# rvaiya/keyd

A key remapping daemon for linux.

Repository: https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/keyd
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: keyboard, linux, keyboard-layout, sway, x11, keyboard-mapping, keymap, keyboard-remap, c
Last push: 2026-06-01T06:52:06+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 69/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 85, release rhythm 30, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1866, "days_push": 93, "days_rel": 257, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5916, forks 273 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:32.228328+00:00)

## What it is
keyd is a system-wide key remapping daemon for Linux that works at the kernel input level (evdev/uinput), independent of the display server. It supports layers, tap/hold key overloading, per-keyboard configs, and QMK-like features via a simple config format.

## Use cases
- remap caps lock to escape system-wide on linux
- create custom keyboard layers like qmk on a normal keyboard
- use different keymaps for different keyboards on the same machine
- remap keys in a wayland compositor like sway
- keep my keymap working when switching to a virtual terminal
- swap ctrl and esc without breaking modifier semantics
- remap keys per-application on x11 and gnome

## When to choose
- you want display-server-agnostic, system-wide key remapping on Linux
- you want QMK-style layers and tap/hold overloading on a regular keyboard
- you want a fast, tiny, Unix-philosophy daemon with a simple config format

## When to avoid
- you need to program individual key up/down event sequences
- you are on macOS or Windows
- you want a GUI configuration tool

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: developer-tools, configuration-management
- domain: operating-systems, developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: keyboard-remapping, evdev, uinput, keymap, wayland, x11, daemon, layers, qmk-like, command-line, linux

## Member repositories
- rvaiya/keyd (main) score 69

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:32.228328+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:51:15.418691+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:32.228328+00:00, sha 347bfbc366ec)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.