Configuration overview

otter-settings is the main config UI: one tab per app, a theme browser, and drag-and-drop bar layout. It writes the same ~/.config/otter-shell/*.conf files as manual edits, so GUI and text stay in sync.

otter-settings

Launch from otter-launcher, bind a compositor hotkey, or run the command above. See otter-settings for tabs, features, and theme presets.

Click Apply and most running apps reload via inotify. No restart needed.

What you can configure in otter-settings

Tab	What you edit
Bar	Widget layout, clock, volume, tray, custom buttons
Launcher	Size, colors, placeholder text
Notifications	Position, timeouts, margins
Wallpaper	Path, rotation, scale mode
OSD	Volume/brightness overlay appearance
Terminal	Fonts, colors, padding, keybinds
Theme	Colors, spacing, presets (12 built-in themes)
Theme Gen	Wallpaper-reactive themes, opacity, template outputs
Monitor	System monitor refresh interval
Assist	`otter-assist` backend (`otter-shell-extras`)
Clicker	Auto-clicker interval, button, and fixed-position mode
Lock / Logout / Idle / Polkit / Jade	Session and overlay settings
Recorder / Voice	`otter-rec` and `otter-vox` options

Compositor hotkeys (screenshot, launcher, lock) are not in otter-settings. Bind those in your compositor config. See Keybinds.

Manual config files

Each app has a plain-text file in ~/.config/otter-shell/. Edit by hand to script changes or keep custom comments the UI might not show.

App	Config file
Shared theme	`~/.config/otter-shell/theme.conf`
otter-bar	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-bar.conf`
otter-launcher	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-launcher.conf`
otter-notifications	`~/.config/otter-shell/notifications.conf`
otter-wallpaper	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-wallpaper.conf`
otter-theme-gen	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-theme-gen.conf`
otter-osd	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-osd.conf`
otter-logout	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-logout.conf`
otter-polkit	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-polkit.conf`
otter-lock	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-lock.conf`
otter-idle	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-idle.conf`
otter-jade	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-jade.conf`
otter-term	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-term.conf`
otter-monitor	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-monitor.conf`
otter-assist	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-assist.conf` (via `otter-shell-extras`)
otter-assistant	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-assistant.conf` (via `otter-shell-extras`)
otter-rec	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-rec.conf`
otter-clip	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-clip.conf`
otter-note	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-note.conf`
otter-cal	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-cal.conf`
otter-timer	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-timer.conf`
otter-transcribe	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-transcribe.conf`
otter-calc	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-calc.conf`
otter-emoji	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-emoji.conf`
otter-pick	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-pick.conf`
otter-clicker	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-clicker.conf`
otter-vox	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-vox.conf`
otter-weather	`~/.config/otter-shell/otter-weather.conf`
otter-screenshot	(no persistent config: CLI flags only)

System defaults may live under /etc/otter-shell/. User configs always win.

File format

# Comments start with #
font_size = 14
font_family = "IoskeleyMono Nerd Font"
url_enabled = true

Quote strings with double quotes. Booleans are true or false. Empty string "" falls back to the compiled default. On first launch, apps normalize their config: missing keys get defaults, unknown keys are removed.

Hot reload

Most daemons watch their config (and often theme.conf) with inotify:

otter-bar: reloads otter-bar.conf on save; theme.conf changes refresh widget colors without a full bar config reload
otter-notifications, otter-wallpaper, otter-osd, otter-idle: reload on save
otter-term: hot-reloads otter-term.conf and shared theme.conf
otter-monitor: hot-reloads theme.conf only; restart to pick up otter-monitor.conf changes
otter-transcribe: reloads settings and watches theme.conf; restarts automatically after a model unload when idle

otter-settings and manual saves hit the same reload path.

System-wide defaults

Lookup order (example for otter-term):

~/.config/otter-shell/otter-term.conf (user: highest priority)
/etc/otter-shell/otter-term.conf (system defaults)
Compiled-in defaults

Set system defaults in /etc/otter-shell/ without touching home directories.

Get Started

Desktop Shell

Core Apps

Productivity

Utilities

Configuration

Configuration overview

What you can configure in otter-settings

Manual config files

File format

Hot reload

System-wide defaults

​What you can configure in otter-settings

​Manual config files

​File format

​Hot reload

​System-wide defaults

What you can configure in otter-settings

Manual config files

File format

Hot reload

System-wide defaults