An animation-first scrolling Wayland desktop.
Ferese combines a scrolling window manager with its own menu bar, control center and native Settings app. Built in Rust on Smithay, it brings configurable motion and a cohesive desktop interface to a keyboard-driven workflow. ## A desktop that moves with you - **Scrolling columns:** a horizontal window strip with configurable widths and focus behavior. Tree tiling is available per workspace. - **Coordinated motion:** animated focus, resize, workspace transitions and overview, with adjustable speed and reduced-motion support. - **An integrated shell:** workspace selector, status popovers, notification controls and a compact control center. - **Native Settings:** appearance, wallpaper, input, motion and more, with automatic saving, validation and undo. - **Your own look:** solid or translucent shell surfaces, backdrop blur, rounded corners, soft shadows and optional gradient focus rings. - **Multiple displays:** per-output workspaces, fractional scaling, monitor hotplug and laptop-lid workspace migration. - **Live configuration:** update TOML without restarting the desktop. Invalid changes keep the last working configuration. - **Session locking:** `ext-session-lock-v1` with swaylock or swaylock-effects through `ferese-lock`. ## Try it Preview Ferese inside your current Wayland desktop: ```sh cargo build --release --locked -p ferese -p ferese-shell -p ferese-settings -p feresectl target/release/ferese --backend nested --grant-effects --grant-shell-control -- \ target/release/ferese-shell ``` Use a recent Rust toolchain (1.93 or newer for the shell), Smithay's native build dependencies, and `foot` for the default terminal. Settings wallpaper browsing uses `zenity`; entering an image path works without it. For a login-screen session alongside your existing desktop: ```sh ./scripts/install.sh ``` The installer preserves your configuration and keeps previous releases for rollback. Log out and select **Ferese** at the login screen. An upgrade does not replace the running compositor: log out and back in to activate it. See [installation and recovery](docs/installation.md) for prerequisites, session logs and rollback. ## Get around These are built-in defaults; your configuration can override them. | Shortcut | Action | | --- | --- | | Super + Enter | Open a terminal | | Super + H / J / K / L | Focus a window | | Super + R | Cycle column width | | Super + C | Center the focused column | | Super + F | Maximize, keeping the bar and decorations | | Super + Shift + F | True fullscreen | | Super + Tab | Open workspace and window overview | | Super + M | Switch scrolling / tree layout | | Super + Shift + E | Log out immediately—save your work first | ## Make it yours Open **Control Center → Settings**, or run `ferese-settings`. Advanced options live in `~/.config/ferese/config.toml` (or under `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`). Start with the [example config](packaging/config.toml). ```toml [scrolling] default_column_width = 0.5 focus_strategy = "paged" [[window_rules]] app_id = "dev.ferese.Settings" floating = true ``` Saving the file reloads it automatically. Run `feresectl reload-config` for an explicit reload with validation feedback. The [configuration reference](docs/configuration.md) covers themes, window rules, bindings, output profiles, session services and locking. ## Development ```sh cargo test --workspace --locked cargo fmt --all --check ``` Use release builds when evaluating animation and startup performance. `RUST_LOG=ferese=debug` enables detailed logs; `FERESE_TRACE_PERFORMANCE=1` enables per-output performance summaries. Development probes under `tools/` are local-only and are not part of the published Cargo workspace. - [Architecture and window-manager specification](docs/ferese-window-manager-spec.md) - [Shell design](docs/ferese-shell-design.md) - [Theme and UI specification](docs/ferese-theme-ui-spec.md) - [Animation validation](docs/animation-validation.md) - [Nested resize testing](docs/nested-resize-testing.md) - [Native-client soak testing](docs/native-soak-testing.md) Test hardware behavior on your own setup, especially suspend/resume and locking. Keep a working desktop session available while testing changes.