Waybar Configuration Skill

Manage your Waybar configuration using natural language commands.

Omarchy Integration

This system uses Omarchy, which provides wrapper commands and default configs for Waybar.

Omarchy Commands

Command	Purpose
omarchy-restart-waybar	Restart Waybar (preferred over pkill)
omarchy-toggle-waybar	Show/hide Waybar
omarchy-refresh-waybar	Reset to Omarchy defaults (creates backup)

IMPORTANT: Use omarchy-restart-waybar instead of pkill or killall for reloading.

Omarchy Default Config

Omarchy maintains default configs at:

• ~/.local/share/omarchy/config/waybar/config.jsonc
• ~/.local/share/omarchy/config/waybar/style.css

Running omarchy-refresh-waybar will:

1. Backup current config with timestamp (e.g., config.jsonc.bak.1754426383)
2. Replace with Omarchy defaults
3. Restart Waybar

Omarchy-Specific Modules

The default config includes these Omarchy modules:

"custom/omarchy": {
  "format": "<span font='omarchy'>\ue900</span>",
  "on-click": "omarchy-menu",
  "on-click-right": "xdg-terminal-exec",
  "tooltip-format": "Omarchy Menu\n\nSuper + Alt + Space"
}

"custom/update": {
  "exec": "omarchy-update-available",
  "on-click": "omarchy-launch-floating-terminal-with-presentation omarchy-update",
  "signal": 7,
  "interval": 21600
}

"custom/screenrecording-indicator": {
  "on-click": "omarchy-cmd-screenrecord",
  "exec": "$OMARCHY_PATH/default/waybar/indicators/screen-recording.sh",
  "signal": 8,
  "return-type": "json"
}

Omarchy Click Handlers

Many modules use Omarchy launchers for click actions:

Handler	Purpose
omarchy-menu	Main Omarchy menu
omarchy-menu power	Power menu (shutdown, reboot, etc.)
omarchy-launch-wifi	WiFi network selector
omarchy-launch-bluetooth	Bluetooth device manager
omarchy-launch-or-focus-tui btop	System monitor
omarchy-launch-or-focus-tui wiremix	Audio mixer
omarchy-launch-floating-terminal-with-presentation <cmd>	Run command in floating terminal
omarchy-cmd-screenrecord	Toggle screen recording
omarchy-tz-select	Timezone selector

Configuration Location

~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc  # User configuration (JSONC format)
~/.config/waybar/style.css     # User styling

Instructions

When the user asks to modify their Waybar config:

1. Always Read Current Config First

cat ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc

2. Create Backup Before Changes

cp ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc.bak.$(date +%s)

3. Make Changes Using Edit Tool

Use the Edit tool to modify the JSONC file. Preserve:

• Existing comments
• Formatting style
• Icon characters (Nerd Font glyphs)
• Omarchy-specific modules and handlers

4. Validate JSON After Edit

# Remove comments and validate JSON structure
sed 's|//.*||g' ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc | jq . > /dev/null && echo "Valid JSON" || echo "Invalid JSON"

5. Reload Waybar

omarchy-restart-waybar

Core Concepts

Bar Structure

Waybar has three module sections:

• modules-left - Left side (default: Omarchy menu, workspaces)
• modules-center - Center (default: clock, update indicator, screen recording)
• modules-right - Right side (default: tray, bluetooth, network, audio, cpu, battery)

Module Types

1. Built-in modules: clock, battery, cpu, memory, network, bluetooth, pulseaudio, tray, hyprland/workspaces
2. Custom modules: custom/<name> - User-defined with exec scripts
3. Group modules: group/<name> - Container for multiple modules (e.g., group/tray-expander)

Common Operations

Add a Module

1. Add module name to the appropriate array
2. Add configuration block if new module type

Example - adding memory module:

// In modules-right array:
"modules-right": ["memory", "cpu", "battery"],

// Add configuration:
"memory": {
  "interval": 30,
  "format": "{percentage}% ",
  "tooltip-format": "{used:0.1f}G / {total:0.1f}G",
  "on-click": "omarchy-launch-or-focus-tui btop"
}

Remove a Module

Remove from section array. Config block can remain (harmless).

Move a Module

Remove from one section array, add to another.

Create Custom Module

Simple text output:

"custom/mymodule": {
  "exec": "/path/to/script.sh",
  "interval": 10,
  "format": "{}",
  "on-click": "command-to-run"
}

JSON output (for dynamic text/tooltip/class):

"custom/mymodule": {
  "exec": "/path/to/script.sh",
  "return-type": "json",
  "interval": 10
}

Script outputs: {"text": "display", "tooltip": "hover text", "class": "css-class"}

Signal-Based Updates

For modules that should update on events (not intervals):

"custom/mymodule": {
  "exec": "/path/to/script.sh",
  "signal": 9,
  "return-type": "json"
}

Trigger update from anywhere: pkill -SIGRTMIN+9 waybar

Module Reference

Built-in Modules

Module	Purpose	Key Settings
clock	Time/date	format, format-alt, timezone
battery	Battery status	format, states, format-icons
cpu	CPU usage	interval, format
memory	RAM usage	interval, format
network	Network status	format-wifi, format-ethernet
bluetooth	Bluetooth	format, format-connected
pulseaudio	Audio	format, format-muted, scroll-step
tray	System tray	icon-size, spacing
hyprland/workspaces	Workspaces	format, format-icons, persistent-workspaces

Hyprland-Specific

Module	Purpose
hyprland/workspaces	Workspace indicator/switcher
hyprland/window	Active window title
hyprland/submap	Current submap/mode
hyprland/language	Keyboard layout

Format Placeholders

clock: {:%H:%M}, {:%A}, {:%d %B}, {:L%A %H:%M} (locale-aware) battery: {capacity}, {icon}, {time}, {power} cpu: {usage}, {avg_frequency} memory: {percentage}, {used}, {total} network: {essid}, {signalStrength}, {bandwidthDownBytes}, {bandwidthUpBytes}

Icons (Nerd Font)

Common glyphs used in this config:

• 󰍛 - CPU
• `` - Memory
• 󰂯/󰂱/󰂲 - Bluetooth off/connected/disabled
• 󰤨/󰤯/󰤮 - WiFi strong/weak/disconnected
• 󰁹/󰁺 - Battery full/low
• // - Volume levels
• `` - Volume muted
• `` - Tray expander
• 󰻂 - Screen recording

Styling (style.css)

#clock {
  color: #ffffff;
  padding: 0 10px;
}

#battery.warning {
  color: #ff0000;
}

#custom-omarchy {
  font-family: omarchy;
}

Safety

• Always backup before changes
• Validate JSON after edits
• Use omarchy-restart-waybar to apply changes
• Keep backup files for rollback
• Don't remove custom/omarchy or custom/update unless intentional

Reverting to Defaults

If something breaks:

# Restore from most recent backup
cp ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc.bak.TIMESTAMP ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc
omarchy-restart-waybar

# Or reset to Omarchy defaults (backs up current first)
omarchy-refresh-waybar

Example Requests

• "Add a memory monitor to my waybar"
• "Move the clock to the left side"
• "Remove the CPU indicator"
• "Add a custom module that shows disk usage"
• "Show battery percentage"
• "Make the bar thicker"
• "Hide the system tray"
• "Add a module that shows my IP address"