Otter Shell runs on your Wayland compositor. The metapackage installs apps; it does not configure your compositor. This page covers autostart and hotkeys.
What runs at login
Autostart these for a working desktop:
| Daemon | Required | Purpose |
|---|
otter-bar | Recommended | Status bar, system tray, workspace indicator |
otter-wallpaper | Recommended | Desktop background |
otter-notifications | Recommended | notify-send and app notifications |
otter-osd | Recommended | Volume/brightness/lock-key overlays |
otter-idle | Recommended | Screen lock and DPMS on idle |
otter-polkit | Recommended | Authentication for privileged actions |
otter-clip daemon | Optional | Clipboard history |
otter-weather --watch 900 --write-cache | Optional | Bar weather widget data |
otter-jade | Optional | Desktop pet |
otter-transcribe | Optional | Speech transcription (needs otter-shell-extras) |
otter-launcher, otter-logout, otter-screenshot. Bind hotkeys instead.
Compositor autostart examples
Hyprland
Add to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:
exec-once = otter-bar
exec-once = otter-wallpaper
exec-once = otter-notifications
exec-once = otter-osd
exec-once = otter-idle
exec-once = otter-polkit
exec-once = otter-clip daemon
exec-once = otter-weather --watch 900 --write-cache
Sway
Add to ~/.config/sway/config:
exec otter-bar
exec otter-wallpaper
exec otter-notifications
exec otter-osd
exec otter-idle
exec otter-polkit
exec otter-clip daemon
exec otter-weather --watch 900 --write-cache
Niri
Add to ~/.config/niri/config.kdl:
spawn-at-startup "otter-bar"
spawn-at-startup "otter-wallpaper"
spawn-at-startup "otter-notifications"
spawn-at-startup "otter-osd"
spawn-at-startup "otter-idle"
spawn-at-startup "otter-polkit"
spawn-at-startup "otter-clip" "daemon"
spawn-at-startup "otter-weather" "--watch" "900" "--write-cache"
Display manager
otter-greeter is Otter Shell’s Wayland display manager:
otter-greeterd: root daemon for PAM, logind, and session launchotter-greeter-ui: login UI on Hyprland (greeter only, not your user session)
Enable after install:
sudo systemctl enable otter-greeter.service
/etc/otter-shell/otter-greeter.conf. See otter-greeter.
Session security flow
- otter-idle: Detects inactivity; runs
loginctl lock-session or DPMS
- otter-lock: Session lockscreen via
ext-session-lock-v1
- otter-logout: Power menu for lock, logout, suspend, reboot, shutdown
- otter-polkit: Password dialog for elevated privileges
| Action | Command |
|---|
| Lock session | loginctl lock-session |
| Power menu | otter-logout |
Protocol requirements
| Component | Protocol / dependency |
|---|
| Bar, launcher, notifications, OSD, logout, lock | zwlr_layer_shell_v1 (wlroots layer shell) |
| Lock screen | ext-session-lock-v1 |
| Screenshot, pick, shot | ext_image_copy_capture_v1 |
| Idle daemon | ext-idle-notify-v1 (optional; compositor IPC fallbacks exist) |
Next steps
After autostart, open otter-settings for bar layout, theme, and terminal fonts.
