scootbar overview

A status bar for scoot, and for any compositor with wlr-layer-shell-v1: the lightest bar that is still beautiful and configurable. It starts as a clock, gains workspaces, and grows by modules. It runs anywhere a layer-shell bar runs (scoot, sway, niri, Hyprland) — on scoot it also answers the desktop profile’s theming.

scootbar daemon --left workspaces --center clock

One binary, linking nothing beyond glibc and libgcc_s, and no font in its closure — the font is yours to choose (even DejaVu Sans, the first face the bar looks for, is 742 KiB against the bar’s own ~826 KiB binary). It takes the font from --font, or the first of a short list of well-known files; with neither it refuses to start, saying how to give one. Trying it on a box with no fonts:

nix run github:scoot-sh/scoot#scootbar-demo                          # daemon, a clock
nix run github:scoot-sh/scoot#scootbar-demo -- daemon --right clock  # any daemon flags

(scootbar-demo is the same binary behind a script adding DejaVu Sans — a demo, not what a system installs.)

Enable it

With Nix, the modules are separate from the compositor’s (importing one changes nothing about the other):

imports = [ inputs.scoot.homeModules.scootbar ];   # or nixosModules.scootbar
programs.scootbar = {
  enable = true;
  features = [ "clock" "workspaces" ];   # optional: build with exactly these modules
  settings = {                           # bar.toml, any key
    left = [ "workspaces" ];
    center = [ "clock" ];
    bar.height = 32;
    colors.accent = "#89b4fa";
  };
};

Option	Type	Default	Reload	Meaning
enable	bool	false	—	Installs the bar, writes its config and (unless systemd.enable is off) runs it.
package	package or null	the flake’s scootbar	—	The bar. Null with enable is refused, by name.
features	list or null	null (defaults)	rebuild	The modules as Cargo features, exactly the ones listed ([ ] is a bar with no modules and no font). Null keeps package as it is.
settings	attrset	{ }	restart (unit) / scootbar msg reload by hand	Free-form: rendered as TOML to the bar’s config, so a new option never needs a module change first.
systemd.enable	bool	true	—	The user service. Off: start scootbar daemon from your compositor’s autostart instead (one route per program — both starts two daemons, and the second refuses).

Without Nix: scootbar daemon runs in the foreground until the compositor goes away (start it with &, or from [autostart]). home-manager writes ~/.config/scoot/bar.toml (the bar’s default path, so a hand-started daemon reads what the service does); NixOS writes /etc/scootbar/bar.toml, named with --config in the system unit.

Modules are Cargo features, reachable through .override — a bar with no modules needs no font, and icon-image (the PNG decoder, +115 KB) builds the same way (each line is one alternative):

scootbar.override { buildNoDefaultFeatures = true; }

scootbar.override { buildFeatures = [ "icon-image" ]; }

A bar built without a module refuses its table in the config (an unknown key), naming it.

Drive it

scootbar msg query                         # every placed module's state as JSON
scootbar msg layout                        # where each module is on screen, for a click
scootbar msg invoke volume raise 5         # run a module's action, as its click would
scootbar msg subscribe                     # stream changes, one JSON line each
scootbar msg reload                        # re-read the file and live-apply it
scootbar msg toggle                        # hide the bar (and release its space), or show it

Every module answers the pointer: clicks, scrolls and hover run a module action, a command, or a request to scoot that the config binds. A module can open a popup under itself (the volume slider, the network list) and shows a tooltip after a hover delay. The config can define its own button, a push target for scootbar msg set, and an exec module streaming a command’s output — with no Rust.

Next: Configure for layout and looks, Modules for the full set, CLI reference for flags and the agent interface.