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

⚠️ 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, and power profile switching.
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)
ttf-material-symbols-variable-git - Icon font for UI elements
xdg-desktop-portal-gnome - Desktop integration (or alternative portal)

Optional

cliphist - For clipboard history support
swww - Wallpaper animations and effects
matugen - Material You color scheme generation
cava - Audio visualizer component
gpu-screen-recorder - Screen recording functionality
brightnessctl - For internal/laptop monitor brightness
ddcutil - For desktop monitor brightness (might introduce some system instability with certain monitors) If you want to use the ArchUpdater Widget, make sure you have any polkit agent installed.

Quick Start

Installation

# Install Quickshell
yay -S quickshell-git

# Download and install Noctalia (latest release)
mkdir -p ~/.config/quickshell && curl -sL https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell/releases/latest/download/noctalia-latest.tar.gz | tar -xz --strip-components=1 -C ~/.config/quickshell

Usage

# Start the shell
qs

# Launcher
qs ipc call launcher toggle

# SidePanel
qs ipc call sidePanel toggle

# Clipboard History
qs ipc call launcher clipboard

# Calculator
qs ipc call launcher calculator

# Brightness
qs ipc call brightness increase
qs ipc call brightness decrease

# Power Panel
qs ipc call powerPanel toggle

# Idle Inhibitor
qs ipc call idleInhibitor toggle

# Settings Window
qs ipc call settings toggle

# Toggle lock screen
qs ipc call lockScreen toggle

Keybinds

Action	Command
Toggle Application Launcher	`qs ipc call appLauncher toggle`
Toggle Lock Screen	`qs ipc call lockScreen toggle`
Toggle Notification History	`qs ipc call notifications toggleHistory`
Toggle Settings Panel	`qs ipc call settings toggle`
Increase Brightness	`qs ipc call brightness increase`
Decrease Brightness	`qs ipc call brightness decrease`

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
If you upgrade from v1, you can delete the old configuration folder at ~/.config/Noctalia (with capital N)

Application Launcher

The launcher supports special commands for enhanced functionality:

>calc - Simple mathematical calculations
>clip - Clipboard history management

Theme Colors

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

Advanced Configuration

Niri Configuration

Add this to your layout section for proper swww integration:

background-color "transparent"

Recommended Compositor Settings

For Niri:

window-rule {
    geometry-corner-radius 20
    clip-to-geometry true
}

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^swww-daemon$"
    place-within-backdrop true
}

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^quickshell-wallpaper$"
}

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^quickshell-overview$"
    place-within-backdrop true
}

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

Follow the existing code style and patterns
Use the modular architecture for new features
Implement proper error handling and logging
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. 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 and DankMaterialShell for their inspirational designs and clever implementation techniques.

Donation

While I actually didn't want to accept donations, more and more people are asking to donate so... I don't know, if you really feel like donating then I obviously highly appreciate it but PLEASE never feel forced to donate or anything. It won't change how we work on Noctalia, it's a project that we work on for fun in the end.

Thank you to everyone who supports me and this project 💜!

Gohma
PikaOS

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.

Languages

QML 92.1%

JavaScript 2.4%

Shell 1.9%

GLSL 1.5%

Emacs Lisp 0.8%

Other 1.3%