https://github.com/tlinden/swayipc
golang bindings to control sway and i3 via IPC communication
https://github.com/tlinden/swayipc
Last synced: 9 months ago
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golang bindings to control sway and i3 via IPC communication
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/tlinden/swayipc
- Owner: TLINDEN
- License: gpl-3.0
- Created: 2025-08-14T10:41:40.000Z (11 months ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-08-25T18:34:27.000Z (10 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-08-25T20:38:42.395Z (10 months ago)
- Language: Go
- Size: 71.3 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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# swayipc - go bindings to control sway and swayfx
Package swayipc can be used to control [sway](https://swaywm.org/),
[swayfx](https://github.com/WillPower3309/swayfx) and possibly
[i3wm](http://i3wm.org/) window managers via a unix domain socket.
## About
swaywm's interprocess communication (or ipc) is the interface sway,
swayfx and i3wm use to receive commands from client applications such
as sway-msg. It also features a publish/subscribe mechanism for
notifying interested parties of window manager events.
swayipc is a go module for controlling the window manager. This project
is intended to be useful for general scripting, and for applications
that interact with the window manager like status line generators,
notification daemons, and window pagers. It is primarily designed to
work with sway and swayfx, but may also work with i3wm, although I
haven't tested it on i3wm.
The module uses the i3-IPC proctocol as outlined in sway-ipc(7).
For details on how to use the library, see the
[reference documentation](https://godoc.org/github.com/tlinden/swayipc).
## Example usage
In this example we retrieve the current focused window:
```go
package main
import (
"fmt"
"log"
"github.com/tlinden/swayipc"
)
func main() {
ipc := swayipc.NewSwayIPC()
err := ipc.Connect()
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
defer ipc.Close()
tree, err := ipc.GetTree()
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
focused := tree.FindFocused()
if focused != nil {
fmt.Printf("focused node: %s\n id: %d\n Geometry: %dx%d\n",
focused.Name, focused.Id, focused.Geometry.Width,
focused.Geometry.Height)
}
}
```
Also take a look into the **_examples** folder for more examples.
For a more comprehensive and practical example look at the
[descratch](https://github.com/TLINDEN/sway-descratch) program which
you can use to selectively retrieve a window from the scratchpad.
You may also take a look at the [tool swaycycle](https://github.com/tlinden/swaycycle)
which is using this module.
## Installation
Execute this to add the module to your project:
```sh
go get github.com/tlinden/swayipc
```
## Acknowledgements
A couple of ideas have been taken from the [i3ipc python
module](https://github.com/altdesktop/i3ipc-python/), although this
one is not just a port of it and has been written from scratch.
## Getting help
Although I'm happy to hear from swayipc users in private email, that's the
best way for me to forget to do something.
In order to report a bug, unexpected behavior, feature requests or to
submit a patch, please open an issue on github:
https://github.com/TLINDEN/swayipc/issues.
## Copyright and license
This software is licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE version 3.
## Authors
T.v.Dein
## Project homepage
https://github.com/TLINDEN/swayipc
## Copyright and License
Licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE version 3.
## Author
T.v.Dein