Window rules

Window rules are a simple but powerful way to streamline and organize your workflow. They pair really well with the static workspaces system that fht-compositor has. You can make a window rule target a specific set of windows by filtering (or matching) properties that you want, like app identifier, title, etc.

A window rule has two parts: the match part, and the properties part.

The match part

A window rule can have multiple criteria to scope its requirements. For example, the following rule will only be applied to Alacritty windows, and will make it open maximized.

[[rules]]
match-app-id = ["Alacritty"]
maximized = true

You can have different matching requirements, the following rule matches windows Alacritty windows or LibreWolf windows

[[rules]]
match-app-id = ["Alacritty", "LibreWolf"]
maximized = true

---

match-all

When a window rule is marked as match-all, all the given match requirements must match. For example, this window rule will only match Fractal windows that are on workspace with the index 2

[[rules]]
match-all = true
match-app-id = ["org.gnome.Fractal"]
on-workspace = 2

However, this window rule matches Fractal windows or all windows opened on workspace with index 2

[[rules]]
match-app-id = ["org.gnome.Fractal"]
on-workspace = 2

This allows you to make very precise window rules.

Different matching rules

If different rules match onto the same window, they will "merge" together, based on their declaration order. For example, having these two window rules

[[rules]]
match-app-id = ["Alacritty"]
floating = true

[[rules]]
match-app-id = ["Alacritty"] # etc, imagine its just another rule
floating = false

Will result in a window rule with floating equal to false (since it was declared later) in your config. This is why you should try to make your matching conditions precise to avoid unexpected things to happen!

---

match-title, match-app-id

Both are a list of Regular Expressions. This match conditions requires that the window matches only one regex from the given regexes.

The following window rule matches WebCord, Telegram, and Fractal windows

[[rules]]
match-app-id = ["WebCord", "Telegram", "org.gnome.Fractal"]
open-on-workspace = 2

This window rule, matches all Steam games that are opened with Proton

[[rules]]
match-app-id = ["steam_app_*"]
floating = true
centered = true
on-workspace = 5

---

on-output

Match on the output the window is opened on. Nothing fancy.

The following rule matches all windows opened on a laptop's internal display

[[rules]]
on-output = "eDP-1"
floating = true

---

on-workspace

Match on the workspace index (not number!) the window is opened on.

---

is-focused

Match on the currently focused window. A focused window is the one that should receive keyboard focus. There can be multiple focused window, one per workspace.

The following rule matches all unfocused windows

[[rules]]
is-focused = false
opacity = 0.95 # lesser visible non-focused windows

Window properties

open-on-output, open-on-workspace

These properties control where the window should open. They take an output name and a workspace index

If the given output/workspace index is invalid, the compositor will fallback to the active one. (This is the default when no window rule is applied)

The following rule opens several game launchers/games on workspace with the index 5

[[rules]]
match-app-id = [
  "Celeste.bin.x86_64",
  "steam_app_*",
  "Etterna",
  "Quaver",
  "Steam",
  "org.prismlauncher.PrismLauncher"
]
open-on-workspace = 5
centered = true
floating = true

---

border, blur, shadow

These values take the same fields as their versions in the decorations configuration, however, they will override the decorations configuration with whatever fields you have provided.

For example, this window rule will disable all blur in workspace with index 5

[[rules]]
on-workspace = 5
blur.disable = true

---

proportion

Change the initial window proportion. See dynamic layouts for information about how window proportions affect layouts.

---

opacity

The opacity of a window, 0.0 is fully transparent, 1.0 is fully opaque.

---

decoration-mode

The decoration mode for this window. See decorations.decorations-mode for more information about differences between these values.

Useful when a client misbehaves when using specifically SSD/CSD.

---

maximized, fullscreen, floating, centered

State to toggle on when opening the window. This only gets applied once!

They are self-explainatory. Example window rule making all GNOME apps open floating centered.

[[rules]]
centered = true
floating = true
match-app-id = ["^(org.gnome.*)$"]