# waybar-theme-udt

A waybar bar for DP-3, themed by [unified-desktop-theme][udt] and drawn with
icons from the desktop's own icon theme rather than font glyphs.

[udt]: ../unified-desktop-theme

## Goal

Three things at once:

- **No font glyphs.** Every module that shows a symbol shows a real icon from
  `Material-Black-Plum-Suru`, the theme GTK already uses. Icons keep their own
  colours, because that is what every other application on this desktop shows.
- **Colours from udt.** Pill backgrounds, text and states resolve from
  `palette/roles-<scheme>.conf`, so switching scheme recolours this bar with
  everything else.
- **Pill clusters with transitions.** The grouped-capsule layout of `idea1.png`
  with the hover and state transitions of `idea2.png`.

The current bar on DP-1 is untouched. This one installs alongside it and is
pointed at DP-3.

## Layout

    ┌ left ──────────────────────────────┐ ┌ center ┐ ┌ right ─────────────────────┐
    [◆] [📅 Wed 15/09] [🕑 14:32] [1..8] [●●]  [ open apps ]  [🔊 62%] [tray] [⏻] [🇮🇹]
     launcher  date      time  workspaces vm    taskbar        volume  tray present lang

Each bracket is one pill. Neighbouring pills in a cluster share a background
and weld together with asymmetric corner radii; clusters are separated by
transparent gaps, so the bar reads as groups rather than a continuous strip.

### Modules

| Position | Module | Icon source | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| left | `image#launcher` | `slackware.svg`, shipped here | Accent background, the one always-coloured pill. Opens the quickshell drawer. An `image` module: a `custom` one draws nothing when its format is empty, and the format has to be empty because the mark is an icon. |
| left | `clock#date` | `x-office-calendar` | Icon then text. Calendar tooltip kept. |
| left | `clock#time` | `clock` | Icon then text. |
| left | `hyprland/workspaces` | eight themed icons, via CSS | See below. |
| left | `custom/vmdot` | coloured dots | Dots keep their shape; colours move to roles. |
| center | `wlr/taskbar` | `icon-theme` config key | Per-window application icons. |
| right | `group/wireplumber` | `image` module | Drawer group kept as it is today. |
| right | `tray` | application-provided | |
| right | `idle_inhibitor` | `image` module | Presentation mode. |
| right | `image#lang` | `flag-it.svg` / `flag-gb.svg`, shipped here | An `image` module: `hyprland/language` styles as `#language` only, with no per-language class, so a flag cannot be selected in CSS. |

Dropped from the current bar: `custom/breaktimer`, `custom/mail`,
`custom/privacy_dots` stays only if you want it on this bar too (it is
currently listed; say if it should follow the others out). No battery, no
temperature, no cpu, no memory, no backlight: this is a desktop.

Clock is the one module that stays text. An icon cannot say 14:32; the icon
sits before the text, which is what makes it match the rest.

### Workspace icons

| WS | Icon | Was |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | `web-browser` | browser glyph |
| 2 | `utilities-terminal` | terminal glyph |
| 3 | `text-editor` | code glyph |
| 4 | `network-server` | matches the quickshell drawer's VM tile (`U+F233`, Font Awesome `server`) |
| 5 | `document-edit` | pen on a document: the alternate text editor lives here |
| 6 | `applications-graphics` | graphics glyph |
| 7 | `internet-chat` | chat glyph |
| 8 | `input-gaming` | joypad: games and media players |

All eight resolve in `Material-Black-Plum-Suru` today.

## How icons reach the bar

Three mechanisms, because waybar offers three and no single one covers
everything. This is the part worth reading before changing anything.

**1. Native `icon-theme` (taskbar, tray).** `wlr/taskbar` takes `icon-theme`
and `icon-size` outright. Today it asks for `Papirus`, **which is not
installed**, so GTK has been silently falling back. Pointing it at
`Material-Black-Plum-Suru` is a bug fix, not a preference.

**2. The `image` module (volume, presentation mode).** `image` runs `exec` and
expects `$path\n$tooltip` on stdout, so a small script maps state to an icon
name, resolves it through the GTK icon theme, and prints the path. One `image`
module is one icon, so a five-state volume indicator is one module plus one
script, not five modules.

**3. CSS `background-image` (workspaces).** Workspace buttons come from a
single `hyprland/workspaces` module and `format-icons` takes text, not paths.
Faking the strip with eight `custom` modules would lose click-to-switch and
the active/urgent states, so instead the real module keeps its behaviour, its
labels are emptied, and each button gets an icon through
`#workspaces button:nth-child(n) { background-image: url(...) }`.

The consequence, stated plainly: **the eight workspace icon paths live in the
stylesheet, not in the config.** Changing a workspace icon means editing CSS.

### Why the icons cannot follow the accent

2466 of the 5169 panel icons in `Material-Black-Plum-Suru` carry a hardcoded
`oomox` gradient (`#a08fbf` to `#5a33a3`) and seven further named gradients
each. They are not monochrome and not recolourable by CSS `color`. So icons
show their own colours and do not track the scheme, which is the intended
behaviour here: they match every other application on the desktop.

The two icons this repo ships are the exception. `slackware.svg` (from
Simple Icons) and the two flags are single-path monochrome, so `slackware.svg`
is tinted with the udt accent by a one-line `fill` substitution at install
time. The flags keep their national colours.

## Repository layout

Modular, one file per module, mirroring the current setup:

    config.jsonc              entry point, `include`s every module file
    modules/
      clock.jsonc             clock#date and clock#time
      hyprland/
        workspaces.jsonc
        language.jsonc
      custom/
        launcher.jsonc
        vmdot.jsonc
      extras/
        taskbar.jsonc
        tray.jsonc
        wireplumber.jsonc
      image/
        idle_inhibitor.jsonc  presentation mode, via `image`
    styles/
      style.css               entry point, imports the rest in order
      theme.css               GENERATED by udt-palette, gitignored
      fonts.css
      global.css              #waybar, tooltip, button base rules
      pills.css               the cluster geometry and transitions
      modules.css             per-module rules, including workspace icons
    icons/
      slackware.svg           carries @ACCENT@, substituted on install
      flag-it.svg
      flag-gb.svg
    bin/
      wb-icon                 state to icon path, for the `image` modules
      vms_dots.sh             moved here from ~/bin, symlinked back
      privacy_dots.sh         moved here from ~/bin, symlinked back
    install.sh
    LICENSE
    README.md

Wildcard `include` is broken in waybar 0.14, so `config.jsonc` lists every
module file explicitly. That is a waybar limitation, not a choice.

## Palette integration

This repo is a **consumer** of udt: it holds the bar, udt holds the colours.

`styles/theme.css` is generated by `udt-palette` and gitignored, exactly like
every other generated file in that repo. Generating it needs two changes on
the udt side:

**A new `[waybar]` role block.** The current one names `temperature`,
`memory`, `cpu`, `backlight` and `battery`, none of which exist on this bar.
The new roles are `launcher`, `workspaces`, `vmdots`, `taskbar`, `volume`,
`tray`, `present`, `lang`, `date`, `time`, plus the existing `main_*`,
`hover_*` and `outline`.

**Added to all nine `roles-*.conf`.** `udt-palette --selftest` enforces that
every scheme defines the same role set, so a role added to one file and not
the rest fails the check. That is the check doing its job.

Dot colours come from the existing `[state]` roles: `success` for a running
VM, `warning` for paused, `critical` for crashed, `info` for saved, and
`fg_faint` for shut off. Both dot scripts currently hardcode `#30D158`,
`#FFD60A`, `#FF9F0A`, `#9B32FA` and `#6E6E73`; they will read a generated
colour block instead.

## Install

`install.sh` follows udt's conventions: symlink what this repo owns
canonically, copy what another application owns, guard every reload.

- Module and style files are **symlinked** into `~/.config/waybar-udt/`, so the
  repo cannot drift from what is installed.
- `icons/slackware.svg` is **generated** into place with `@ACCENT@` substituted,
  the same way udt generates `launcher.rasi`.
- `bin/vms_dots.sh` and `bin/privacy_dots.sh` are symlinked to `~/bin/`,
  replacing the copies that live there now. **The originals are backed up
  first**: they are the only copy and are not currently in any repository.
- The bar is **not** started and `~/.config/waybar` is **not** touched. Running
  it is one command, printed at the end, so DP-1's bar keeps working until you
  choose otherwise.

Reload is `killall -SIGUSR2 waybar`, and `reload_style_on_change` is already on.

## Verification

Per udt's own rule, visual claims are measured, not reasoned about:

    grim -o DP-3 /tmp/shot.png

`wb-icon` gets one runnable self-check: every icon name the bar asks for must
resolve in the icon theme, so a missing icon fails loudly at install time
rather than rendering as a blank pill.

## Open questions

1. `custom/privacy_dots` is in the keep list but was not in the ten modules you
   named. On this bar or not?
2. Licence: GPLv2-only unless you say otherwise.