shell (niri, Hyprland, Sway, river, KDE Plasma, Wayfire, labwc, …) shows shell panels; others (e.g. GNOME) fall back to normal windows.
Also a Rust library: use the platform directly with compiled Slint (slint::slint!) — see examples/hello_bar.rs.

Quick start

cargo install --path .
slintlu init        # writes a starter bar, launcher, lock screen and tray menu to ~/.config/slintlu
slintlu             # runs it; edit the files and watch them reload

With Nix:

nix run github:LunaDashWM/SlintLu -- init
nix run github:LunaDashWM/SlintLu

or in Home Manager (inputs.slintlu.url = "github:LunaDashWM/SlintLu";):

imports = [ inputs.slintlu.homeManagerModules.default ];
programs.slintlu = {
  enable = true;
  configDir = ./shell;          # linked to ~/.config/slintlu
  theme.dark = "tokyo-night";   # written to theme.json
};

nix develop provides the toolchain plus sway, grim and wtype for the headless tests.

A minimal panel:

import { PanelWindow, Shell } from "@slintlu";

export component Bar inherits PanelWindow {
    anchor-top: true;
    anchor-left: true;
    anchor-right: true;
    preferred-height: 32px;
    background: #1e1e2e;
    Text { text: "Hello from " + Shell.screen.name; color: white; }
}

Every component, global and struct is listed in the API reference.

Run slintlu library-path and add the printed directory as the slintlu library path in your editor’s Slint extension to get completion for @slintlu.

Start slintlu from your compositor (spawn-at-startup "slintlu" in niri, exec-once = slintlu in Hyprland, exec slintlu in Sway) or as a systemd user service with dist/slintlu.service. SIGTERM quits cleanly and SIGHUP reloads.

Command line

Command	Purpose
`slintlu [-c PATH] [-r RENDERER] [--no-reload]`	run a shell (default config: `~/.config/slintlu/shell.slint`)
`slintlu check [PATH]`	compile a configuration and print diagnostics
`slintlu init [--dir DIR] [--force]`	create a starter configuration
`slintlu outputs`	list monitors
`slintlu info`	compatibility report: protocols, renderers, desktop services
`slintlu library-path`	print where the `@slintlu` library lives
`slintlu msg …`	control the running shell: `reload`, `quit`, `get`, `set`, `toggle`, `call` (IPC)

Project layout

src/
├── core/         Slint platform, event loop, shared Wayland context
├── input/        seat, keyboard (xkb → Slint keys), pointer and scrolling
├── output/       monitors and hot-plug
├── render/       software / OpenGL (EGL) / Vulkan (wgpu) renderers and fallback
├── shell/        layer-shell and xdg-shell roles
├── window/       the Slint window adapter: lifecycle and frame pacing
├── compositors/  compositor detection; LunaDash, niri, Hyprland and Sway IPC
├── files/        directory listings and cached thumbnails
├── store/        persistent key–value settings
├── debug/        diagnostics for `slintlu info`
├── ipc/          the shell's control socket: protocol and client
├── dbus/         notifications, MPRIS, NetworkManager, logind, portal, BlueZ, tray
├── i18n/         .po parsing, .mo writing, locale detection
├── icons/        freedesktop icon theme lookup
├── idle/         ext-idle-notify and idle inhibition
├── clipboard/    copy / paste, primary selection, clipboard history
├── launcher/     desktop entries, search, launch history, launching
├── security/     session lock, PAM authentication, polkit agent
├── audio/        volume and devices (PipeWire / PulseAudio via pactl)
├── system/       CPU, memory, disks, temperatures, batteries, network, host
├── theme/        palettes, theme.json, pywal
├── time/         clock formatting
├── util/         human readable sizes, rates and durations, file:// URIs
├── ui/           the `@slintlu` Slint library
├── scripting/    interpreter bridge: compiling, instantiating, globals   (runtime)
├── config/       configuration paths and hot reload                      (runtime)
└── cli/          the `slintlu` command line                              (runtime)
res/              shared assets shipped with the library (icons for `Icon`, see res/README.md)
examples/         starter configuration and Rust examples
scripts/          headless sway integration test, API docs and icon generators
nix/              Nix package and Home Manager module (see flake.nix)

Roadmap

Development

Requires Rust ≥ 1.92, just, and the wayland, libxkbcommon, fontconfig and pam development packages.

just           # list recipes
just test      # unit and integration tests, no compositor needed
just run       # run the starter shell in the current session
just ci        # all checks and tests; CI itself only builds, so run this before pushing

See docs/TESTING.md for all ways to test and CONTRIBUTING.md for the pull request process.

License

GPL-3.0-only (compatible with Slint’s GPL licensing option).