# Noctalia Shell
**_quiet by design_**
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## What is Noctalia?
A beautiful, minimal desktop shell for Wayland that actually gets out of your way. Built on [Quickshell](https://quickshell.outfoxxed.me/) (Qt/QML) with a warm lavender aesthetic that you can easily customize to match your vibe.
**✨ Key Features:**
- 🪟 Native support for Niri, Hyprland, Sway, Scroll, Labwc and MangoWC
- 🎨 Extensive theming with predefined color schemes and automatic color generation from your wallpaper
- 🖼️ Wallpaper management with Wallhaven integration
- 🔔 Notification system with history and Do Not Disturb
- 🖥️ Multi-monitor support
- 🔒 Lock screen
- 🧩 Desktop widgets (clock, media player and more)
- 💡 OSD for volume and brightness
- 🔌 Nearly 100 plugins available ([explore plugins](https://noctalia.dev/plugins/))
- 🪄 Setup wizard for first-time users
- ⚡ Built on Quickshell for performance
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## Preview
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/bf46f233-8d66-439a-a1ae-ab0446270f2d
Screenshots
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## 📋 Requirements
- Wayland compositor (see supported compositors below)
- Quickshell: [noctalia-qs](https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-qs)
- Additional dependencies are listed in our [documentation](https://docs.noctalia.dev)
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## 🚀 Getting Started
**New to Noctalia?**
Check out our comprehensive documentation and installation guide to get up and running!
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## 🖥️ Wayland Compositors
Noctalia provides native support for **Niri**, **Hyprland**, **Sway**, **Scroll**, **Labwc** and **MangoWC**. Other Wayland compositors may work but could require additional configuration for compositor-specific features like workspaces and window management.
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## Scope
Noctalia is a **desktop shell**, not a full desktop environment. It provides the visual layer that sits on top of your Wayland compositor (bars, panels, notifications, a dock, and widgets) but it intentionally stays within that boundary. Understanding this helps set the right expectations for feature requests.
### What Noctalia does
Noctalia focuses on the things a shell is responsible for: status bar, panels, application launcher, notifications, lock screen, idle management, OSD, theming, wallpapers, desktop widgets, dock, and multi-monitor support.
### What belongs in a plugin
If a feature is useful to some users but not essential to the core shell experience, it's a great candidate for a [plugin](https://noctalia.dev/plugins/). The plugin system is designed to make this easy: plugins can add bar widgets, panels, launcher providers, desktop widgets, and more.
Some examples of features that are better suited as plugins:
- Compositor-specific extras (e.g., Steam overlay for Hyprland)
- Hardware-specific controls (e.g., laptop fan profiles, battery thresholds)
- Third-party service integrations (e.g., smart home controls, Tailscale)
- Niche productivity tools (e.g., Pomodoro timer, RSS reader, Docker manager)
- Alternative visualizations or widgets
If you have an idea that fits this category, consider [building a plugin](https://docs.noctalia.dev/development/guideline) for it!
### What falls outside our scope
Some features go beyond what a desktop shell can or should do. These are typically responsibilities of the compositor, a dedicated application, or the system itself:
- **File management**: use a file manager application
- **Display/login greeter**: this runs before the shell and is managed separately
- **Window management and overview**: workspace switching and window tiling are compositor responsibilities
- **Removable drive mounting**: handled by system services like udisks and desktop applications
- **Screen mirroring/casting**: managed by the compositor or dedicated tools
We appreciate feature suggestions, but if a request falls into this category, it's likely outside what Noctalia can provide. When in doubt, feel free to ask in our [Discord](https://discord.noctalia.dev).
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## 🤝 Contributing
We welcome contributions of any size - bug fixes, new features, documentation improvements, or custom themes and configs.
**Get involved:**
- **Found a bug?** [Open an issue](https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell/issues/new)
- **Want to code?** Check out our [development guidelines](https://docs.noctalia.dev/development/guideline)
- **Need help?** Join our [Discord](https://discord.noctalia.dev)
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## 💜 Credits
A heartfelt thank you to our incredible community of [**contributors**](https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell/graphs/contributors). We are immensely grateful for your dedicated participation and the constructive feedback you've provided, which continue to shape and improve our project for everyone.
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## ☕ Donations
While all donations are greatly appreciated, they are completely voluntary.
Thank you to everyone who supports the project! 💜
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## 📄 License
MIT License - see [LICENSE](./LICENSE) for details.
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## ⭐ Star History
