Notifications

Notifications come on with the profile. The daemon is scootnotify, owning org.freedesktop.Notifications on the session bus as a user unit, with its popups on the overlay layer:

programs.scoot.desktop = {
  enable = true;
  # No daemon at all on this box:
  # notifications.enable = false;
};

Popups use layer=overlay, so they stay above fullscreen windows (the frame then composites instead of scanning out directly, at the cost of one compositing pass). A critical popup over a fullscreen window looks like this (blue ring for normal, urgent ring for critical):

A critical notification over a fullscreen terminal: the popup draws above the fullscreen window

Overriding anchor moves the stack corner; the layer stays overlay (scootnotify has no layer knob).

Over the session lock, nothing of a notification’s content ever shows: while locked the compositor draws nothing but the lock client’s own surfaces, so popups that arrive while locked wait in the daemon and appear on unlock. The shot below shows only the lock screen; it is byte-identical to the frame just before the notification arrived:

The session lock with a notification queued: only the lock screen shows, no popup content reaches the locked frame

DND state and the unread count reach the bar through its push module. The module is defined but not placed; show it with one line in your bar config:

right = ["notifications", "clock"]

Each state has its own icon: a hollow circle while idle, a solid dot beside the unread count, and a crescent moon while do-not-disturb holds notifications (DejaVu Sans at 17 px):

The notification module while idle: a hollow circle

The notification module with three unread: a solid dot beside the count

The notification module with do-not-disturb on: a crescent moon beside DND

The defaults are all in DejaVu Sans, the bar’s default font, so they render with no symbol font. Each icon is overridable. An empty unread or dnd sends no icon, so the static idle icon shows beside the text (empty idle too for none). Each is empty or one glyph: two or more glyphs fail evaluation, since the bar refuses them per update (two 2-byte glyphs such as éé slip past the check and leave that state’s last value shown, so do not use them). A Nerd Font glyph works wherever bar.fallback-fonts provides one:

programs.scoot.desktop.notifications.bar.icons = {
  idle = "○"; # the push module's static icon; "" shows nothing while idle
  unread = "●"; # sent beside the count, overriding idle while set
  dnd = "☾"; # sent while do-not-disturb is on, overriding idle while set
};

A future daemon keeps these option names. scootnotify pushes DND and the unread count to the push module itself, with no feed script beside it, and the bar’s click runs scootnotify msg dnd toggle:

programs.scoot.desktop.notifications.daemon = "scootnotify";  # the default; drop the line

There is no mako package, no mako config and no feed script, the three binds sit on scootnotify msg, and programs.scootnotify.settings holds the daemon’s own file (see scootnotify). To go back, set daemon = "mako" and switch again; see Migrating from mako.

Migrating from mako

One line restores the previous daemon:

programs.scoot.desktop.notifications.daemon = "mako";

Upgrading from a mako default: the switch replaces mako’s unit, config and feed with scootnotify’s unit and activation file, and the binds move to scootnotify msg. With home-manager’s default (startServices = true, sd-switch) the switch stops the removed mako unit. If mako is still running (startServices set to suggest, no user systemd at switch time, or mako reactivated over D-Bus) it keeps the bus name and the new daemon exits 3 (the journal names the owner). If notifications go silent after the switch, stop the leftover explicitly (systemctl --user stop mako, or log out and back in) and check systemctl --user status scootnotify.

What changes back with it: the daemon reads mako’s flat config dialect again (notifications.settings: anchor, layer, timeouts). Mako’s own default layer is top, which hides popups under fullscreen, so the profile still generates layer=overlay. The look themes it per key through the generated fragment instead of scootnotify’s own notify layer, and the three binds and the bar’s click run makoctl (dismiss, mode -t do-not-disturb, restore) instead of scootnotify msg. The bar feed returns as the scoot-notify-sync user unit beside the mako unit. scootnotify’s own file (programs.scootnotify.settings: max_visible, timeouts, [[rule]] tables, history ring) has no effect beside mako, and mako’s notifications.settings has no effect beside scootnotify (a non-empty one warns at eval, naming where the values moved). A look swap re-renders scootnotify’s file and scoot look apply reloads the running daemon live (cards, history and DND survive).

Every value is an option, applied on rebuild/switch (the units restart into the new config; no re-login):

Option	Type	Default	Meaning
`desktop.notifications.enable`	bool	`true` with the profile	run the daemon behind `daemon` (scootnotify pushes the bar feed itself; mako runs the feed script beside it)
`desktop.notifications.daemon`	enum (`"scootnotify"`, `"mako"`)	`"scootnotify"`	the daemon behind `enable` (mako is one line back: its flat config, its `makoctl` control, the feed unit — see Migrating from mako)
`desktop.notifications.settings`	attrset of string	`{ }`	extra mako lines over the generated ones (a value here wins per key, rendered verbatim; read only with `daemon = "mako"`)
`desktop.notifications.bar.icons.idle`	string: empty or one glyph	`"○"`	the bar’s static icon while idle; `""` shows nothing while idle
`desktop.notifications.bar.icons.unread`	string: empty or one glyph	`"●"`	the icon the feed sends beside the unread count
`desktop.notifications.bar.icons.dnd`	string: empty or one glyph	`"☾"`	the icon the feed sends while do-not-disturb is on
`desktop.theme.targets.notifications.enable`	bool	`true`	theme the notification daemon from the look; `false` keeps the daemon’s own style while the rest follows the look (beside scootnotify it writes `look = false` into `programs.scootnotify.settings`; all or nothing, and an explicit `settings.look` wins)

Troubleshooting, by symptom (full diagnosis in scootnotify troubleshooting and the Symptom index):

No popups at all. Check the unit: systemctl --user status scootnotify (or mako with the mako escape hatch), and that D-Bus knows it: busctl --user list | grep -F Notifications should name the daemon’s owner.
Popups vanish under fullscreen. The daemon lost its overlay surface: with the mako escape hatch, something set layer back to top. Read ~/.config/mako/config (the generated file); the first content line is the layer.
The bar shows nothing. The module needs placing (the one line above), the bar needs the push feature, and the feed needs running: the daemon pushes itself, so check scootnotify; with the mako escape hatch, systemctl --user status scoot-notify-sync instead.
DND is stuck on. scootnotify msg dnd status tells the state; toggle it back: scootnotify msg dnd off (or makoctl mode -r do-not-disturb with the mako escape hatch).
A popup stayed up for hours. The escape hatch does that by default: mako has no timeout unless set. makoctl dismiss -a clears them all into history, or set one: notifications.settings.default-timeout = "10000"; (milliseconds).
Two daemons fight over popups. Another notifier owns the bus name instead: only one can. Turn this one off or uninstall the other.
scootnotify exits as soon as it starts. The name is taken (mako still running): the journal names the owner and the exit status is 3. Stop the other daemon (systemctl --user stop mako) and remove its D-Bus activation file, or it comes back on the next notification.
A custom state icon shows as a box. The glyph is in neither the bar’s font nor its fallbacks: add the symbol font to bar.fallback-fonts (see the scootbar Fonts section).