DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / waybar / waybar.5.en
waybar(5) File Formats Manual waybar(5)

waybar - configuration file

The configuration uses the JSON file format and is named config.

Valid locations for this file are:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/waybar/config
~/.config/waybar/config
~/waybar/config
/etc/xdg/waybar/config
/etc/xdg/waybar/config

A good starting point is the default configuration found at https://github.com/Alexays/Waybar/blob/master/resources/config Also a minimal example configuration can be found on the at the bottom of this man page.

layer
typeof: string
default: bottom
Decide if the bar is displayed in front (top) of the windows or behind (bottom)

them.

output
typeof: string|array
Specifies on which screen this bar will be displayed. Exclamation mark(!) can be used to exclude specific output.

position
typeof: string
default: top
Bar position, can be top, bottom, left, right.

height
typeof: integer
Height to be used by the bar if possible. Leave blank for a dynamic value.

width
typeof: integer
Width to be used by the bar if possible. Leave blank for a dynamic value.

modules-left
typeof: array
Modules that will be displayed on the left.

modules-center
typeof: array
Modules that will be displayed in the center.

modules-right
typeof: array

Modules that will be displayed on the right.

margin
typeof: string
Margins value using the CSS format without units.

margin-<top|left|bottom|right>
typeof: integer
Margins value without units.

spacing
typeof: integer
Size of gaps in between of the different modules.

name
typeof: string
Optional name added as a CSS class, for styling multiple waybars.

mode
typeof: string
Selects one of the preconfigured display modes. This is an equivalent of the sway-bar(5) mode command and supports the same values: dock, hide, invisible, overlay.
Note: hide and invisible modes may be not as useful without Sway IPC.

modifier-reset
typeof: string
default: press

Defines the timing of modifier key to reset the bar visibility. To reset the visibility of the bar with the press of the modifier key use press. Use release to reset the visibility upon the release of the modifier key and only if no other action happened while the key was pressed. This prevents hiding the bar when the modifier is used to switch a workspace, change binding mode or start a keybinding.

exclusive
typeof: bool
default: true
Option to request an exclusive zone from the compositor. Disable this to allow drawing application windows underneath or on top of the bar.

fixed-center
typeof: bool
default: true

Prefer fixed center position for the `modules-center` block. The center block will stay in the middle of the bar whenever possible. It can still be pushed around if other blocks need more space. When false, the center block is centered in the space between the left and right block.

passthrough
typeof: bool
default: false
Option to pass any pointer events to the window under the bar.

Intended to be used with either top or overlay layers and without exclusive zone.

gtk-layer-shell
typeof: bool
default: true
Option to disable the use of gtk-layer-shell for popups.

Only functional if compiled with gtk-layer-shell support.

ipc
typeof: bool
default: false
Option to subscribe to the Sway IPC bar configuration and visibility events and control waybar with swaymsg bar commands.
Requires bar_id value from sway configuration to be either passed with the -b commandline argument or specified with the id option.

id
typeof: string
bar_id for the Sway IPC. Use this if you need to override the value passed with the -b bar_id commandline argument for the specific bar instance.

include
typeof: string|array
Paths to additional configuration files.

Each file can contain a single object with any of the bar configuration options. In case of duplicate options, the first defined value takes precedence, i.e. including file -> first included file -> etc. Nested includes are permitted, but make sure to avoid circular imports. For a multi-bar config, the include directive affects only current bar configuration object.

You can use PangoMarkupFormat (See https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html#PangoMarkupFormat).

e.g.

"format": "<span style="italic">{}</span>"

If you want to have a second instance of a module, you can suffix it by a '#' and a custom name. For example if you want a second battery module, you can add "battery#bat2" to your modules. To configure the newly added module, you then also add a module configuration with the same name.

This could then look something like this (this is an incomplete example):

"modules-right": ["battery", "battery#bat2"],
"battery": {
	"bat": "BAT1"
},
"battery#bat2": {
	"bat": "BAT2"
}

A minimal config file could look like this:

{
	"layer": "top",
	"modules-left": ["sway/workspaces", "sway/mode"],
	"modules-center": ["sway/window"],
	"modules-right": ["battery", "clock"],
	"sway/window": {
		"max-length": 50
	},
	"battery": {
		"format": "{capacity}% {icon}",
		"format-icons": ["", "", "", "", ""]
	},
	"clock": {
		"format-alt": "{:%a, %d. %b  %H:%M}"
	}
}

{
	"layer": "top",
	"output": "eDP-1",
	"modules-left": ["sway/workspaces", "sway/mode"],
	...
}

{
	"layer": "top",
	"output": ["eDP-1", "VGA"],
	"modules-left": ["sway/workspaces", "sway/mode"],
	...
}

Don't specify an output to create multiple bars on the same screen.

[{
	"layer": "top",
	"output": "eDP-1",
	"modules-left": ["sway/workspaces", "sway/mode"],
	...
}, {
	"layer": "top",
	"output": "VGA",
	"modules-right": ["clock"],
	...
}]

When positioning Waybar on the left or right side of the screen, sometimes it's useful to be able to rotate the contents of a module so the text runs vertically. This can be done using the "rotate" property of the module. Example:

{
	"clock": {
		"rotate": 90
	}
}

Valid options for the "rotate" property are: 0, 90, 180 and 270.

Module groups allow stacking modules in the direction orthogonal to the bar direction. When the bar is positioned on the top or bottom of the screen, modules in a group are stacked vertically. Likewise, when positioned on the left or right, modules in a group are stacked horizontally.

A module group is defined by specifying a module named "group/some-group-name". The group must also be configured with a list of contained modules. Example:

{
	"modules-right": ["group/hardware", "clock"],
	"group/hardware": {
		"modules": [
			"cpu",
			"memory",
			"battery"
		]
	},
	...
}

2023-02-28