Axenide/Ambxst

An Axtremely customizable shell.

curl -fsSL get.axeni.de/ambxst | sh

This will install Ambxst and its dependencies. You will have the ambxst command available in your terminal, which you can use to start the shell.

1. Run the installation command above.

2. Run ambxst install hyprland to add Ambxst's configuration to Hyprland. This will source a config file that applies Ambxst's settings. If you use hyprland.lua, or if no Hyprland config exists yet, it will look like this:

-- Ambxst
loadfile(os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.local/share/ambxst/hyprland.lua")()

-- OVERRIDES
-- Down here you can write or source anything that you want to override from Ambxst's settings.

If you only have hyprland.conf, Ambxst will keep using the legacy import there for compatibility:

# Ambxst
source = ~/.local/share/ambxst/hyprland.conf

# OVERRIDES
# Down here you can write or source anything that you want to override from Ambxst's settings.

As stated, anything you want to override from Ambxst's settings should be written under the "OVERRIDES" section.

1. Start Ambxst by running ambxst in your terminal. If you want to keep it running without having the terminal window open, you can run ambxst & disown. This will be only necessary for your first test run, as Ambxst will start automatically on login after step 2.

Ambxst is currently supported on Arch, Fedora, and NixOS. This means both based and derivative distributions.

The instructions are basically the same as for Hyprland, but with the generated niri.kdl:

1. Run the installation command above.

2. Run ambxst install niri to add Ambxst's configuration to Niri. This will append an include block to ~/.config/niri/config.kdl that looks like this:

// Ambxst
include "~/.local/share/ambxst/niri.kdl"

// OVERRIDES
// Down here you can write or include anything that you want to override from Ambxst's settings.

Anything you want to override from Ambxst's settings should be written under the "OVERRIDES" section. The ~/.local/share/ambxst/niri.kdl file is generated by Ambxst and regenerated automatically on every theme/gaps/binds change, so don't edit it directly — put your overrides in ~/.config/niri/config.kdl instead.

1. Start Ambxst by running ambxst in your terminal. As with Hyprland, this is only necessary for your first test run, as Ambxst will start automatically on login after step 2.

home-manager-managed configs are read-only symlinks into /nix/store, so ambxst install will detect them and print a guide instead of writing through them. In that case, just source the files Ambxst generates in ~/.local/share/ambxst from your declarative config — hyprland.lua (or hyprland.conf) for Hyprland, niri.kdl for Niri — for example with an xdg.configFile entry or an activation script.

The generated files are rewritten by the axctl daemon on every theme/gaps/binds change, so cosmetic tweaks do not require a home-manager switch; only structural changes (new binds, layout switch) do.

home-manager:

# flake.nix inputs
inputs.ambxst.url = "github:Axenide/Ambxst";

# home.nix
home.packages = [ inputs.ambxst.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];

NixOS without home-manager:

# flake.nix
{
  inputs.ambxst.url = "github:Axenide/Ambxst";

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, ambxst, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [ ambxst.nixosModules.default ];
    };
  };
}

The NixOS module installs the package, the required fonts, and enables recommended services (programs.ambxst.enable is on by default). On home-manager, just add the package and run ambxst install hyprland (or niri) as usual — this works as long as your compositor config isn't itself home-manager-managed (see above).

Nope! Besides the Ambxst import block in your hyprland.conf/hyprland.lua (or the include block in Niri's config.kdl), Ambxst is designed to be non-intrusive. It won't modify any of your existing configurations.

• Customizable components
• Themes
• System integration
• App launcher
• Clipboard manager
• Quick notes (and not so quick ones)
• Wallpaper manager
• Emoji picker
• tmux session manager
• System monitor
• Media control
• Notification system
• Wi-Fi manager
• Bluetooth manager
• Audio mixer
• EasyEffects integration
• Screen capture
• Screen recording
• Color picker
• OCR
• QR and barcode scanner
• "Mirror" (webcam)
• Game mode
• Night mode
• Power profile manager
• AI Assistant
• Weather
• Calendar
• Power menu
• Workspace management
• Support for different layouts (dwindle, master, scrolling, etc.)
• Multi-monitor support
• Customizable keybindings
• Mod manager with native Settings integration
• Compatibility with other Wayland compositors

If you are having trouble or have any questions:

• You can ask anything on Discord or in the GitHub discussions.
• You can open an issue on the GitHub repository.
• The main configuration is located at ~/.config/ambxst.

• outfoxxed for creating Quickshell and great documentation!
• end-4 for his awesome projects. I learned a lot from them! (And yoinked a lot of code, too. 😅)
• soramane for helping me when I started with Quickshell. (You probably don't remember, but still, heh.)
• tr1x_em for being a great friend and helping me find great tools. You rock!
• Darsh for not killing me when I left Fabric. u_u (Also for being a great friend and creating Fabric! Without Fabric, Ax-Shell wouldn't exist, so Ambxst wouldn't either. Thank you!)
• Mario for being a great friend and showing me Quickshell!
• Samouly for being Samouly. :3
• Brys for his continuous support and for being a great friend!
• Zen for being a great friend and helping me when I started with Quickshell too!
• kh for being an awesome human being and listening to my delusions about Ambxst. :D
• And you, the user, for trying out Ambxst! You're awesome! 💖

(If I forgot someone, please let me know. 🙏)