Skip to main content
otter-osd shows brief overlays for volume, brightness, and lock keys. Run it as a daemon. Scripts, the bar, and compositor keybindings send commands over a UNIX socket.

​
Usage

Start the daemon (autostart at login):
Send commands from scripts, the status bar, or compositor keybindings:
The optional step value (default 5) applies to volume and brightness commands. otter-timer and otter-rec also use otter-osd for completion notifications.

​
Architecture

One binary, two roles:
  • Daemon (no args): Connects to Wayland, opens a UNIX datagram socket, renders overlays on demand. Surfaces are created lazily and destroyed after timeout so idle RAM stays near zero.
  • Client (with args): Sends a command to the daemon and exits.
Socket path: $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/otter-shell/osd-{WAYLAND_DISPLAY}.sock

​
Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/otter-shell/otter-osd.conf
Color fields inherit from theme.conf when omitted. Position and size changes need new surfaces. Save the config and the daemon recreates the overlay on reload.