Waybar Configuration Skill

Manage your Waybar configuration using natural language commands.

Omarchy Integration

This system uses Omarchy, which provides wrapper commands and default configs for Waybar.

Omarchy Commands

IMPORTANT: Use omarchy-restart-waybar instead of pkill or killall for reloading.

Omarchy Default Config

Omarchy maintains default configs at:

• ~/.local/share/omarchy/config/waybar/config.jsonc
• ~/.local/share/omarchy/config/waybar/style.css

Running omarchy-refresh-waybar will:

1. Backup current config with timestamp (e.g., config.jsonc.bak.1754426383)
2. Replace with Omarchy defaults
3. Restart Waybar

Omarchy-Specific Modules

The default config includes these Omarchy modules:

"custom/omarchy": {
  "format": "<span font='omarchy'>\ue900</span>",
  "on-click": "omarchy-menu",
  "on-click-right": "xdg-terminal-exec",
  "tooltip-format": "Omarchy Menu\n\nSuper + Alt + Space"
}

"custom/update": {
  "exec": "omarchy-update-available",
  "on-click": "omarchy-launch-floating-terminal-with-presentation omarchy-update",
  "signal": 7,
  "interval": 21600
}

"custom/screenrecording-indicator": {
  "on-click": "omarchy-cmd-screenrecord",
  "exec": "$OMARCHY_PATH/default/waybar/indicators/screen-recording.sh",
  "signal": 8,
  "return-type": "json"
}

Omarchy Click Handlers

Many modules use Omarchy launchers for click actions:

Configuration Location

~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc  # User configuration (JSONC format)
~/.config/waybar/style.css     # User styling

Instructions

When the user asks to modify their Waybar config:

1. Always Read Current Config First

cat ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc

2. Create Backup Before Changes

cp ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc.bak.$(date +%s)

3. Make Changes Using Edit Tool

Use the Edit tool to modify the JSONC file. Preserve:

• Existing comments
• Formatting style
• Icon characters (Nerd Font glyphs)
• Omarchy-specific modules and handlers

4. Validate JSON After Edit

# Remove comments and validate JSON structure
sed 's|//.*||g' ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc | jq . > /dev/null && echo "Valid JSON" || echo "Invalid JSON"

5. Reload Waybar

omarchy-restart-waybar

Core Concepts

Bar Structure

Waybar has three module sections:

• modules-left - Left side (default: Omarchy menu, workspaces)
• modules-center - Center (default: clock, update indicator, screen recording)
• modules-right - Right side (default: tray, bluetooth, network, audio, cpu, battery)

Module Types

1. Built-in modules: clock, battery, cpu, memory, network, bluetooth, pulseaudio, tray, hyprland/workspaces
2. Custom modules: custom/<name> - User-defined with exec scripts
3. Group modules: group/<name> - Container for multiple modules (e.g., group/tray-expander)

Common Operations

Add a Module

1. Add module name to the appropriate array
2. Add configuration block if new module type

Example - adding memory module:

// In modules-right array:
"modules-right": ["memory", "cpu", "battery"],

// Add configuration:
"memory": {
  "interval": 30,
  "format": "{percentage}% ",
  "tooltip-format": "{used:0.1f}G / {total:0.1f}G",
  "on-click": "omarchy-launch-or-focus-tui btop"
}

Remove a Module

Remove from section array. Config block can remain (harmless).

Move a Module

Remove from one section array, add to another.

Create Custom Module

Simple text output:

"custom/mymodule": {
  "exec": "/path/to/script.sh",
  "interval": 10,
  "format": "{}",
  "on-click": "command-to-run"
}

JSON output (for dynamic text/tooltip/class):

"custom/mymodule": {
  "exec": "/path/to/script.sh",
  "return-type": "json",
  "interval": 10
}

Script outputs: {"text": "display", "tooltip": "hover text", "class": "css-class"}

Signal-Based Updates

For modules that should update on events (not intervals):

"custom/mymodule": {
  "exec": "/path/to/script.sh",
  "signal": 9,
  "return-type": "json"
}

Trigger update from anywhere: pkill -SIGRTMIN+9 waybar

Module Reference

Built-in Modules

Hyprland-Specific

Format Placeholders

clock: {:%H:%M}, {:%A}, {:%d %B}, {:L%A %H:%M} (locale-aware) battery: {capacity}, {icon}, {time}, {power} cpu: {usage}, {avg_frequency} memory: {percentage}, {used}, {total} network: {essid}, {signalStrength}, {bandwidthDownBytes}, {bandwidthUpBytes}

Icons (Nerd Font)

Common glyphs used in this config:

• 󰍛 - CPU
• `` - Memory
• 󰂯/󰂱/󰂲 - Bluetooth off/connected/disabled
• 󰤨/󰤯/󰤮 - WiFi strong/weak/disconnected
• 󰁹/󰁺 - Battery full/low
• // - Volume levels
• `` - Volume muted
• `` - Tray expander
• 󰻂 - Screen recording

Styling (style.css)

#clock {
  color: #ffffff;
  padding: 0 10px;
}

#battery.warning {
  color: #ff0000;
}

#custom-omarchy {
  font-family: omarchy;
}

Safety

• Always backup before changes
• Validate JSON after edits
• Use omarchy-restart-waybar to apply changes
• Keep backup files for rollback
• Don't remove custom/omarchy or custom/update unless intentional

Reverting to Defaults

If something breaks:

# Restore from most recent backup
cp ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc.bak.TIMESTAMP ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc
omarchy-restart-waybar

# Or reset to Omarchy defaults (backs up current first)
omarchy-refresh-waybar

Example Requests

• "Add a memory monitor to my waybar"
• "Move the clock to the left side"
• "Remove the CPU indicator"
• "Add a custom module that shows disk usage"
• "Show battery percentage"
• "Make the bar thicker"
• "Hide the system tray"
• "Add a module that shows my IP address"