Niri IPC

Use Niri IPC through the niri msg CLI (preferred) or by writing JSON requests to $NIRI_SOCKET.

This skill assumes:

• - You are on Linux with Niri running.
• INLINECODE2 is set (usually true inside the Niri session).

Quick start (recommended)

Use the bundled helper script (wrapper around niri msg --json):

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Deeper control

1) High-level helpers (window matching)

Use scripts/niri_ctl.py when you want to refer to windows by title/app_id substring instead of ids:

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2) Full IPC access (raw socket)

Use scripts/niri_socket.py to talk to $NIRI_SOCKET directly (newline-delimited JSON):

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Actions

Pass through Niri actions:

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Output configuration

Use niri msg output ... via the wrapper:

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Working directly with niri msg

If you don’t want the helper script, call Niri directly:

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Tip: if niri msg parsing errors happen after upgrades, restart the compositor (new niri msg against old compositor is a common mismatch).

Event stream

For status bars/daemons: Niri can stream events.

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Troubleshooting

• - If commands fail with “NIRISOCKET is not set”: run inside your Niri session, or export the socket path.
• If you need the socket protocol details, read: ./skills/niri-ipc/references/ipc.md.
• If your goal is complex automation (pick the right window by title/appid, etc.), first query windows, then act by window id.