waybar-sway-workspaces - sway workspaces module

NAME DESCRIPTION CONFIGURATION FORMAT REPLACEMENTS ICONS PERSISTENT WORKSPACES EXAMPLES Style

DESCRIPTION

The workspaces module displays the currently used workspaces in Sway.

CONFIGURATION

Addressed by sway/workspaces

all-outputs:

		typeof: bool
		default: false
		If set to false, workspaces will only be shown on the output they are on. If set to true all workspaces will be shown on every output.

format:

	typeof: string
	default: {value}
	The format, how information should be displayed.

format-icons:

	typeof: array
	Based on the workspace name and state, the corresponding icon gets selected. See icons.

disable-scroll:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	If set to false, you can scroll to cycle through workspaces. If set to true this behaviour is disabled.

reverse-scroll:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	If set to false, scrolling up will switch to the previous workspace and scrolling down will switch to the next workspace. If set to true, the behavior will be reversed.

disable-click:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	If set to false, you can click to change workspace. If set to true this behaviour is disabled.

smooth-scrolling-threshold:

	typeof: double
	Threshold to be used when scrolling.

disable-scroll-wraparound:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	If set to false, scrolling on the workspace indicator will wrap around to the first workspace when reading the end, and vice versa. If set to true this behavior is disabled.

enable-bar-scroll:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	If set to false, you can’t scroll to cycle throughout workspaces from the entire bar. If set to true this behaviour is enabled.

disable-markup:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	If set to true, button label will escape pango markup.

current-only:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	If set to true. Only focused workspaces will be shown.

persistent-workspaces:

	typeof: json (see below)
	default: empty
	Lists workspaces that should always be shown, even when non-existent

on-update:

	typeof: string
	Command to execute when the module is updated.

disable-auto-back-and-forth:

	typeof: bool
	Whether to disable workspace_auto_back_and_forth when clicking on workspaces. If this is set to true, clicking on a workspace you are already on won’t do anything, even if workspace_auto_back_and_forth is enabled in the Sway configuration.

alphabetical_sort:

	typeof: bool
	Whether to sort workspaces alphabetically. Please note this can make "swaymsg workspace prev/next" move to workspaces inconsistent with the ordering shown in Waybar.

warp-on-scroll:

	typeof: bool
	default: true
	If set to false, you can scroll to cycle through workspaces without mouse warping being enabled. If set to true this behaviour is disabled.

window-rewrite:

	typeof: object
	Regex rules to map window class to an icon or preferred method of representation for a workspace’s window.

Keys are the rules, while the values are the methods of representation. Rules may specify ‘class<...>‘, ‘title<...>‘, or both in order to fine-tune the matching. You may assign an empty value to a rule to have it ignored from generating any representation in workspaces. For Wayland windows ‘class‘ is matched against the ‘app_id‘, and for X11 windows against the ‘class‘ property.

window-rewrite-default:

typeof: string

	default: "?"
	The default method of representation for a workspace’s window. This will be used for windows whose classes do not match any of the rules in window-rewrite.

format-window-separator:

	typeof: string
	default: " "
	The separator to be used between windows in a workspace.

expand:

	typeof: bool
	default: false
	Enables this module to consume all left over space dynamically.

FORMAT REPLACEMENTS

{value}: Name of the workspace, as defined by sway.

{name}: Number stripped from workspace value.

{icon}: Icon, as defined in format-icons.

{index}: Index of the workspace.

{output}: Output where the workspace is located.

{windows}: Result from window-rewrite

ICONS

Additional to workspace name matching, the following format-icons can be set.

	•		default: Will be shown, when no string matches are found.
	•		urgent: Will be shown, when workspace is flagged as urgent
	•		focused: Will be shown, when workspace is focused
	•		persistent: Will be shown, when workspace is persistent.
	•		high-priority-named: Icons by names will be shown always for those workspaces, independent by state.

PERSISTENT WORKSPACES

Each entry of persistent_workspace names a workspace that should always be shown. Associated with that value is a list of outputs indicating where the workspace should be shown, an empty list denoting all outputs.

"sway/workspaces": {

			"persistent-workspaces": {

			"3": [], // Always show a workspace with name ’3’, on all outputs if it does not exist

			"4": ["eDP-1"], // Always show a workspace with name ’4’, on output ’eDP-1’ if it does not exist

			"5": ["eDP-1", "DP-2"] // Always show a workspace with name ’5’, on outputs ’eDP-1’ and ’DP-2’ if it does not exist
			}

}

n.b.: the list of outputs can be obtained from command line using swaymsg -t get_outputs

EXAMPLES

"sway/workspaces": {

			"disable-scroll": true,
			"all-outputs": true,
			"format": "{name}: {icon}",
			"format-icons": {

			"1": "ï ",

			"2": "ï¨",

			"3": "ï¡",

			"4": "ï¼",

			"5": "ïµ",

			"high-priority-named": [ "1", "2" ],

			"urgent": "ïª",

			"focused": "ï",

			"default": "ï"
			}

}

"sway/workspaces": {
"format": "<span size=’larger’>{name}</span> {windows}",
"format-window-separator": " | ",
"window-rewrite-default": "{name}",
"window-format": "<span color=’#e0e0e0’>{name}</span>",
"window-rewrite": {
"class<firefox>": "ï©",
"class<kitty>": "k",

"title<.* - (.*) - VSCodium>": "codium $1" // captures part of the window title and formats it into output

}
}

Style

	•		#workspaces button
	•		#workspaces button.visible
	•		#workspaces button.focused
	•		#workspaces button.urgent
	•		#workspaces button.persistent
	•		#workspaces button.empty
	•		#workspaces button.current_output
	•		#workspaces button#sway-workspace-${name}

Updated 2026-06-01 - jenkler.se | uex.se