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otter-settings is the default way to configure Otter Shell. Tabs for every app, a theme browser, and drag-and-drop bar layout. Prefer $EDITOR? Same files either way.

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Usage

Launch from otter-launcher or bind a compositor hotkey (for example Super+Comma).
Writes to ~/.config/otter-shell/*.conf. Running apps reload via inotify after Apply.

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Why use otter-settings

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Config files managed

Also includes drag-and-drop bar layout, custom bar buttons, and clipboard paste (Ctrl+V) in text fields via Wayland data device.

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Theme Gen tab

The Theme Gen tab edits otter-theme-gen.conf. The otter-theme-gen daemon ships with otter-shell. Autostart it with otter-wallpaper so it can read $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/otter-shell/wallpaper-state and update theme.conf. On the tab:
  • Enabled: turn wallpaper-reactive theming on or off
  • Mode: dark or light palette
  • Islands mode: Otter Shell Islands surface styling
  • Strategy: how colors are pulled from the wallpaper (material_you, analogous, vibrant, monochromatic, direct, temperature)
  • Contrast, Vibrancy, and Opacity: tune the generated palette
  • Templates: pick which third-party configs get rewritten (terminals, GTK, Hyprland Lua at ~/.config/hypr/otter-theme.lua, bottom, btop, KDE color schemes, Papirus folder colors, and others)
Turn on only the templates you want overwritten. Click Apply to save. For fixed presets instead, see Themes. See otter-theme-gen for daemon details.

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Monitor tab

The Monitor tab edits otter-monitor.conf for otter-monitor:
  • Refresh interval seconds: how often the collector polls /proc and sysfs (1 to 3600)
Restart otter-monitor after you change the refresh interval. Theme colors still hot-reload from theme.conf.

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Clicker tab

The Clicker tab edits otter-clicker.conf for otter-clicker. Interval, button, single or double click, repeat count, jitter, hold time, and fixed-position mode.

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Assist tab

The Assist tab edits otter-assist.conf for the otter-assist daemon (from otter-shell-extras):
  • Backend: cpu or vulkan
  • Vulkan device: GPU index, or -1 for llama.cpp auto selection
  • Idle seconds: unload the idle model after this many seconds (default 120)
  • Tool toggles and always-allow flags for knowledge, web, weather, and desktop search
  • Pika search URL, knowledge index path, and tool-call budgets
Full key list: otter-assist. The chat client keeps its own file, otter-assistant.conf, for window size, generation limits, and UI always-allow flags.

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What otter-settings does not configure

Compositor hotkeys (launcher, screenshot, lock) belong in your Wayland compositor config. See Keybinds. otter-screenshot has no persistent config file. CLI flags only.

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Theme presets

Otter Shell, Otter Shell Islands, Catppuccin variants, Nord, Gruvbox, Dracula, Tokyo Night, and One Dark. See Themes for color token details.