kunai

Per-keyboard layout switcher for Niri compositor. Automatically switches keyboard layouts based on which physical keyboard you're typing on.

What it does

kunai monitors your keyboards and switches to a configured layout when you start typing on a specific keyboard. Perfect for multi-keyboard setups where different keyboards use different layouts (e.g., QWERTY laptop keyboard + Colemak mechanical keyboard).

Requirements

• Linux with Niri compositor
• Rust toolchain (cargo)
• Access to /dev/input/event* devices

Installation

./install.sh

This will:

• Build the release binary
• Install to /usr/local/bin/kunai
• Set up udev rules for keyboard access (no reboot/logout required)

Setup

1. List available keyboards:

kunai list

2. Run interactive setup to map keyboards to layouts:

kunai setup

3. Test the configuration (optional):

kunai daemon --dry-run

4. Add to Niri startup config (~/.config/niri/config.kdl):

spawn-at-startup = "kunai" "daemon"

Or run manually:

kunai daemon

Commands

• kunai list - List detected keyboards with IDs
• kunai setup - Interactive configuration for keyboard-to-layout mapping
• kunai daemon - Run as background daemon
• kunai daemon --dry-run - Test mode, prints switches without applying
• kunai test - Show which keyboard generates events

Configuration

Configuration is stored in ~/.config/kunai/config.toml and maps keyboard vendor/product IDs to Niri layout indices.