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Quickshell Overview for Hyprland

A standalone workspace overview module for Hyprland using Quickshell - shows all workspaces with live window previews, drag-and-drop support, and Super+Tab keybind.

Quickshell Hyprland Qt6 License

📸 Preview

Overview Screenshot

output.mp4

Workspace overview showing live window previews with drag-and-drop support

✨ Features

  • 🖼️ Visual workspace overview showing all workspaces and windows
  • 🖥️ Multi-monitor support with proper scaling and vertical/rotated monitors [in experimental branch]
  • 📐 Smart row hiding - optionally hide empty workspace rows
  • 🎯 Click windows to focus them
  • 🖱️ Middle-click windows to close them
  • 🔄 Drag and drop windows between workspaces
  • ⌨️ Keyboard navigation (Arrow keys, vim keys, number shortcuts)
  • 🖱️ Auto-close on focus loss / outside click
  • 💡 Hover tooltips showing window information
  • 🎨 Material Design 3 theming
  • ⚡ Smooth animations and transitions

📦 Installation

Arch Linux (AUR)

For Arch Linux users, you can install directly from the AUR:

# Using yay
yay -S quickshell-overview-git

# Using paru
paru -S quickshell-overview-git

On AUR installs, module files are package-managed under:

/etc/xdg/quickshell/overview/

Put your custom settings in:

~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json

Then add the keybind and auto-start to your Hyprland config (see Setup steps 2-4 below).

Prerequisites

  • Hyprland compositor
  • Quickshell (installation guide)
  • Qt 6 with modules: QtQuick, QtQuick.Controls

Setup

  1. Install module files (choose one):

    • Git clone (manual install):
    git clone https://github.com/Shanu-Kumawat/quickshell-overview ~/.config/quickshell/overview
    • AUR package: use the command above (yay -S quickshell-overview-git or paru -S ...)

  2. Add keybind to your Hyprland config (~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf):

    bind = Super, TAB, exec, qs ipc -c overview call overview toggle

  3. Auto-start the overview (add to Hyprland config):

    exec-once = qs -c overview

  4. Reload Hyprland:

    hyprctl reload

Manual Start (if needed)

qs -c overview &

NixOS

For NixOS users, ensure Quickshell has access to required Qt6 modules:

# In your configuration.nix or home-manager config
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
  quickshell
  qt6.qtwayland
];

If you're using home-manager:

home.packages = with pkgs; [
  quickshell
  qt6.qtwayland
];

🎮 Usage

Action Description
Super + Tab Toggle the overview
Arrow Keys / h/l Navigate left/right within current row*
Up/Down / j/k Navigate between workspace rows
1-9, 0 Jump to Nth workspace in current group (0 = 10th)
Mouse wheel on grid Move across all normal workspaces, wrapping from last to first
Escape / Enter Close the overview
Click outside overview Close the overview when overview.closeOnFocusLoss is enabled (default)
Click workspace Switch to that workspace
Click window Focus that window
Middle-click window Close that window
Drag window Move window to different workspace

*When hideEmptyRows is enabled, left/right navigation wraps within the current visible row for better UX

⚙️ Configuration

⚠️ Want to change size, position, workspace count, or toggles? Create/edit ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json.

Config.qml inside the module is now treated as defaults. User overrides are read from:

  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/quickshell/overview/config.json
  • fallback: ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json

Note: After editing config.json, manually restart overview for changes to apply: qs ipc -c overview call overview close && qs -c overview

Quick Start

mkdir -p ~/.config/quickshell/overview
cp /etc/xdg/quickshell/overview/config.example.json ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json

If you installed from git clone instead of AUR, copy from your repo path:

cp ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.example.json ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json

Workspace Grid

Edit ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json:

{
  "overview": {
    "rows": 2,
    "columns": 5,
    "scale": 0.16,
    "enable": true,
    "hideEmptyRows": true,
    "closeOnFocusLoss": true,
    "useWorkspaceMap": false,
    "workspaceMap": [0, 10],
    "orderRightLeft": false,
    "orderBottomUp": false,
    "previewsEnabled": true,
    "previewMode": "live",
    "includeInactiveMonitorPreviews": true,
    "previewRecaptureDelayMs": 60,
    "showSpecialWorkspaces": true,
    "specialWorkspaces": [],
    "specialWorkspaceColumns": 5,
    "emptyWorkspaceWallpaper": "",
    "specialEmptyWorkspaceWallpaper": "",
    "effects": {
      "enableBackdrop": false,
      "backdropOpacity": 0.28,
      "panelOpacity": 0.92,
      "workspaceOpacity": 0.86,
      "emptyWorkspaceWallpaperOverlayOpacity": 0.18,
      "windowOverlayOpacity": 0.22,
      "enableBlur": false,
      "glassMode": false,
      "glassTintStrength": 0.35,
      "glassBorderOpacity": 0.72,
      "glassShineOpacity": 0.14
    },
    "workspaceSpacing": 5,
    "backgroundPadding": 10,
    "workspaceNumberBaseSize": 250
  }
}

Common adjustments:

  • Too small? Increase scale (try 0.20 or 0.25)
  • Too big? Decrease scale (try 0.12 or 0.14)
  • More workspaces? Change rows and columns (e.g., 3 rows × 4 columns = 12 workspaces)
  • Reverse order? Set orderRightLeft and/or orderBottomUp to true
  • Prefer the overview to stay open after outside clicks/focus changes? Set closeOnFocusLoss to false
  • Per-monitor workspace groups? Enable useWorkspaceMap and set workspaceMap (e.g. [0,10])
  • Show special workspaces below grid? Keep showSpecialWorkspaces: true and optionally prefill specialWorkspaces
  • Lower memory use? Set previewMode to event and includeInactiveMonitorPreviews to false
  • Transparency / blur? Tune overview.effects.* (details below)

Hide empty workspace rows:

  • Set hideEmptyRows: true to automatically hide rows that have no windows
  • Keeps your overview clean by only showing rows with active workspaces
  • The current workspace row is always visible, even if empty
  • Arrow key navigation (left/right) stays within the current row when enabled
  • Great for 2-row setups where you rarely use workspaces 6-10

Close on focus loss / outside click:

  • closeOnFocusLoss defaults to true
  • When enabled, clicking outside the overview closes it, similar to menus, dropdowns, and launchers
  • The overview also closes when its Hyprland focus grab is cleared
  • Set closeOnFocusLoss: false if you want the previous behavior where the overview can remain open after focus changes

Position

Edit ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json:

{
  "position": {
    "topMargin": 100
  }
}

Increase topMargin to move the overview down. Decrease it to move up.

Window Preview

{
  "windowPreview": {
    "showIcons": true,
    "iconToWindowRatio": 0.25,
    "iconToWindowRatioCompact": 0.45,
    "xwaylandIndicatorToIconRatio": 0.35,
    "inactiveMonitorOpacity": 0.4,
    "cropToFill": false
  }
}
  • cropToFill: crop full-screen windows to fill the workspace preview when true; keep the full window in preview with possible horizontal/vertical "padding" bars when false

Performance Tuning

{
  "overview": {
    "previewsEnabled": true,
    "previewMode": "live",
    "includeInactiveMonitorPreviews": true,
    "previewRecaptureDelayMs": 60
  },
  "hacks": {
    "hyprlandEventDebounceMs": 40
  }
}
  • overview.previewsEnabled: turn all window screencopy previews on/off
  • overview.previewMode: live (best visuals, more RAM) or event (lower RAM, refreshes on window events)
  • overview.includeInactiveMonitorPreviews: when false, only current monitor windows get preview capture
  • overview.previewRecaptureDelayMs: delay used for event-mode snapshot refresh (lower = faster updates)
  • hacks.hyprlandEventDebounceMs: coalesces Hyprland event refreshes to reduce command churn

Special Workspaces

{
  "overview": {
    "showSpecialWorkspaces": true,
    "specialWorkspaces": ["stash", "music", "scratch"],
    "specialWorkspaceColumns": 5
  }
}
  • showSpecialWorkspaces: renders special workspaces in a strip under the normal grid
  • specialWorkspaces: optional preconfigured special workspace names (without the special: prefix)
  • specialWorkspaceColumns: how many special tiles per row before wrapping
  • emptyWorkspaceWallpaper: optional image path used as the background for normal workspace tiles
  • specialEmptyWorkspaceWallpaper: optional image path used as the background for special workspace tiles

Interaction behavior:

  • Preconfigured special workspaces appear in the overview even when they are empty
  • The special strip shows active special workspaces plus any names you preconfigure
  • This is useful for fixed workflows like stash, music, or scratch
  • Click a special tile to run togglespecialworkspace <name>
  • Click the + tile to create and open a new special workspace
  • Drag a window onto a special tile to move it with movetoworkspacesilent special:<name>
  • Drag a window onto the + tile to auto-create a new special workspace (stash, stash-2, ...), even when no special workspace is currently open or preconfigured
  • Special windows are visible directly in those tiles
  • Restart Quickshell after changing config.json, otherwise the special workspace list will not refresh immediately

Normal workspace scrolling:

  • Scroll on the normal workspace grid to move the active workspace/highlighter across all normal workspaces
  • Scrolling wraps from the last workspace back to 1, and from 1 back to the last

Workspace Wallpaper

{
  "overview": {
    "emptyWorkspaceWallpaper": "/home/your-user/Pictures/wallpaper.png",
    "specialEmptyWorkspaceWallpaper": "/home/your-user/Pictures/special-wallpaper.png",
    "effects": {
      "emptyWorkspaceWallpaperOverlayOpacity": 0.12
    }
  }
}
  • Normal workspaces can use a wallpaper as their background
  • Special workspaces can use a different wallpaper as their background
  • The wallpaper remains visible behind floating or partially covered windows
  • If no special workspaces exist yet, that special wallpaper is also used for the + create tile
  • emptyWorkspaceWallpaperOverlayOpacity controls how much tint is applied over that wallpaper
  • Use an absolute path for the image for the most reliable behavior
  • Restart Quickshell after changing config.json, otherwise the wallpaper path will not refresh immediately

Demo:

Workspace wallpaper demo

Transparency & Blur

{
  "overview": {
    "effects": {
      "enableBackdrop": false,
      "backdropOpacity": 0.28,
      "panelOpacity": 0.92,
      "workspaceOpacity": 0.86,
      "emptyWorkspaceWallpaperOverlayOpacity": 0.18,
      "windowOverlayOpacity": 0.22,
      "enableBlur": false,
      "glassMode": false,
      "glassTintStrength": 0.35,
      "glassBorderOpacity": 0.72,
      "glassShineOpacity": 0.14
    }
  }
}
  • enableBackdrop: show/hide full-screen dim backdrop behind overview
  • backdropOpacity: opacity of backdrop dim layer (0 to 1)
  • panelOpacity: opacity of overview panel container (0 to 1)
  • workspaceOpacity: opacity of each workspace tile (0 to 1)
  • emptyWorkspaceWallpaperOverlayOpacity: tint strength over empty-workspace wallpaper (0 to 1)
  • windowOverlayOpacity: opacity of the color tint over window previews (0 to 1)
  • enableBlur: switches layer namespace to quickshell:overview-blur
  • glassMode: enables a glass-like tint + softer transparency preset for panel/workspaces/windows
  • glassTintStrength: tint mixing strength for glass mode (0 to 1)
  • glassBorderOpacity: border alpha used by glass mode (0 to 1)
  • glassShineOpacity: top highlight strength for glass reflections (0 to 1)

Stronger glass preset:

{
  "overview": {
    "effects": {
      "enableBackdrop": true,
      "enableBlur": true,
      "panelOpacity": 0.55,
      "workspaceOpacity": 0.48,
      "emptyWorkspaceWallpaperOverlayOpacity": 0.10,
      "windowOverlayOpacity": 0.08,
      "glassMode": true,
      "glassTintStrength": 0.55,
      "glassBorderOpacity": 0.85,
      "glassShineOpacity": 0.32
    }
  }
}

For Hyprland blur, add layer rules (example):

layerrule = blur true, match:namespace quickshell:overview-blur
layerrule = ignore_alpha 0.2, match:namespace quickshell:overview-blur

If enableBlur is false, namespace remains quickshell:overview.

Low-memory preset:

{
  "overview": {
    "previewMode": "event",
    "includeInactiveMonitorPreviews": false
  },
  "hacks": {
    "hyprlandEventDebounceMs": 80
  }
}

Full Example

{
  "appearance": {
    "colorSource": "default",
    "caelestia": {
      "autoRefresh": true,
      "refreshInterval": 2000,
      "accentProfile": "vibrant"
    },
    "rounding": {
      "unsharpen": 2,
      "verysmall": 8,
      "small": 12,
      "normal": 17,
      "large": 23,
      "full": 9999,
      "screenRounding": 23,
      "windowRounding": 18
    },
    "font": {
      "family": {
        "main": "sans-serif",
        "title": "sans-serif",
        "expressive": "sans-serif"
      },
      "pixelSize": {
        "smaller": 12,
        "small": 15,
        "normal": 16,
        "larger": 19,
        "huge": 22
      }
    },
    "animation": {
      "duration": {
        "elementMove": 500,
        "elementMoveEnter": 400,
        "elementMoveFast": 200
      }
    },
    "sizes": {
      "elevationMargin": 10
    }
  },
  "overview": {
    "rows": 2,
    "columns": 5,
    "scale": 0.16,
    "enable": true,
    "hideEmptyRows": true,
    "closeOnFocusLoss": true,
    "useWorkspaceMap": false,
    "workspaceMap": [0, 10],
    "orderRightLeft": false,
    "orderBottomUp": false,
    "previewsEnabled": true,
    "previewMode": "live",
    "includeInactiveMonitorPreviews": true,
    "previewRecaptureDelayMs": 60,
    "showSpecialWorkspaces": true,
    "specialWorkspaces": [],
    "specialWorkspaceColumns": 5,
    "emptyWorkspaceWallpaper": "",
    "specialEmptyWorkspaceWallpaper": "",
    "effects": {
      "enableBackdrop": false,
      "backdropOpacity": 0.28,
      "panelOpacity": 0.92,
      "workspaceOpacity": 0.86,
      "emptyWorkspaceWallpaperOverlayOpacity": 0.18,
      "windowOverlayOpacity": 0.22,
      "enableBlur": false,
      "glassMode": false,
      "glassTintStrength": 0.35,
      "glassBorderOpacity": 0.72,
      "glassShineOpacity": 0.14
    },
    "workspaceSpacing": 5,
    "backgroundPadding": 10,
    "workspaceNumberBaseSize": 250
  },
  "position": {
    "topMargin": 100
  },
  "windowPreview": {
    "showIcons": true,
    "iconToWindowRatio": 0.25,
    "iconToWindowRatioCompact": 0.45,
    "xwaylandIndicatorToIconRatio": 0.35,
    "inactiveMonitorOpacity": 0.4,
    "cropToFill": false
  },
  "hacks": {
    "arbitraryRaceConditionDelay": 150,
    "hyprlandEventDebounceMs": 40
  }
}

Theme & Colors

Most theme sizing/timing options are now configurable via config.json:

  • appearance.colorSource (default, matugen, caelestia)
  • appearance.caelestia.* (autoRefresh, refreshInterval, accentProfile)
  • appearance.rounding.*
  • appearance.font.*
  • appearance.animation.duration.*
  • appearance.sizes.elevationMargin

For full color palette customization, edit ~/.config/quickshell/overview/common/Appearance.qml.

Matugen (Dynamic Colors from Wallpaper)

Matugen lets you generate Material You colors from your wallpaper and apply them to the overview automatically.

1. Install matugen - follow matugen's install guide

2. Copy the template from this repo to matugen's templates folder:

mkdir -p ~/.config/matugen/templates
cp ~/.config/quickshell/overview/quickshell-overview.qml ~/.config/matugen/templates/

3. Add this to ~/.config/matugen/config.toml (create the file if it doesn't exist):

[templates.quickshell_overview]
input_path  = "./templates/quickshell-overview.qml"
output_path = "~/.config/quickshell/overview/common/Appearance.colors.qml"

4. Enable it in ~/.config/quickshell/overview/config.json:

{
  "appearance": {
    "colorSource": "matugen"
  }
}

5. Run matugen with your wallpaper to generate colors:

matugen image /path/to/your/wallpaper.jpg

This generates Appearance.colors.qml which the overview loads automatically. Re-run step 5 whenever you change your wallpaper.

Caelestia

If you use Caelestia, set the source to caelestia:

{
  "appearance": {
    "colorSource": "caelestia",
    "caelestia": {
      "autoRefresh": true,
      "refreshInterval": 2000,
      "accentProfile": "vibrant"
    }
  }
}

Overview reads the active palette from caelestia scheme get and refreshes it live when autoRefresh is enabled, so wallpaper/scheme changes can apply without restarting overview.

📋 Requirements

  • Hyprland compositor (tested on latest versions)
  • Quickshell (Qt6-based shell framework)
  • Qt 6 with the following modules:
    • QtQuick
    • QtQuick.Controls
    • QtQuick.Layouts
    • Quickshell.Wayland
    • Quickshell.Hyprland

🚫 Removed Features (from original illogical-impulse)

The following features were removed to make it standalone:

  • App search functionality
  • Emoji picker
  • Clipboard history integration
  • Search widget
  • Integration with the full illogical-impulse shell ecosystem

📁 File Structure

~/.config/quickshell/overview/
├── shell.qml                      # Main entry point
├── README.md                      # This file
├── config.example.json            # User override template
├── hyprland-config.conf          # Configuration reference
├── common/
│   ├── Appearance.qml            # Theme and styling
│   ├── Config.qml                # Default config + user override loader
│   ├── functions/
│   │   └── ColorUtils.qml        # Color manipulation utilities
│   └── widgets/
│       ├── StyledText.qml        # Styled text component
│       ├── StyledRectangularShadow.qml
│       ├── StyledToolTip.qml
│       └── StyledToolTipContent.qml
├── services/
│   ├── GlobalStates.qml          # Global state management
│   └── HyprlandData.qml          # Hyprland data provider
└── modules/
    └── overview/
        ├── Overview.qml          # Main overview component
        ├── OverviewWidget.qml    # Workspace grid widget
        └── OverviewWindow.qml    # Individual window preview

🎯 IPC Commands

# Toggle overview
qs ipc -c overview call overview toggle

# Open overview
qs ipc -c overview call overview open

# Close overview  
qs ipc -c overview call overview close

🐛 Known Issues

  • Window icons may fallback to generic icon if app class name doesn't match icon theme
  • Potential crashes during rapid window state changes due to Wayland screencopy buffer management

💖 Support

If this project helps your setup and you want to support continued maintenance, you can sponsor here:

https://github.com/sponsors/Shanu-Kumawat

Credits

Extracted from the overview feature in illogical-impulse by end-4.

Adapted as a standalone component for Hyprland + Quickshell users who want just the overview functionality.

Note: Maintenance will be limited due to time constraints, but PRs and code improvements are welcome! Feel free to contribute or fork for your own needs.

Made with ❤️ for the Hyprland community

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A standalone workspace overview module for Hyprland using Quickshell.

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