hyprwinwrap

Display any window as a background in Hyprland. Need Hypr 0.54+

---

Installing

hyprpm add https://github.com/gen3vra/hyprwinwrap
hyprpm enable hyprwinwrap

Config (Lua)

Declare background windows with hl.plugin.hyprwinwrap.window(). You can call it multiple times to handle multiple windows.

-- example: foot --app-id=window-bg -o colors.alpha=0.0 [path-to-script]
-- example: kitty --class=window-bg -o background_opacity=0.0 [path-to-script]
-- example: xterm -class window-bg [path-to-script]
-- any program will work, use `hyprctl clients` to discover your window's class/title

-- class is an EXACT match and NOT a regex! Use `hyprctl clients` to find it.
-- You may match on `class` and/or `title`. pos_*/size_* are percentages.
if hl.plugin.hyprwinwrap ~= nil then
    hl.plugin.hyprwinwrap.window({
        class = "window-bg",
        title = "window-bg",
        layer = 0,
        pos_x = 0,
        pos_y = 0,
        size_x = 100,
        size_y = 97
    })
    -- Second bg window sitting in the centre on top of the first,
    -- useful for showing a visualizer only on a portion of the screen.
    hl.plugin.hyprwinwrap.window({
        class = "window-bg2",
        title = "window-bg2",
        layer = 1,
        pos_x = 25,
        pos_y = 25,
        size_x = 50,
        size_y = 50
    })
end

Fields

Field	Type	Description
class	string	Window class exact match, not a regex. Use hyprctl clients to find it.
title	string	Window title exact match, not a regex.
pos_x	number	Horizontal position as a percentage of the screen width.
pos_y	number	Vertical position as a percentage of the screen height.
size_x	number	Width as a percentage of the screen width. Any Lua expression works, like 200 / (1 + math.sqrt(5)) for a golden ratio window :D (61.8% ish)
size_y	number	Height as a percentage of the screen height. 100 * 1000 / 1080 gives exactly 1000px on a 1080p screen.
layer	number	Higher values render on top of lower values.

Focus Dispatcher

hl.plugin.hyprwinwrap.focus("[title-or-class]") toggles focus on the specified window. Calling it again or changing focus resets it to the background.

Bind it in your config:

hl.bind("SUPER + B", function() hl.plugin.hyprwinwrap.focus("window-bg") end)

Or call it directly via hyprctl:

hyprctl dispatch 'hl.plugin.hyprwinwrap.focus("window-bg")'

Config (hyprlang, deprecated)

Warning

Hyprland is dropping hyprlang support in an upcoming release. This method is legacy and does not support multiple windows or layers. This will be removed in a future version.

plugin {
    # example: foot --app-id=window-bg -o colors.alpha=0.0 [path-to-script]
    # example: xterm -class window-bg [path-to-script]
    hyprwinwrap {
        # class is an EXACT match and NOT a regex!
        class = window-bg  # use hyprctl clients to find the class of your window
        # you can also match on title
        title = window-bg
        # position as a percentage of the screen
        pos_x = 0
        pos_y = 0
        # size as a percentage of the screen
        size_x = 100
        size_y = 97  # 100 would cover a bottom waybar; 97 leaves space for it
    }
}

Lua config equivalent (for example only, use the lua config method instead):

hl.config({ plugin = { hyprwinwrap = {
    class = "window-bg", title = "window-bg",
    pos_x = 0, pos_y = 10, size_x = 100, size_y = 97,
} } })

Focus Dispatcher

hyprctl dispatch hyprwinwrap_interactivity

---

Notes

• If you use an alt-tab script (or are designing around hyprwinwrap), make sure to skip m_hidden windows so they are not cycled to. Example:

previous_client="$(hyprctl clients -j | jq -r '[.[] | select(.workspace.id == '"$active_workspace"' and .hidden == false)] | sort_by(.focusHistoryID) | nth(1) | .address')"

---

Examples

Fitting Above A Bar

Run hyprctl layers to see your bar's y position (its xywh), then set size_y = 100 * y / screen_height. On a 1080p screen with a waybar at y=1050, that's 100 * 1050 / 1080

Transparent Image

Displays over window-bg using window-bg2 from the Lua config example above.

Install PyQt6:

pip install PyQt6

import sys
from PyQt6.QtWidgets import QApplication, QLabel
from PyQt6.QtGui import QPixmap
from PyQt6.QtCore import Qt


class hi(QLabel):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

        self.pixmap = QPixmap("image.png") # assuming img next to script

        self.setWindowFlags(
            Qt.WindowType.FramelessWindowHint
            | Qt.WindowType.WindowStaysOnTopHint
        )
        self.setAttribute(Qt.WidgetAttribute.WA_TranslucentBackground)

        self.setAlignment(Qt.AlignmentFlag.AlignCenter)

        self.resize(800, 600)

    def resizeEvent(self, event):
        self.setPixmap(
            self.pixmap.scaled(
                self.size(),
                Qt.AspectRatioMode.KeepAspectRatio,  # OR IgnoreAspectRatio to stretch
                Qt.TransformationMode.SmoothTransformation,
            )
        )


app = QApplication(sys.argv)
app.setApplicationName("window-bg2")
app.setDesktopFileName("window-bg2")

window = hi()
window.show()

sys.exit(app.exec())

Cava

Launch via a terminal emulator, for example:

foot --app-id=window-bg -o colors-[dark|light].alpha=0.0 cava.sh
kitty --class=window-bg -o background_opacity=0.0 cava.sh

#!/bin/sh
sleep 1 && cava

Note

The sleep is required for cava because window resizing happens a few milliseconds after the window opens and cava will be at the wrong size.