Shell

These commands control shell state, logging, settings windows, the window switcher, and session actions.

General

Action	Command	Description
Print status	status	Print basic shell state as JSON.
Show log level	log-level-status	Print the current console log level.
Set log level	log-level-set debug	Set the console log level for the running session. Use debug, info, warn, or error.
Reload config	config-reload	Reload the merged Noctalia config stack immediately.
Open settings	settings-open [context]	Open or focus the graphical settings window, optionally at a specific section (e.g. bar).
Open plugin settings	settings-open-plugin noctalia/notes	Open the settings window at an installed plugin’s settings. The plugin must be enabled and expose settings.
Close settings	settings-close	Close the graphical settings window.
Toggle settings	settings-toggle [context]	Open or close the graphical settings window, optionally at a specific section.

Set NOCTALIA_LOG_LEVEL to debug, info, warn, or error before startup to choose the initial console log level. The default is info; the file log remains unfiltered.

Window Switcher

Alt+Tab-style overlay with two presentations selected by [shell.window_switcher].style: the default carousel uses freestanding selected/near/far cards, while compact uses a boxed strip of equal-sized cards. Carousel cards keep stable proportions and fit snapshots inside a small themed frame, so differing window aspect ratios do not distort the layout. Captions sit below previews and the position counter sits above them. Application icons scale with the rendered preview and follow the carousel direction: bottom-left on left and selected cards, bottom-right on right cards. Close controls follow the same side at the top of left and right cards, while the selected card keeps its close control at the top-right. Moving through either style animates position, scale, opacity, and pointer-hover changes using the global animation settings. The selected card’s shadow uses [shell.shadow], and each close control appears only while the pointer is over its card. When the compositor supports the foreign-toplevel image-capture protocol, Noctalia takes a static snapshot of each window as the switcher opens; unsupported windows use their application icon instead. The window-switcher settings also control MRU ordering, whether captions, the counter, and application icons are shown, and which windows the list is drawn from: show_all_outputs picks the monitors, and current_workspace_only keeps the workspace shown on each of them (an open Hyprland special workspace takes over from the regular one it covers). Then wire your compositor shortcut to the IPC commands below.

Action	Command	Description
Open	window-switcher	Show the switcher on the preferred monitor (pointer, keyboard focus, or first output).
Open from a held-modifier keybind	window-switcher hold	Same as Open, for Alt+Tab-style keybinds. If the shortcut modifier is already released when the overlay gains keyboard focus (a quick tap), the previous window is activated and the overlay closes.
Close	window-switcher close	Hide the overlay without changing focus. hide is an alias.

Example Hyprland bind (use hold so a quick tap switches to the previous window):

hl.bind("ALT + TAB", hl.dsp.exec_cmd("noctalia msg window-switcher hold"))

While the overlay is open it takes exclusive keyboard focus on its layer surface:

• Tab / Shift+Tab - cycle selection
• Arrow keys - move through the active switcher style
• Release the shortcut modifier - focus the selected window (for example, release Alt for Alt+Tab or Super for Super+Tab)
• Enter - focus the selected window and close
• Escape - close without switching
• Quick tap - with window-switcher hold, releasing the shortcut modifier before the overlay has keyboard focus counts as the release: the previous window is activated and the overlay closes. Without hold (terminals, scripts, gestures), the overlay stays open until Enter, Escape, or a click
• Pointer - click a card to switch; click the selected card’s close control to close that window
• Scroll - the mouse wheel over the overlay cycles selection: wheel down or right selects the next window, wheel up or left the previous one

Modifier releases generated while an input method hands keyboard focus to the switcher are ignored until the physical shortcut modifier is actually released.

The switcher refreshes while the overlay stays open (new windows, closed windows, and title changes such as Discord channel switches). Selection stays on the same window when its title updates.

Snapshots are intentionally frozen for each switcher session rather than streamed. The selected window is captured first; remaining windows are captured one at a time and downsampled before display to keep the overlay responsive and memory-bounded. Compositors that do not advertise ext_foreign_toplevel_image_capture_source_manager_v1 retain the same navigation and controls with icon-based cards.

Session

Action	Command	Description
Lock session	session lock	Lock the current session. loginctl lock-session uses the same path when Noctalia is running.
Suspend system	session suspend	Suspend without locking first.
Lock and suspend	session lock-and-suspend	Lock the session, then suspend once the lock is active.
Log out	session logout	End the graphical session (compositor-native when available).
Reboot	session reboot	Reboot the system.
Shut down	session shutdown	Shut down the system.