komorebi/docs/linux/installation.md

Installing komorebi

komorebi is two programs: komorebi, the daemon that tiles the windows, and komorebic, the command line that controls it. The daemon runs in a KDE Plasma Wayland session with KWin 6.8 or newer (PLATFORM.md has what it needs from the session).

On NixOS, the repository's flake has a module that installs both programs and starts komorebi with every Plasma session. On any other distribution, build them from source, or take the binaries of a release (Binaries says which and what they need).

There is no binary cache: the Komorebi license does not allow third parties to redistribute binaries, so the flake builds komorebi from source on each machine that installs it. On NixOS, Nix does that for you, the first time you switch to a configuration that has it. The releases of this repository are the only binaries.

NixOS

The module

Add the repository to the inputs of your system's flake, and import its module, nixosModules.default, into your configuration:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
    komorebi.url = "github:LGUG2Z/komorebi-for-kde";
  };

  outputs =
    { nixpkgs, komorebi, ... }:
    {
      nixosConfigurations.HOSTNAME = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
        modules = [
          komorebi.nixosModules.default
          ./configuration.nix
        ];
      };
    };
}

Then enable it, next to Plasma, in configuration.nix:

{
  services.desktopManager.plasma6.enable = true;
  services.komorebi.enable = true;
}

The module adds the flake's overlay, which provides pkgs.komorebi-full, to your nixpkgs, so nothing else is needed. komorebi is built with the flake's nixpkgs and the Rust toolchain that the repository's rust-toolchain.toml selects, whatever nixpkgs your system uses.

What the module does

• It installs komorebi and komorebic in the system profile, so they are on every user's PATH.
• It installs KDE Rounded Corners, the KWin effect that draws komorebi's borders, unless services.komorebi.effects.borders.enable is false, and Geometry Change, the effect that animates windows, unless services.komorebi.effects.animation.enable is false. KWin finds effects when it starts, so a session that was running when you switched to the new configuration has them after the next login.
• It defines a systemd user unit, komorebi.service, for every user of the machine. Plasma's plasma-workspace.target starts it when a user logs in to a Plasma session, after plasma-core.target, which Plasma orders after KWin. The unit runs the daemon with the PATH of a terminal in the session.
• systemd starts the daemon again when it fails or is killed. When it is stopped (komorebic stop, or systemctl --user stop komorebi), it stays stopped until the next login or systemctl --user start komorebi.
• After the daemon stops, however it stops, the unit runs komorebic hotkeys release, which gives back to KDE the keys the daemon had registered for its key bindings: a daemon that was killed could not, and KDE would keep them, doing nothing, until the next start.
• Without services.desktopManager.plasma6.enable, the configuration does not evaluate: an assertion of the module fails, and its message names the option to set.
• It checks the KWin of your nixpkgs (pkgs.kdePackages.kwin) against the versions in the repository's nix/linux/supported-kwin.nix. A KWin older than 6.8 is an error. A KWin newer than the newest one komorebi has been tested with is a warning when you build the system, or an error with services.komorebi.kwin.untestedIsError.

Options

Option	Default	What it does
services.komorebi.enable	false	Installs komorebi and starts it with every Plasma session.
services.komorebi.package	pkgs.komorebi-full	The package with bin/komorebi and bin/komorebic; the unit runs the first, and both are installed.
services.komorebi.logLevel	"info"	The daemon's --log-level: "error", "warn", "info", "debug" or "trace".
services.komorebi.config	null	The configuration, as Nix: every key of komorebi.json, typed from the schema. The module writes it as a komorebi.json, checks that against the schema, and the unit passes it to komorebi as --config. Ignored if configFile is set.
services.komorebi.configFile	null	A komorebi.json for the daemon, checked against the schema when the system is built. The unit passes it to komorebi as --config, so the daemon reads it and not the komorebi.json of ~/.config/komorebi. The file is in the Nix store: komorebi reads a new one when it starts again.
services.komorebi.applicationSpecificConfiguration	enable = true, sources = [ ]	Files of application specific configuration fetched from GitHub (owner, repo, rev, path and hash each), which become the app_specific_configuration_path of the configuration config makes. There are none by default.
services.komorebi.effects.borders.enable	true	Installs the KWin effect that draws komorebi's borders. Whether borders are drawn is komorebi's own setting (Borders). KWin finds effects when it starts: log in again after the first switch. The module warns when config sets border to true and this is off.
services.komorebi.effects.borders.package	pkgs.kde-rounded-corners-komorebi	The effect: KDE Rounded Corners 0.11.0, built against the KWin of the system and not loaded until komorebi asks.
services.komorebi.effects.animation.enable	true	Installs the KWin effect that animates komorebi's windows going to their places. Whether windows are animated is komorebi's own setting (Animation). KWin finds effects when it starts: log in again after the first switch.
services.komorebi.effects.animation.package	pkgs.kwin-effect-geometry-change-komorebi	The effect: Geometry Change, a scripted effect that is not loaded until komorebi asks.
services.komorebi.execStart	read only	The command line the unit starts komorebi with, built from package, logLevel, configFile or config, and keybindings. A unit of your own that runs komorebi uses it to start komorebi the same way.
services.komorebi.keybindings.format	null	"skhd", "whkd" or "sxhkd": the format of the key bindings. Required with text or file.
services.komorebi.keybindings.text, .file	null	The key bindings, or the file they are in: exactly one of the two.
services.komorebi.keybindings.mode	"engine"	Which bindings are static shortcuts, installed in the system profile, and which the daemon runs: "engine", "auto" or "static".
services.komorebi.keybindings.chordTimeout	3000	How long, in milliseconds, the daemon waits for the next key of a chord chain.
services.komorebi.keybindings.layout	"us"	The keyboard layout of positional key names; "us" is the only one.
services.komorebi.keybindings.strict	false	Fail the build when something in the key bindings is not realized as its own hotkey daemon realizes it.
services.komorebi.keybindings.appAliases	{ }	Other names of an application, for the bindings that are for one application.
services.komorebi.kwin.untestedIsError	false	Makes a KWin newer than the newest one komorebi has been tested with an error instead of a warning.

Key bindings explains the key binding options.

config takes the keys of komorebi.json (Configuration) as Nix, and a value of the wrong kind, or a layout that does not exist, is an error when the configuration is evaluated:

{
  services.komorebi = {
    enable = true;
    config = {
      default_workspace_padding = 15;
      monitors = [
        {
          workspaces = [
            { name = "web"; layout = "BSP"; }
            { name = "code"; layout = "Columns"; }
          ];
        }
      ];
    };
  };
}

configFile takes a komorebi.json you wrote:

{
  services.komorebi.configFile = ./komorebi.json;
}

Comment lines (starting with //) are taken out of the file before it is checked, which is why the file can have them. With both, configFile wins, and the module warns that config is ignored.

Running it

plasma-workspace.target starts komorebi when you log in. In a session that was already running when you switched to the new configuration, start it yourself:

systemctl --user start komorebi
systemctl --user status komorebi
journalctl --user -u komorebi

komorebic stop stops it until you start it again or log in again. komorebic start finds the daemon the unit runs and does nothing, and a second komorebi in the same session exits: the session bus gives the name komorebi needs to one daemon. Running komorebi has the rest: asking komorebi what it is doing, and its log.

The packages without the module

The flake's packages are komorebi, komorebic, and komorebi-full, which has both and is the default, kde-rounded-corners-komorebi, the effect that draws the borders, and kwin-effect-geometry-change-komorebi, the effect that animates windows. To install them without the unit, and start komorebi yourself:

nix profile install github:LGUG2Z/komorebi-for-kde

On a NixOS configuration, the overlay, overlays.default, provides pkgs.komorebi, pkgs.komorebic, pkgs.komorebi-full, pkgs.kde-rounded-corners-komorebi and pkgs.kwin-effect-geometry-change-komorebi for environment.systemPackages.

Other distributions: from source

You need a Plasma 6.8 (or newer) Wayland session, rustup with the stable toolchain, which rust-toolchain.toml selects, and a C compiler (cc): the crate that makes the version string builds libgit2, and zlib when the system has none. Then:

git clone https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-for-kde
cd komorebi-for-kde
cargo install --locked --path komorebi
cargo install --locked --path komorebic

cargo installs both in ~/.cargo/bin, which has to be on your PATH. Start komorebi from a terminal in your Plasma session with komorebic start.

To start it with every Plasma session instead, komorebic enable-autostart writes an autostart entry (Quickstart and autostart), or you can write the unit the NixOS module defines, without the NixOS paths, to ~/.config/systemd/user/komorebi.service:

[Unit]
Description=komorebi, the tiling window manager
After=plasma-core.target

[Service]
ExecStart=%h/.cargo/bin/komorebi
ExecStopPost=%h/.cargo/bin/komorebic hotkeys release
Restart=on-failure
SuccessExitStatus=130

[Install]
WantedBy=plasma-workspace.target

and enable it with systemctl --user enable komorebi. At time of writing (2026-10-27), only the module's unit has been run, on NixOS; this one has not been tried on another distribution.

Uninstalling

Stop the daemon first, with komorebic stop.

• With the module, remove services.komorebi.enable (or the module) from your configuration and switch to it.
• From source, remove the unit if you wrote one (systemctl --user disable komorebi, then the file), and the programs, with cargo uninstall komorebi komorebic.

The daemon's logs are in ~/.local/share/komorebi ($XDG_DATA_HOME/komorebi), which you can delete. Its socket is in $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/komorebi, which is removed when you log out.