Workspace Button Customization Protocol (similar to i3's workspace_command)

[ymolists]

Hi! I'm migrating from i3 and would like to request a feature similar to i3's workspace_command protocol for customizing workspace buttons in the bar.

In i3, you can define a command that feeds workspace information to i3bar, allowing you to:

• Reorder workspace buttons arbitrarily
• Rename workspaces for display purposes (while keeping the actual workspace name)
• Hide/show specific workspaces conditionally
• Add "fake" placeholder workspaces that don't exist yet
• Filter workspaces based on custom logic

The protocol works by having a script continuously output JSON arrays (one per line) containing workspace objects with properties like name, id, visible, focused, urgent, and output. i3bar subscribes to workspace/output IPC events and updates the display accordingly.

Here's the i3 documentation for reference: https://i3wm.org/docs/i3bar-workspace-protocol.html

Would it be possible to implement something similar in Hyprland? This could be either:

1. A protocol that allows external programs to customize workspace button rendering
2. Built-in configuration options for advanced workspace button filtering/sorting/renaming
3. IPC endpoints that allow workspace manipulation specifically for display purposes

This would be incredibly useful for users who want fine-grained control over their workspace bar presentation without affecting the underlying workspace structure.

Has this been considered before, or are there any existing workarounds to achieve similar functionality?

Thanks!

[fufexan]

This is likely something the bar should handle. If you want to reorder workspaces in hyprland as well, the bar should send the appropriate commands to the socket (or call hyprctl).

[ymolists]

i am still on i3 / i3bar. i have not migrated to hyprland yet. this is only issue holding me back for now

[fufexan]

You need to choose a bar according to this need then. Either one where you can customize what the workspaces widget shows, or create one / modify one. Plenty examples on GitHub.

[ymolists]

ultimately its not just the bar. it also has to be supported by hyprland. if you look at the workspace protocol i linked above the i3 team had to add it to the core i3 wm. the protocol allows you to directly talk to i3 (irregardless of which bar is used) via a socket and control what buttons are displayed by the bar. is that possible now ? and is it worth adding ?

Ftr i am not interested in controlling widgets i only want controlling workspace buttons.

[ymolists]

Also all i want right now is to have multiple workspace groups. meaning one group of workspaces for dev. another for

here is what my go binary does using that i3 protocol which is basically what i want to achieve.

1. listens for new worspaces that are created via the i3 socket and stores the workspace id in memory. i3 uses a unique uint64 id per workspace
2. when i want to switch to a different group of workspace i call my binary with mybin grp 2
3. the binary tells i3 to refresh its list of displayed workspaces.
4. i3bar calls my binary and my binary returns a list of empty workspace list on its stdout
5. i continue creating workspaces in this new "group" and each new workspace is saved in the mybin memory running in the back ground
6. i have a key bingind that calls my bin with mybin grp 1 to switch to the old group
7. i3bar calls my binary and my binary returns a list of of the ids of workspaces it stored in memory to stdout

so effectively all i am trying to acheive is switch between multiple groups of workspaces. is that possible with hyprland or any of the bar now ?

[fufexan]

From what I read, it is just the bar. Hyprland already outputs events on its socket https://wiki.hypr.land/IPC.

if you look at the workspace protocol i linked above the i3 team had to add it to the core i3 wm

It reads as if it is only i3bar which requires the protocol, and i3 is only used to get the workspaces' state to be processed by the script and passed on to i3bar. You can do the same here, except there's no standard protocol. It's up to you to make the bar behave in a certain way.

Ftr i am not interested in controlling widgets i only want controlling workspace buttons.

Since there's no "default" bar, you'll have to choose a bar which supports this.