Module: Custom

The custom module displays either the output of a script or static text. To display static text, specify only the format field.

Config

Addressed by custom/<name>

option	typeof	default	description
exec	string
exec-if	string		The path to a script, which determines if the script in exec should be executed. exec will be executed if the exit code of exec-if equals 0.
exec-on-event	bool	true	If an event command is set (e.g. on-click or on-scroll-up) then re-execute the script after executing the event command.
return-type	string		See return-type
interval	integer		The interval (in seconds) in which the information gets polled. Use once if you want to execute the module only on startup. You can update it manually with a signal. If no interval is defined, it is assumed that the out script loops it self.
restart-interval	integer		The restart interval (in seconds). Can't be used with the interval option, so only with continuous scripts. Once the script exit, it'll be re-executed after the restart-interval.
signal	integer		The signal number used to update the module. The number is valid between 1 and N, where SIGRTMIN+N = SIGRTMAX.
format	string	{}	The format, how information should be displayed. On {} data gets inserted.
format-icons	array/object/string		If the type is an array, then based on the set percentage, the corresponding icon gets selected (low to high). If the type is an object, then the icon will be selected according to alt string from the output. If the type is a string, it will be pasted as is. NOTE: Arrays can be nested into objects. Icons will be selected first according to alt then percentage.
rotate	integer		Positive value to rotate the text label.
max-length	integer		The maximum length in character the module should display.
on-click	string		Command to execute when clicked on the module.
on-click-middle	string		Command to execute when you middle clicked on the module using mousewheel.
on-click-right	string		Command to execute when you right clicked on the module.
on-scroll-up	string		Command to execute when scrolling up on the module.
on-scroll-down	string		Command to execute when scrolling down on the module.
smooth-scrolling-threshold	double		Threshold to be used when scrolling.
tooltip	bool	true	Option to enable tooltip on hover.
escape	bool	false	Option to enable escaping of script output

Return-Type:

• When return-type is set to json, Waybar expects the exec-script to output its data in JSON format. This should look like this: {"text": "$text", "alt": "$alt", "tooltip": "$tooltip", "class": "$class", "percentage": $percentage }. This means the output should also be on a single line. This can be achieved by piping the output of your script through jq --unbuffered --compact-output. The class parameter also accepts an array of strings.
• If nothing or an invalid option is specified Waybar expects i3blocks style output, where values are newline separated. This should look like this: $text\n$tooltip\n$class

class is a CSS class, to apply different styles in style.css

Continuous script:

The exec script may be continuous (i.e. contain some kind of infinite loop). The display will be updated for each new line of data on stdout (following the chosen return-type).

The interval option does not work with continuous script (no need to call it several times… as it will continuously run). However you might want to set the restart-interval to start again the script if it stops after some time.

Be warned that some technologies use a buffer for their output. If your module displays nothing even if your script is working as expected, the output might be hold temporarily in a buffer. Look for the correct way to flush the output buffer for your language of choice.

For example, in ruby you can do the following thing:

loop do
  puts { text: 'My module text', class: 'class', … }.to_json
  $stdout.flush
  sleep 5
end

Format replacements:

string	replacement
{}	Output of the script.
{percentage}	Percentage which can be set via a json return-type.
{icon}	An icon from 'format-icons' according to percentage.

Style

• #custom-<name>
• #custom-<name>.<class>
  • <class> can be set by the script. For more information see return-type

Troubleshooting

Self-looping module don't show up

If your module is self-looping, and it doesn't even show up in the bar, check that:

1. Its configuration do not include an interval parameter
2. Output to stdout is not buffered (see #2358)

Examples:

dunst:

~/.config/waybar/config

"custom/dunst": {
    "exec": "~/.config/waybar/scripts/dunst.sh",
    "on-click": "dunstctl set-paused toggle",
    "restart-interval": 1,
}

~/.config/waybar/scripts/dunst.sh

#!/bin/bash

COUNT=$(dunstctl count waiting)
ENABLED=
DISABLED=
if [ $COUNT != 0 ]; then DISABLED=" $COUNT"; fi
if dunstctl is-paused | grep -q "false" ; then echo $ENABLED; else echo $DISABLED; fi

Or if you want a version that reacts to dbus events instead:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

readonly ENABLED=' '
readonly DISABLED=' '
dbus-monitor path='/org/freedesktop/Notifications',interface='org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties',member='PropertiesChanged' --profile |
  while read -r _; do
    PAUSED="$(dunstctl is-paused)"
    if [ "$PAUSED" == 'false' ]; then
      CLASS="enabled"
      TEXT="$ENABLED"
    else
      CLASS="disabled"
      TEXT="$DISABLED"
      COUNT="$(dunstctl count waiting)"
      if [ "$COUNT" != '0' ]; then
        TEXT="$DISABLED ($COUNT)"
      fi
    fi
    printf '{"text": "%s", "class": "%s"}\n' "$TEXT" "$CLASS"
  done

Generic MediaPlayer:

Supports vlc, mpv, RhythmBox, web browsers, cmus, mpd, spotify and others.

"custom/media": {
    "format": "{icon} {}",
    "escape": true,
    "return-type": "json",
    "max-length": 40,
    "on-click": "playerctl play-pause",
    "on-click-right": "playerctl stop",
    "smooth-scrolling-threshold": 10, // This value was tested using a trackpad, it should be lowered if using a mouse.
    "on-scroll-up": "playerctl next",
    "on-scroll-down": "playerctl previous",
    "exec": "$HOME/.config/waybar/mediaplayer.py 2> /dev/null", // Script in resources/custom_modules folder
}

Spotify:

"custom/spotify": {
    "format": "{icon} {}",
    "escape": true,
    "return-type": "json",
    "max-length": 40,
    "interval": 30, // Remove this if your script is endless and write in loop
    "on-click": "playerctl -p spotify play-pause",
    "on-click-right": "killall spotify",
    "smooth-scrolling-threshold": 10, // This value was tested using a trackpad, it should be lowered if using a mouse.
    "on-scroll-up" : "playerctl -p spotify next",
    "on-scroll-down" : "playerctl -p spotify previous",
    "exec": "$HOME/.config/waybar/mediaplayer.py 2> /dev/null", // Script in resources/custom_modules folder
    "exec-if": "pgrep spotify"
}

mpd:

"custom/mpd": {
    "format": "♪ {}",
    //"max-length": 15,
    "interval": 10, 
    "exec": "mpc current", 
    "exec-if": "pgrep mpd",
    "on-click": "mpc toggle",
    "on-click-right": "sonata"
}   

cmus:

"custom/cmus": {
    "format": "♪ {}",
    //"max-length": 15,
    "interval": 10,
    "exec": "cmus-remote -C \"format_print '%a - %t'\"", // artist - title
    "exec-if": "pgrep cmus",
    "on-click": "cmus-remote -u",                        //toggle pause
    "escape": true                                       //handle markup entities
}

MPRIS controller

"custom/media": {
    "format": "{icon}{}",
    "return-type": "json",
    "format-icons": {
        "Playing": " ",
        "Paused": " ",
    },
    "max-length":70,
    "exec": "playerctl -a metadata --format '{\"text\": \"{{playerName}}: {{artist}} - {{markup_escape(title)}}\", \"tooltip\": \"{{playerName}} : {{markup_escape(title)}}\", \"alt\": \"{{status}}\", \"class\": \"{{status}}\"}' -F",
    "on-click": "playerctl play-pause",
}

Pipewire:

Uses Wireplumber

~/.config/waybar/config

"custom/pipewire": {
    "tooltip": false,
    "max-length": 6,
    "exec": "$HOME/.config/waybar/scripts/pipewire.sh",
    "on-click": "pavucontrol",
    "on-click-right": "qpwgraph"
}

~/.config/waybar/scripts/pipewire.sh

#!/bin/bash

set -e

# https://blog.dhampir.no/content/sleeping-without-a-subprocess-in-bash-and-how-to-sleep-forever
snore() {
    local IFS
    [[ -n "${_snore_fd:-}" ]] || exec {_snore_fd}<> <(:)
    read -r ${1:+-t "$1"} -u $_snore_fd || :
}

DELAY=0.2

while snore $DELAY; do
    WP_OUTPUT=$(wpctl get-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@)

    if [[ $WP_OUTPUT =~ ^Volume:[[:blank:]]([0-9]+)\.([0-9]{2})([[:blank:]].MUTED.)?$ ]]; then
        if [[ -n ${BASH_REMATCH[3]} ]]; then
            printf "MUTE\n"
        else
            VOLUME=$((10#${BASH_REMATCH[1]}${BASH_REMATCH[2]}))
            ICON=(
                ""
                ""
                ""
            )

            if [[ $VOLUME -gt 50 ]]; then
                printf "%s" "${ICON[0]} "
            elif [[ $VOLUME -gt 25 ]]; then
                printf "%s" "${ICON[1]} "
            elif [[ $VOLUME -ge 0 ]]; then
                printf "%s" "${ICON[2]} "
            fi

            printf "$VOLUME%%\n"
        fi
    fi
done

exit 0

Pacman

"custom/pacman": {
    "format": "{}  ",
    "interval": "once",
    "exec": "pacman_packages",
    "on-click": "update-system",
    "signal": 8
}
//alternate
"custom/pacman": {
    "format": "{}  ",
    "interval": 3600,                     // every hour
    "exec": "checkupdates | wc -l",       // # of updates
    "exec-if": "exit 0",                  // always run; consider advanced run conditions
    "on-click": "termite -e 'sudo pacman -Syu'; pkill -SIGRTMIN+8 waybar", // update system
    "signal": 8
}

You can use the signal and update the number of available packages with pkill -RTMIN+8 waybar.

DeaDBeeF

"custom/deadbeef": {
    "format": " {}",
    "max-length": 50,    
    "interval": 10,
    "exec": "deadbeef --nowplaying-tf '{\"text\": \"%title%\", \"tooltip\":\"%artist% - %title%\",\"class\":\"$if(%isplaying%,playing,not-playing)\"}'",
    "return-type": "json",
    "exec-if": "pgrep deadbeef",
    "on-click": "deadbeef --toggle-pause"
}

VPN indicator

(the indicator is quite silly and only checks whether a tunnel exists or not)

"custom/vpn": {
    "format": "VPN ",
    "exec": "echo '{\"class\": \"connected\"}'",
    "exec-if": "test -d /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tun0",
    "return-type": "json",
    "interval": 5
}

Github notifications

"custom/github": {
    "format": "{} ",
    "return-type": "json",
    "interval": 60,
    "exec": "$HOME/.config/waybar/github.sh",
    "on-click": "xdg-open https://github.com/notifications"
}

1. Make sure jq is installed.
2. Create notifications.token, a personal access token, with notifications in scope at https://github.com/settings/tokens.
3. Create github.sh with the contents below, replacing username with your own.

#!/bin/bash

token=`cat ${HOME}/.config/github/notifications.token`
count=`curl -u username:${token} https://api.github.com/notifications | jq '. | length'`

if [[ "$count" != "0" ]]; then
    echo '{"text":'$count',"tooltip":"$tooltip","class":"$class"}'
fi

Weather

Replace Berlin+Germany with your own city.

"custom/weather": {
    "exec": "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/waybar/get_weather.sh Berlin+Germany",
    "return-type": "json",
    "format": "{}",
    "tooltip": true,
    "interval": 3600
}

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# get_weather.sh
for i in {1..5}
do
    text=$(curl -s "https://wttr.in/$1?format=1")
    if [[ $? == 0 ]]
    then
        text=$(echo "$text" | sed -E "s/\s+/ /g")
        tooltip=$(curl -s "https://wttr.in/$1?format=4")
        if [[ $? == 0 ]]
        then
            tooltip=$(echo "$tooltip" | sed -E "s/\s+/ /g")
            echo "{\"text\":\"$text\", \"tooltip\":\"$tooltip\"}"
            exit
        fi
    fi
    sleep 2
done
echo "{\"text\":\"error\", \"tooltip\":\"error\"}"

Sway Scratchpad Indicator:

Requires jq

Get all the scratchpad nodes. Shows the count as module text and the window class/app_id, id, and name on hover, and doesn't display anything if there are no nodes in the scratchpad.

"custom/scratchpad-indicator": {
    "interval": 3,
    "return-type": "json",
    "exec": "swaymsg -t get_tree | jq --unbuffered --compact-output '(recurse(.nodes[]) | select(.name == \"__i3_scratch\") | .focus) as $scratch_ids | [..  | (.nodes? + .floating_nodes?) // empty | .[] | select(.id |IN($scratch_ids[]))] as $scratch_nodes | if ($scratch_nodes|length) > 0 then { text: \"\\($scratch_nodes | length)\", tooltip: $scratch_nodes | map(\"\\(.app_id // .window_properties.class) (\\(.id)): \\(.name)\") | join(\"\\n\") } else empty end'",
    "format": "{} 🗗",
    "on-click": "exec swaymsg 'scratchpad show'",
    "on-click-right": "exec swaymsg 'move scratchpad'"
}

A simpler version, that only shows the number of windows when there is at least one (hidden when there are 0). Shows no additional info on hover.

"custom/scratchpad_indicator": {
   "interval": 3,
   "exec": "swaymsg -t get_tree | jq 'recurse(.nodes[]) | first(select(.name==\"__i3_scratch\")) | .floating_nodes | length | select(. >= 1)'",
   "format": "{} ",
   "on-click": "swaymsg 'scratchpad show'",
   "on-click-right": "swaymsg 'move scratchpad'"
}

Sway output scaling toggle

"custom/output-scale": {
    "format": "{icon} {}",
    "return-type": "json",
    "format-icons": { // These are FontAwesome 4 icons. Update them as needed.
        "scale": " \uf0b2",
        "noscale": "\uf066"
    },
    "exec-on-event": true,
    "interval": "once",
    "exec": "( swaymsg -r -t get_outputs | jq '.[0].scale' | xargs test 1 == ) && echo '{\"alt\": \"noscale\"}' || echo '{\"alt\":\"scale\"}'",
    "exec-if": "sleep 0.1", // Give enough time for `sway output` command changes to propagate so we can read them in the next `exec`
    "on-click": "( swaymsg -r -t get_outputs | jq '.[0].scale' | xargs test 1 = ) && swaymsg output DP-1 scale 1.4 || swaymsg output DP-1 scale 1"
}

1. Change the desired scaling parameter in on-click configuration.
2. Update the correct output from DP-1 to the one you have.
3. Change the index [0] in exec and on-click if you have more than one output, and need to adjust non-zero output.

Display current Pulseaudio sink and cycle between sinks on click

"custom/pulseaudio-cycle": {
    "return-type": "json",
    "exec-on-event": true,
    "interval": "5s",
    "exec" "pactl --format=json list sinks | jq -cM --unbuffered \"map(select(.name == \\\"$(pactl get-default-sink)\\\"))[0].properties | [.\\\"media.name\\\",.\\\"alsa.name\\\",.\\\"node.nick\\\",.\\\"alsa.long_card_name\\\"] | map(select(length>0))[0] | {text:.}\"",
    "exec-if": "sleep 0.1", // Give enough time for `pactl get-default-sink` to update
    "on-click": "pactl --format=json list sinks short | jq -cM --unbuffered \"[.[].name] | .[((index(\\\"$(pactl get-default-sink)\\\")+1)%length)]\" | xargs pactl set-default-sink"
}

Calendar with CalDAV integration

Requires plann

#!/usr/bin/env bash

PLANN=$HOME/.pyenv/versions/plann/bin/plann

printf '{"text":"'
printf "󰸘 $(date +'%m-%d (%a)') "
printf "󰅐 $(date +'%H:%M')"
printf '",'
printf '"tooltip":"%s"' "$($PLANN --caldav-url CALDAV_URL --caldav-username CALDAV_USER --caldav-password CALDAV_PASSWORD --calendar-name 'CALDAV_CALENDAR_NAME' agenda | head --lines -1 | sed 's/$/\\n/' | tr -d '\n' | head --bytes -2)"
printf '}'

Remove --calendar-name option to displays the last events across all calendars.

See also

• Next calendar events (using khal)
• Chromecast currently playing (using catt)
• Weather with detailed forecast (using wttr.in)
• Another Weather module (using weather.com)
• External screen brightness (using ddcutil)
• Another external screen brightness (using ddcutil too)
• Screen brightness without external scripts (still ddcutil)
• Reminders (using remind)
• WireGuard (using NetworkManager/nmcli)
• GPU usage monitor (using data from /sys/class/hwmon/)
• UPower (Customizable energy/battery information using UPower dbus (battery, bluetooth, line-power etc))
• Screenrecorder (record your screen into a file)
• Sway WM adaptive sync toggle (using Sway IPC)
• Pacman updates
• Pacman and AUR updates
• Notifications for Arch Linux package updates
• RI - Rest your Eyes and Self
• raffaem's waybar-mediaplayer (mediaplayer with progress bar, album art, tooltip and notifications)
• raffaem's waybar-stopwatch
• raffaem's waybar-screenrecorder
• ponas-niekas's waybar-timer
• jbirnick's waybar-timer (interactive)
• Todoist