Kiwi Shell

A clean, macOS-inspired desktop shell for Hyprland — featuring a status bar, app switcher, application dock, media player and quick settings panel.

More screenshots here.

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Why Kiwi Shell?

• Kiwi Shell focuses on a polished, professional aesthetic inspired by macOS.
• Kiwi Shell is easy to install — one command on Arch, a few lines in your flake on NixOS.
• Kiwi Shell is designed to be configurable. It comes with its own settings app and supports config files.
• Kiwi Shell is lightweight by design. Built on Astal, it reacts to system changes instead of polling for them, keeping CPU usage low and the interface snappy.

If you run into any problems, I am happy to help. Just open an issue on github.

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Requirements

Make sure the following services are installed and running on your system:

Service	Purpose
NetworkManager	Wi-Fi & network management
BlueZ	Bluetooth
Power Profiles Daemon	Power mode switching
WirePlumber	Audio control
UPower	Battery info (optional, recommended for laptops)

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Installation

Arch Linux

1. Install the required system services:

sudo pacman -S networkmanager bluez power-profiles-daemon wireplumber upower

2. Install Kiwi Shell from the AUR:

yay -S kiwi-shell

NixOS & Home Manager

1. Add Kiwi Shell to your flake.nix inputs:

{
  inputs = {
    kiwi-shell.url = "github:selimbucher/hyprland-widgets";
    kiwi-shell.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };
}

2. Add the package in your Home Manager config (usually home.nix):

{ inputs, pkgs, ... }:
{
  home.packages = [
    inputs.kiwi-shell.packages.${pkgs.system}.default
  ];
}

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Usage

Start Kiwi Shell by running:

kiwi

To launch it automatically on login, add this to your Hyprland config:

exec-once = kiwi

Theme Color

When you change the accent color in the app, a config file is written to ~/.config/kiwi-shell/hypr.conf:

$kiwiColorLight = rgba(179,165,231,0.7)

You can include this in your Hyprland config to match your window border color:

source = ~/.config/kiwi-shell/hypr.conf

App Switcher (Alt+Tab)

The app switcher is controlled via kiwictl. Bind these commands in your Hyprland config:

Command	Description
kiwictl apps open-next	Open the menu if closed and cycle to the next app
kiwictl apps confirm	Switch to the selected app
kiwictl apps close	Dismiss the switcher

Setting up the keybinds can be a little tricky — see the App Switcher Guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.

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Icon Theme & Font

To match the look in the screenshots, install the following:

• Font: Quicksand (ttf-quicksand-variable on AUR)
• Icons: WhiteSur Icon Theme with Alternative Icons and Bold Panel Icons enabled

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License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE for details.