# noctalia-dev/noctalia

A sleek, customizable desktop shell crafted for Wayland.

Repository: https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/noctalia
Homepage: https://docs.noctalia.dev
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: hyprland, linux, niri, rice, noctalia
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:23:10+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 80/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 29
- inputs: {"age_days": 418, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 13, "gap_med": 1.0, "n_releases_24m": 135}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 9899, forks 740 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:37.631122+00:00)

## What it is
Noctalia is a native Wayland desktop shell written in C++ that provides bars, launcher, notifications, lock screen, wallpaper, dock, control center, and widgets as one cohesive, configurable shell layer around compositors like Hyprland and niri. It is built directly on Wayland and OpenGL ES with no Qt or GTK dependency, and is accompanied by the Umbriel compositor and a greetd-based Greeter.

## Use cases
- replace a stack of separate bar, launcher, and notification tools on Wayland
- get a consistent customizable desktop shell for Hyprland or niri
- rice my Linux desktop with a polished themed shell
- set up a lock screen and login greeter matching my desktop theme
- add a dock, control center, and desktop widgets to a tiling compositor

## When to choose
- you run a Wayland compositor like Hyprland, niri, or Umbriel and want a full shell instead of piecing together small tools
- you want a native C++/OpenGL ES shell without Qt or GTK dependencies
- you want consistent theming across desktop, lock screen, and login greeter

## When to avoid
- you are on X11 rather than Wayland
- you want a fully traditional desktop environment like GNOME or KDE
- you need rock-solid stability guarantees - v5 is still in beta with occasional config changes

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: gui, developer-tools, plugin-system, configuration-management
- domain: desktop-applications, operating-systems, self-hosted
- platform: cpp
- tags: wayland, desktop-shell, hyprland, niri, wlroots, ricing, bar, launcher, notification-daemon, lock-screen, opengl-es, greetd, linux, desktop

## Member repositories
- noctalia-dev/noctalia (main) score 80

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:37.631122+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 2026-08-29T17:20:20.565516+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:37.631122+00:00, sha c0f8200027c7)
  - homepage: https://docs.noctalia.dev (fetched 2026-08-29T08:20:15.932788+00:00, sha 0d10c73c54e5)
  - site_page: https://docs.noctalia.dev/noctalia/getting-started/installation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:20:15.941902+00:00, sha 55c1d9ef9a8c)
  - site_page: https://docs.noctalia.dev/noctalia (fetched 2026-08-29T08:20:15.944266+00:00, sha ed5b02c29a6c)
  - site_page: https://docs.noctalia.dev/umbriel (fetched 2026-08-29T08:20:15.945970+00:00, sha ea88aa179a02)
  - site_page: https://docs.noctalia.dev/greeter (fetched 2026-08-29T08:20:15.947524+00:00, sha 5cba2a73509c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.