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otter-bar is the Otter Shell status bar. Anchors to the top or bottom of each output via zwlr_layer_shell_v1. Reloads config and theme without a restart.

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Features

  • Workspace indicator and switcher (otter-tag, Mango/dwl IPC, ext-workspace)
  • Active window title with icon
  • Clock with timezone-aware formatting and date tooltip
  • Battery via UPower (auto-hides when no battery)
  • Brightness from /sys/class/backlight/
  • Power profiles (power-profiles-daemon / tuned-ppd)
  • CPU, temperature, memory, and network widgets
  • Volume via PipeWire with scroll-to-adjust and device popup
  • MPRIS media player with album art
  • System tray (StatusNotifierItem) with context menus
  • Custom button widgets with icon and command support
  • HiDPI scaling per output

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Usage

otter-bar
Add to compositor autostart: see Session setup. The menu button runs otter-launcher by default. Change it with button_menu_command.

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Configuration

Config: ~/.config/otter-shell/otter-bar.conf (fallback: /etc/otter-shell/otter-bar.conf). Created on first run.
Drag widgets in otter-settings instead of editing layout strings.
Key settings: 
general_height = 32
general_position = top
general_padding = 8

# Comma-separated widget layout (left to right)
layout_left = workspaces, title
layout_center =
layout_right = tray, mpris, volume, clock, battery, button_menu

# Launcher button
button_menu_command = otter-launcher
Widget color fields are optional. Omit them to inherit from theme.conf.

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Weather widget

Add weather to a layout section, then run the cache watcher: 
otter-weather --watch 900 --write-cache &
Set coordinates in ~/.config/otter-shell/otter-weather.conf. See otter-weather.

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Calendar popover

Point the clock widget at otter-cal: 
clock_calendar_command = otter-cal --layer

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Dependencies

  • Wayland compositor with zwlr_layer_shell_v1
  • D-Bus (UPower, MPRIS, system tray): disable with -Denable_dbus=false at build time
  • PipeWire (volume widget): disable with -Denable_pipewire=false at build time