# nova-shell

A [Quickshell](https://quickshell.outfoxxed.me)-based desktop shell for
[niri](https://github.com/YarikTH/ycmd), lovingly hallucinated by a statistical
text blender. Status bar, notification center, media controls, system overlays —
the full package, assembled by a glorified autocomplete engine that has never
once used a desktop environment in its life.

**Use at your own risk.** The slop machine was very confident about every
architectural decision, which is exactly when you should be most suspicious.

## "Features"

You didn't ask for most of these. Neither did anyone else.

- Status bar with too many widgets, grouped into glowing color-coded sections
- Notification center that replaces swaync (whether you wanted that or not)
- Hover panels for volume, brightness, and media — the robot merged the OSD, tooltip, and mixer into one thing because it couldn't be stopped
- Network/bluetooth/tray context menus, power menu, idle inhibitor
- Privacy indicators for when your webcam is silently recording you
- GPU-rendered hexagonal backdrop for niri overview, complete with wave animations and rainbow shimmer, because the robot thinks your desktop should look like a cyberpunk hacker terminal
- Neon clock on the background layer with a color-cycling colon. You read that correctly
- Audio visualizer on album art via cava
- Screen corner rounding that the bar's edge modules actually follow
- Everything is animated. Everything. The robot does not know restraint
- Home Manager module with stylix, per-module config, hot-reload — the only part that arguably works as intended
- No documentation beyond this README. Good luck

## Installation

Add the flake input and import the Home Manager module. The robot did not test
any of this on real hardware, but it was extremely confident while writing it,
which is the next best thing.

```nix
# flake.nix
inputs = {
  nova-shell.url = "git+https://git.berlin.ccc.de/vinzenz/nova-shell";
  nova-shell.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};
```

```nix
# home.nix
imports = [ inputs.nova-shell.homeModules.default ];
```

## Configuration

### Turning it on

```nix
programs.nova-shell.enable = true;
```

This installs the bar, the Symbols Nerd Font, and a systemd user service that
starts with `graphical-session.target`. If you use
[stylix](https://github.com/danth/stylix), colors and fonts are populated
automatically — one fewer thing for the AI to have gotten wrong. If you do not
use stylix, you get Catppuccin Mocha, because the robot has taste and it is
purple.

### Disabling modules

All modules are enabled by default, because the robot was optimistic about
what hardware you own and what software you run. Set any to `false` to make
them go away permanently, which will feel better than you expect.

Disabling `weather` also removes `wttrbar` from your packages, which is the
one piece of genuine dependency management in this entire project and
frankly more than it deserves.

```nix
programs.nova-shell.modules = {
  weather.enable     = false;  # also evicts wttrbar from your system
  bluetooth.enable   = false;  # for people whose computers have ethernet ports and opinions
  backlight.enable   = false;  # your desktop monitor does not have a backlight slider, probably
  battery.enable     = false;  # see above, but for power
  temperature.enable = false;  # what you don't measure can't alarm you
  disk.enable        = false;  # the number will only make you anxious
  power.enable       = false;  # if you enjoy living dangerously without a logout button

  # modules with extra config
  backlight.step = 2;                                  # brightness adjustment %
  weather.args   = [ "--nerd" "--location" "Berlin" ]; # wttrbar arguments
  temperature.warm = 55;                               # °C threshold for warm color
  temperature.hot  = 75;                               # °C threshold for hot color
  battery.warning  = 30;                               # % for warning notification
  battery.critical = 10;                               # % for critical blink + notification
  cpu.interval     = 2000;                             # polling interval in ms
  notifications.timeout    = 3000;                     # popup auto-dismiss in ms
  notifications.maxPopups  = 4;                        # max simultaneous popups (0 to disable)
  notifications.maxVisible = 10;                       # scrollable history limit in center
};
```

Each module is an object with `enable` (default `true`) and optional extra
settings. Full list: `workspaces`, `tray`, `windowTitle`, `clock`,
`notifications`, `mpris`, `volume`, `bluetooth`, `backlight`, `network`,
`powerProfile`, `idleInhibitor`, `weather`, `temperature`, `cpu`, `memory`,
`disk`, `battery`, `power`, `backgroundOverlay`, `overviewBackdrop`.

### Theme

Theme keys are merged on top of whatever stylix provides. You only need to
specify what you want to override. Values are written to
`~/.config/nova-shell/theme.json`, which the bar watches for changes at
runtime, so you can iterate on colors without restarting anything — a level
of polish that frankly raises uncomfortable questions about the rest of it.

```nix
programs.nova-shell.theme = {
  barHeight  = 28;
  barOpacity = 0.85;
  barPadding = 10;
  barSpacing = 8;
  radius     = 6;
  fontSize   = 13;
  fontFamily = "JetBrains Mono";

  # override individual palette entries if stylix's choices personally offend you
  colors.base00 = "#1a1a2e";
  colors.base05 = "#e0e0f0";
};
```

Full list of theme keys and their defaults:

| Key | Default | Controls |
|-----|---------|----------|
| `colors.base00`–`base0F` | Catppuccin Mocha | Base16 palette |
| `fontFamily` | `"sans-serif"` | Bar text font |
| `iconFontFamily` | `"Symbols Nerd Font"` | Nerd font for icons |
| `fontSize` | `12` | Base font size (px) |
| `barHeight` | `32` | Bar height (px) |
| `barOpacity` | `0.9` | Bar and flyout background opacity |
| `barPadding` | `8` | Left/right bar content margin (px) |
| `groupSpacing` | `6` | Gap between groups and gradient border (px) |
| `moduleSpacing` | `4` | Icon-to-label gap within a module (px) |
| `radius` | `4` | Corner radius for flyouts and menus (px) |
| `screenRadius` | `15` | Screen corner rounding, 0 to disable (px) |

### Systemd service

Enabled by default, bound to `graphical-session.target`. To attach it to
something more specific, or to disable it entirely because you have strong
feelings about how your session starts:

```nix
programs.nova-shell.systemd = {
  enable = true;
  target = "niri.service";
};
```

### Niri overview backdrop

If you use the Home Manager module like a civilized person, the required niri
layer rule is added automatically. If you insist on managing your niri config
by hand — because declarative configuration is apparently too convenient — add
this to your `config.kdl`:

```kdl
layer-rule {
    match namespace="^nova-overview-backdrop$"
    place-within-backdrop true
}
```

Without this, the overview backdrop widgets won't be visible between workspace
rows. The bar will still work, you'll just miss out on the pretty parts, which
is arguably what you deserve for not using Nix properly.

## Contributing

Sure, why not. It can't get much worse, and the GPL requires you to share
your improvements anyway, so you might as well.

## License

GPLv3. Yes, the AI slop is copylefted now. [caelestia-dots/shell](https://github.com/caelestia-dots/shell)
provided architectural inspiration, which the robot then faithfully mangled into this. If you
improve it, the license requires you to share those improvements — a higher standard of
accountability than the author has held themselves to.