niri

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

27195 stars · 1092 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor written in Rust on top of Smithay. Windows are arranged in columns on an infinite horizontal strip per monitor, with dynamic vertically-arranged workspaces, an overview mode, built-in screenshot and screencasting support, and configurable layout effects.

Use cases

• replace my window manager on Linux with scrollable tiling
• wayland compositor where new windows never resize existing ones
• dynamic workspaces per monitor like GNOME
• take screenshots and record my screen on wayland
• tiling window manager with touchpad gestures and blur effects

When to choose

• you want a modern Wayland-native tiling compositor with a novel scrollable layout
• you use multiple monitors and want independent window strips and workspace preservation
• you want built-in screenshots, screencasting, overview, and gestures without heavy shell extensions

When to avoid

• you need a full desktop environment with a system tray, panels, and app suite out of the box
• you rely on X11-only tooling or need an X11 window manager
• you prefer traditional master-stack or floating-only window management

Facets

application · maturity active

gui graphics desktop-applications operating-systems developer-tools rust wayland-compositor tiling-window-manager scrollable-tiling smithay window-manager linux

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="niri-wm/niri")