# 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

    top     [📅 Wed 15/09] [🕑 14:32] [●●]      [S]      [●] [🔊] [tray] [⏻] [🇮🇹]
             date           time       vm     launcher  priv vol   tray present lang

    bottom  [1..8]                                          [ open windows ]
             workspaces                                       taskbar

DP-3 is rotated, so a bar there is 1080px wide rather than 1920. One bar
holding every module was too crowded at that width, so status sits on top and
the desktop itself along the bottom. Both are one waybar process reading one
stylesheet: waybar takes a top-level array of bars.

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 | `custom/presentation` | CSS, keyed on the module's class | Presentation mode, the same `statusctl`-backed module the DP-1 bar runs. It already emits an empty text and a state class, so the icon is chosen in CSS and the glyphs are simply dropped. |
| 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 by a one-line `fill` substitution at install time. It takes the
bar's background colour, not the accent: it sits on the accent pill, and
filling it with the accent puts it on top of itself. 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/
        language.jsonc        the keyboard flag, 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.