Swindle

"It's so bad it's not even funny!" -kantiankant, 2026

Swindle started as a fork of dwl with a simple idea: make something that feels like Hyprland for people who don't want to run Hyprland. Honest status report:

• NO cool vfx (yet)
• only ONE tiling layout (dwindle)
• Lua config that actually hot-reloads
• dwl IPC plus ext-workspace support

Fun fact: the ext-workspace bits were borrowed from MangoWM, which is why licenses/LICENSE.mangowm exists.

What you get

• Dwindle tiling. A binary-split tree in the Hyprland style, with gaps and optional smart gaps.
• Lua config with hot-reload. Save config.lua and appearance, keybinds, keyboard layout and input pick it up without a restart. (Only autostart runs once at startup, as the name suggests.)
• Touchpad and mouse stay separate. Different scroll methods and natural scrolling per device class, so your trackpad and your mouse can finally disagree in peace.
• Keyboard layout in the config. layout, variant, options, model, applied live.
• Sane config lookup. -c flag first, then your user config, then a system fallback. More on that below.
• An IPC client called smsg (see smsg/README.md) for status bars and little scripts.
• XWayland support, on by default, removable at compile time.

Dependencies

Library	Notes
wlroots-0.20	needs the libinput backend
wayland	also ships wayland-scanner for the build
wayland-protocols	build time only
libinput
libxkbcommon
lua5.4	the config engine
libxcb, xcb-util-wm	only for XWayland
pkg-config	build time only

If your distro ships separate -dev/-devel packages, grab those too.

Arch (this is tested and works):

sudo pacman -S base-devel wlroots0.20 wayland wayland-protocols \
  libinput libxkbcommon lua54 libxcb xcb-util-wm pixman libdrm seatd

Nix (there is a flake in the repo):

nix build
nix run

Building & installing

make                        # builds ./swindle and ./smsg/smsg
sudo make install           # puts them in /usr/local/bin, example config in /etc/swindle
sudo make uninstall         # removes both again

PREFIX and DESTDIR in config.mk are respected, so packaging or a user-local install works fine:

make PREFIX="$HOME/.local"  # then copy the binaries into ~/.local/bin yourself

Heads up: make install copies example/* to /etc/swindle/. Your own ~/.config/swindle/config.lua always wins over that file (details below).

Running

swindle [-v] [-d] [-s startup command] [-c config file]

Flag	What it does
-c PATH	use this config file, skip the lookup chain
-s CMD	run one extra startup command
-d	debug logging, overrides whatever the config says
-v	print the version and exit

You need XDG_RUNTIME_DIR set. Systemd usually handles that for you.

• From a login manager, drop in a session file that points at your binary, for example ~/.local/share/wayland-sessions/swindle.desktop:

  [Desktop Entry]
  Name=Swindle
  Exec=/home/you/.local/bin/swindle
  Type=Application
  DesktopNames=swindle;wlroots;
  

• From a TTY, just run swindle. On systemd machines logind takes care of seats. Without logind you want seatd running and your user in the seat, video and input groups.

Configuration

Copy example/config.lua somewhere and make it yours. It documents every option. When swindle starts it looks for a config in this order and takes the first readable file it finds:

1. swindle -c /path/to/config.lua
2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/swindle/config.lua, falling back to ~/.config/swindle/config.lua
3. /etc/swindle/config.lua (the system fallback)

If none of those exist, swindle tells you so and quits. Everything below hot-reloads when you save, except autostart, which only runs at startup.

appearance

appearance = {
    border_px    = 2,          -- shorthand for inner+outer border width
    gaps         = 10,         -- 0 means no gaps
    smart_gaps   = false,      -- no gaps when a single window is visible
    root_color   = 0x222222ff, -- colors are 0xRRGGBBAA
    border_color = 0x00000000, -- unfocused (shorthand for inner+outer)
    focus_color  = 0xe8e8e8ff, -- focused (shorthand for inner+outer)
    urgent_color = 0xff0000ff, -- urgent (shorthand for inner+outer)
    fullscreen_bg = 0x000000ff,
}

If you want finer control, the explicit inner_border_px, outer_border_px and inner_*_color / outer_*_color keys beat the shorthands.

animations (stub for now)

animations = { enabled = false, corner_radius = 0, fade_ms = 0 }

This is parsed so the option exists when the time comes, but right now it does nothing. Real animations are waiting on a scenefx release that works with wlroots 0.20. Flipping it on just logs a note saying as much.

input

input = {
    repeat_rate = 50, repeat_delay = 150,
    tap_to_click = true, tap_and_drag = true, drag_lock = true,
    natural_scrolling = false,          -- fallback for both device classes
    natural_scrolling_touchpad = nil,   -- true/false, or nil for fallback
    natural_scrolling_mouse    = nil,
    disable_while_typing = true,
    left_handed = false, middle_button_emulation = false,
    scroll_method = "2fg",              -- fallback: "2fg", "edge", "button", "none"
    scroll_method_touchpad = nil,       -- per-class override, nil for fallback
    scroll_method_mouse    = nil,
    click_method  = "button_areas",     -- or "clickfinger"
    accel_profile = "adaptive",         -- or "flat"
    accel_speed   = 0.0,
    send_events_mode = "enabled",       -- "enabled", "disabled", "disabled_on_external"
    tap_button_map  = "lrm",            -- or "lmr"
}

Touchpads are spotted by their tap capability. If you configure a scroll method a device does not support, swindle logs a warning and leaves the device default alone instead of blowing up. Device settings kick in for newly plugged hardware, while keyboard repeat and layout apply instantly.

keyboard

keyboard = {
    layout  = "de",            -- "us", "us,de", whatever xkb knows
    variant = "",              -- e.g. "nodeadkeys"
    options = "caps:escape",   -- xkb options
    model   = "",              -- e.g. "pc105", empty means default
}

This one hot-reloads, so no restart dance for layout tweaks. If a layout fails to compile, swindle keeps the old keymap and complains in the log. (The older input.xkb_layout / xkb_variant / xkb_options / xkb_model spellings still work.)

rules

rules = {
    { app_id = "Gimp",    floating = true, monitor = -1 },
    { app_id = "firefox", tags = 1 << 8,   monitor = -1 },
}

monitor = -1 means the current monitor. An empty rules = {} is perfectly fine.

monitors

monitors = {
    { name = nil, mfact = 0.55, nmaster = 1, scale = 1.0,
      layout = "dwindle", x = -1, y = -1 },
    -- { name = "eDP-1", scale = 2.0, layout = "dwindle", x = -1, y = -1 },
}

name = nil catches everything. x/y = -1 means figure it out automatically. If the table is missing or empty you get the catch-all above.

autostart

Commands run in order, once, at startup. Each gets about half a second; daemons get noticed and skipped over:

autostart = {
    "dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_SESSION_TYPE XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP",
    "waybar",
}

Use {} for nothing. Saving the config never re-runs autostart.

keybinds

keybinds = {
    { mods = {"logo"}, key = "q",     action = "spawn",   args = {"foot"} },
    { mods = {"logo"}, key = "space", action = "spawn",   args = {"wofi", "--show", "drun"} },
    { mods = {"logo"}, key = "w",     action = "killclient" },
    ...
}
for i = 1, 9 do ... end  -- tag keys, see the example config

Modifiers are shift, ctrl, alt, logo, mod2, mod3, mod5. Keys are XKB keysym names like "q", "Return" or "XF86AudioMute".

action	args	description
spawn	argv	run a program
killclient		close the focused window
togglefloating		float or unfloat the focused window
togglefullscreen		fullscreen toggle
togglegaps		gaps on or off (this monitor)
togglesmartgaps		smart gaps on or off (global)
setgaps	"+5" / "-5" / "10"	relative or absolute gap size
setmfact	"+0.05" / "-0.05" / "55"	dwindle root split, relative delta or absolute percent
zoom		swap the focused window with the first tiled one
focusstack	"next" / "prev"	cycle focus through tiled windows
focusdir / swapdir	"left"/"right"/"up"/"down"	directional focus / swap
view	mask or "all"	show tag(s), e.g. tostring(1 << 0)
toggleview	mask	toggle tag visibility
tag / toggletag	mask	(un)assign a window to tag(s)
focusmon / tagmon	"left" / "right"	focus or send to the adjacent monitor
setlayout	index	0 is floating, 1 is dwindle
moveresize	"move" / "resize"	mouse drag action (see buttons)
chvt	number	switch virtual terminal
quit		exit swindle

buttons

buttons = {
    { mods = {"logo"}, button = "left",   action = "moveresize", args = {"move"} },
    { mods = {"logo"}, button = "middle", action = "togglefloating" },
    { mods = {"logo"}, button = "right",  action = "moveresize", args = {"resize"} },
}

IPC (smsg)

make also builds smsg, a little dwl-IPC client for bars and scripts:

smsg -w            # stream status, dwl-stdout style
smsg -w -c         # watch the focused appid/title
smsg -s -t 7       # select tag 8 on the current output
smsg -l '><>'      # switch to the floating layout

The full usage lives in smsg/README.md.

Troubleshooting

• failed to load config (tried '…' and '…'). No config anywhere in the lookup chain. Copy example/config.lua to ~/.config/swindle/config.lua (or pass -c).
• XDG_RUNTIME_DIR must be set. Launch through systemd or a login manager, or export it yourself (/run/user/$(id -u)).
• Wrong keyboard layout. Set keyboard.layout (say "de"). It hot-reloads, no restart needed.
• Failed to bind socket @/tmp/.X11-unix/X0. Some other X server (probably your current desktop session) already owns it. Harmless unless you need XWayland inside swindle. Starting from a TTY avoids it.
• No bar or launcher. Swindle ships neither. Install waybar and wofi or rofi, then wire them into autostart and keybinds.
• Sanity-check a config without starting: luac5.4 -p config.lua catches syntax errors (logic errors are still on you).

Roadmap

• separate trackpad scroll from mouse scroll
• configurable keymap
• custom config path (-c)
• /etc/swindle/config.lua fallback
• animations via scenefx once a wlroots-0.20-compatible release lands (the stub is ready)
• per-monitor wallpaper / output management helpers
• docs site (in planning)

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome at https://github.com/hakuxyz/swindle. A few ground rules:

• C11 and -Wall -Wextra clean. make should stay warning-free.
• Lua configs should pass luac5.4 -p.
• Keep the parser backwards compatible. New optional keys with nil meaning old behavior beat breaking renames.
• Small, reviewable commits, one concern per PR.

Credits

• dwl, the upstream this fork started from
• MangoWM for the ext-workspace code (see licenses/)
• dwlmsg, the base of smsg
• swindle, the official repo. (which is archived now, thats why i'm trying to complete the checklist)

License

GPLv3 for swindle itself (see LICENSE). Third-party bits keep their own terms, collected under licenses/ (LICENSE.dwl, LICENSE.mangowm, …).