Applets

Applets are the small things in your panel: clock, battery, network, media, weather, custom launchers, and status widgets.

Place applets in a panel section:

[[panels]]
left = ["pager", "mpris"]
center = ["clock"]
right = ["network", "battery", "session"]

Configure an applet under [applets.name]:

[applets.clock]
label_format = "%H:%M"
tooltip_format = "%A, %B %-d"

To create a second copy or a custom-named applet, use extends:

[applets.short-battery]
extends = "battery"
label_on_battery = "{percentage}%"

[[panels]]
right = ["short-battery", "session"]

Common Format Fields

Many applets support label_format and tooltip_format. Each applet section lists the formatting fields it supports.

An empty label means the applet shows only its icon.

Built-In Applets

Applet	What it shows
audio	Volume, mute state, output device, muted microphone indicator.
battery	Battery state, charge, time left, power profile.
bluetooth	Bluetooth state and connected devices.
brightness	Screen brightness with scroll control.
clipboard	Clipboard history.
clock	Time, date, calendar, and optional world clocks.
command	A button or menu that runs commands.
exec	A live custom status widget from your script.
idle	System idle inhibitors and a manual "keep awake" toggle.
keyboard	Current keyboard layout.
mpris	Media players and playback controls.
network	Wi-Fi, wired network, and VPN status.
notifications	Notification center and popups.
pager	Workspaces and windows.
privacy	Camera, microphone, screen sharing, and location indicators.
removable	USB drives and removable storage.
session	Lock, logout, suspend, restart, and shutdown.
tray	App tray icons.
weather	Current weather and forecast.

Audio

Shows the current output volume. Scroll on the applet to change volume.

[applets.audio]
label_format = "{volume}%"
tooltip_format = "{device} - {volume}%"
scroll_step = 5
max_volume = 120
show_mic_indicator = true
show_streams = true

Option	Default	Meaning
show_icon	true	Show the volume icon.
show_mic_indicator	true	Show a muted microphone indicator when the default input is muted.
label_format	""	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{device} - {volume}%"	Hover text.
scroll_step	10	Volume change per scroll step.
max_volume	100	Maximum volume allowed from scrolling and controls.
show_streams	true	Show application streams in the popover.

Placeholders: {state}, {volume}, {device}, {input_volume}, {input_device}.

Battery

Shows battery and charging state. The popover includes time left and power information when available.

[applets.battery]
show_icon = true
label_on_battery = "{percentage}%"
label_on_ac = ""
tooltip_on_battery = "{percentage}% {state}, {time_left}"
tooltip_on_ac = "{percentage}% {state}"
settings_command = "gnome-control-center power"

Option	Default	Meaning
show_icon	true	Show the battery icon.
label_on_battery	""	Panel text while unplugged.
label_on_ac	""	Panel text while plugged in.
tooltip_on_battery	"{percentage}% {state}, {time_left}"	Hover text while unplugged.
tooltip_on_ac	"{percentage}% {state}"	Hover text while plugged in.
settings_command	""	Optional command for opening power settings.

Placeholders: {percentage}, {state}, {time_left}.

Bluetooth

Shows Bluetooth status and connected device count.

[applets.bluetooth]
label_format = "{devices}"
tooltip_format = "{devices} connected devices"

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	""	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{devices} connected devices"	Hover text.

Placeholders: {devices}, {state}.

Brightness

Shows brightness. Scroll on the applet to change brightness. On multi-monitor setups, scrolling adjusts the display attached to the panel first, then the focused monitor, then the primary brightness source. Display brightness is clamped to at least 1%.

[applets.brightness]
label_format = "{percent}%"
tooltip_format = "{source}: {percent}%"
scroll_step = 5

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	""	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{source}: {percent}%"	Hover text.
scroll_step	10	Brightness change per scroll step.

Placeholders: {source}, {percent}.

Clipboard

Shows clipboard history and opens a popover for copying older entries.

[applets.clipboard]
label_format = "{count}"
tooltip_format = "{count} clipboard items"
show_when_empty = false

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	""	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{count} clipboard items"	Hover text.
show_when_empty	false	Keep the applet visible with no history.

Placeholders: {count}, {state}.

Clock

Shows time and opens a calendar popover.

[applets.clock]
label_format = "%H:%M"
tooltip_format = "%A, %B %-d %Y"
tick_interval = 1

[[applets.clock.timezones]]
name = "Tokyo"
timezone = "Asia/Tokyo"
format = "%H:%M"

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	"%a %-d %b, %H:%M"	Panel time format.
tooltip_format	"%A, %-d %B %Y"	Hover date format.
tick_interval	1	Seconds between clock updates. Values are clamped from 1 to 60.
timezones	[]	Optional world clocks shown in the popover.

Clock formats use strftime style patterns.

World clocks

Add one [[applets.clock.timezones]] table per extra timezone. World clocks appear in the clock popover, below the local calendar.

Field	Default	Meaning
name	""	Display name. When empty, the timezone name is shown.
timezone	"UTC"	IANA timezone name, such as "Europe/Warsaw" or "Asia/Tokyo". Invalid names are skipped.
format	"%H:%M"	Time format for this world clock row.

[[applets.clock.timezones]]
name = "New York"
timezone = "America/New_York"
format = "%-I:%M %p"

[[applets.clock.timezones]]
name = "Tokyo"
timezone = "Asia/Tokyo"
format = "%H:%M"

Common time formats

Copy these into label_format, tooltip_format, or a world clock format.

Format	Example output	Notes
"%H:%M"	23:07	24-hour time.
"%H:%M:%S"	23:07:42	24-hour time with seconds.
"%-I:%M %p"	11:07 PM	12-hour time without leading zero.
"%a %-d %b, %H:%M"	Mon 11 May, 23:07	Matches the default panel label shape.
"%A, %-d %B %Y"	Monday, 11 May 2026	Matches the default tooltip shape.
"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"	2026-05-11 23:07	Sortable date and time.

Command

Runs a command from a panel button or menu.

# ~/.config/glimpse/applets/terminal.toml
id = "terminal"
type = "command"

[command]
icon = "utilities-terminal-symbolic"
label = "Terminal"
tooltip = "Open terminal"
command = ["ghostty"]

Option	Default	Meaning
type	required	Use "command" in an applet package file.
icon	unset	Symbolic icon name.
label	unset	Optional button text.
tooltip	unset	Hover text.
command	[]	Command run when clicked.
menu	[]	Optional menu items with label and command.

Read the full Command Applet guide for menus and shell examples.

Exec

Runs your own script and lets it draw status items and popovers.

# ~/.config/glimpse/applets/sysinfo.toml
id = "sysinfo"
type = "exec"

[exec]
command = ["sh", "-c", "~/.config/glimpse/scripts/sysinfo"]
restart_delay_ms = 1000
env_clear = false

[exec.env]
PATH = "/usr/bin:/bin"

[exec.options]
interval = 5

Option	Default	Meaning
type	required	Use "exec" in an applet package file.
command	[]	Script or program to run. Required.
restart_delay_ms	1000	Delay before restarting the script after it exits. Minimum 50.
options	{}	Custom data sent to your script on startup.
env_clear	false	Clear the inherited environment before starting the script.
env	{}	Extra environment variables for the script. Applied after env_clear.

Read Exec Applet for config and options, Line Protocol for raw protocol details, Components for popover component fields, and Exec SDK for SDK installation and language examples.

Idle Inhibitor

Surfaces every active idle inhibitor on the session and lets you release the ones you own. The popover toggle is your manual "keep awake" — flipping it on holds both an idle and a sleep lock at the system level, so the screen won't blank and the machine won't auto-suspend.

The panel icon (an eye) flips with the toggle: closed when your manual hold is off, open when it's on. External inhibitors are listed in the popover but don't affect the panel icon — otherwise systems with persistent background inhibitors (e.g. niri's power-key handler) would never see the icon change.

Four kinds of records appear in the popover:

Source	Where it comes from	Releasable from popover
Your manual hold	Toggle on Idle Inhibitor popover	yes
org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver	Apps like Firefox, mpv, VLC, OBS, Steam	yes
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Inhibit	Flatpak / sandboxed apps via xdg-desktop-portal	yes
systemd-logind	systemd-inhibit, package managers during upgrade, backup tools	no — we don't own the fd

Row UX is icon + app name. Click a releasable row (or right-click) to open a one-item menu with Release — releases the inhibit and removes the row. Read-only logind rows have no menu and clicking them does nothing. Targets (idle, suspend, shutdown, lid/key handlers) and the full who/why strings sit in each row's tooltip.

[[panels]]
right = ["...", "idle"]

No per-instance configuration. The applet is added to the default right panel between battery and session; remove "idle" from the panel section if you don't want it visible.

Daemon-side surfaces

glimpse-idle hosts three D-Bus services on the session bus:

Bus name	Path	Purpose
org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver	/ScreenSaver, /org/freedesktop/ScreenSaver	Public interface for external Inhibit/UnInhibit callers
me.aresa.GlimpseIdle.Portal	/org/freedesktop/portal/desktop	xdg-desktop-portal backend for org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Inhibit
me.aresa.GlimpseIdle	/me/aresa/GlimpseIdle/Inhibitors	Glimpse-private read + admin-release API the panel proxies through

If org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver is already owned by another process (gsd-power on GNOME, kscreensaver on KDE), our acquisition gracefully degrades — external screensaver-style apps will go to that other process, and only inhibitors arriving through the portal backend or logind will appear in the popover. The shell's own manual hold always reaches us via me.aresa.GlimpseIdle directly, regardless of who owns the public name.

Installing the portal backend

The daemon ships an xdg-desktop-portal .portal file at /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals/glimpse.portal and a D-Bus session activation file. On the Glimpse desktop (XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=glimpse) the portal auto-routes to us. On other desktops, add the route in your portals.conf:

[preferred]
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Inhibit=glimpse;

Keyboard

Shows the current keyboard layout.

[keyboard]
remember = "global"

[keyboard.labels]
"English (US)" = "EN"
"Polish" = "PL"

Setting	Default	Meaning
[keyboard].remember	"global"	How Glimpse remembers the active keyboard layout.
[keyboard.labels]	{}	Replace long layout names with short labels.

Remember modes

Value	Behavior
"global"	Use one active layout everywhere.
"app"	Restore the previous layout when focus returns to the same application.
"window"	Restore the previous layout when focus returns to the same window.

Set labels globally under [keyboard.labels]. Applet-local labels are still accepted as a compatibility fallback when [keyboard.labels] is empty.

MPRIS

Shows media player status and playback controls.

[applets.mpris]
label_format = "{artist} - {title}"
tooltip_format = "{player}: {artist} - {title}"
hide_when_empty = true
max_rows = 5
show_artwork = true
filter_regex = [
  "(?i)^firefox$",
  "(?i)podcast",
]

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	"{artist} - {title}"	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{player}: {artist} - {title}"	Hover text.
hide_when_empty	true	Hide when no player is active.
max_rows	5	Maximum players shown in the popover. Clamped from 1 to 12.
show_artwork	true	Show album art when available.
filter_regex	[]	Regex rules matched against player identity, title, artist, album, and player id. If any rule matches, that player is hidden from the panel and popover.

Placeholders: {player}, {artist}, {title}, {track}, {album}, {state}, {position}, {duration}, {remaining}.

Network

Shows current network state and opens a popover for Wi-Fi, wired network, and VPN entries.

[applets.network]
label_format = "{network}"
tooltip_format = "{state}"

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	""	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{state}"	Hover text.

Placeholders: {state}, {network}, {type}, {wifi}, {access_points}, {connections}, {vpns}, {speed}.

Notifications

Shows notification state, a notification center, and popups.

[applets.notifications]
label_format = "{count}"
tooltip_format = "{count} notifications"
badge_style = "dot"
max_history = 100
popup_timeout_ms = 5000
popup_visible_limit = 8
popup_position = "top_center"
popup_margin_x = 12
popup_margin_y = 32
popup_monitor = "DP-2"   # optional
filter_regex = [
  "(?i)^discord$",
  "(?i)build succeeded",
]

# Promote / demote urgency for specific apps.
# Rules are evaluated in order; first regex match wins.
[[applets.notifications.urgency_remap]]
app_pattern = "(?i)^slack$"
urgency = "critical"

[[applets.notifications.urgency_remap]]
app_pattern = "(?i)^telegram"
urgency = "low"

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	""	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{count} notifications"	Hover text.
badge_style	"dot"	Badge style: "dot" (small status indicator — gray at rest, warning-coloured when any critical notification is present), "count" (numeric badge with 1–9/9+), or "none" to hide.
max_history	100	Maximum notifications kept in memory. When the limit is exceeded, the oldest non-critical notifications are evicted first. Set to 0 for unlimited.
popup_timeout_ms	5000	How long popups stay visible.
popup_visible_limit	8	Maximum popups visible at once. Clamped from 1 to 20.
popup_position	"top_center"	Popup position: "top_left", "top_center", "top_right", "bottom_left", "bottom_center", or "bottom_right".
popup_margin_x	12	Horizontal popup margin.
popup_margin_y	32	Vertical popup margin.
popup_monitor	unset	Pin popups to a specific output by connector name (e.g. "eDP-1", "DP-2"). When unset, Glimpse chooses a default monitor automatically.
filter_regex	[]	Regex rules matched against app name, title, and body. If any rule matches, non-critical notifications are hidden from popups, history, badge count, and the notification center. Critical notifications are never filtered.
urgency_remap	[]	List of { app_pattern, urgency } rules that override a notification's urgency level when app_pattern (regex) matches the sending app name. urgency is one of "low", "normal", "critical". First match wins. Useful for forcing important apps (Slack, on-call tooling) to behave as critical, or silencing chatty apps to low. The remap is applied before the notification reaches the badge / popover / popup, so a remapped-critical notification will, e.g., flip the dot to warning color. (Note: remapped urgency does not bypass the daemon's DND filter — that still checks the original urgency the app sent.)

Placeholders: {count}, {state}.

Notification center

Clicking the panel icon opens the notification center popover with all currently-active notifications, newest first. When 3 or more notifications from the same app accumulate, they collapse into a group:

• Collapsed group: shows only the most recent notification, with two darker "card edges" peeking out beneath it as a stacked-deck visual. Clicking anywhere on the lead card expands the group.
• Expanded group: shows an inline header (app icon + name + collapse chevron) followed by every notification in the group. Click the chevron to collapse again.

Each notification in the popover has its own dismiss button (×). Single notifications and group members behave identically — there is no group-wide dismiss; dismissing the lead in a collapsed group dismisses just that one and the next-most-recent advances to the front of the stack.

The "Clear All" button in the footer dismisses every notification at once.

Popups on multi-monitor setups

By default Glimpse runs one panel per connected monitor, and the notifications applet on each of those panels would otherwise create its own popup window. To keep popups single, only one applet across the shell actually owns the popup window:

• If popup_monitor is set, only the applet whose panel sits on that connector owns the popup. Popups always appear on that monitor regardless of which monitor currently has focus.
• If popup_monitor is unset, Glimpse chooses a default monitor automatically.
• If the configured popup_monitor is unavailable, Glimpse cannot pin popups to that output. Notifications are still available from the notifications applet popover.

The notifications applet should be configured on at most one [[panels]] block — duplicates on the same connector are silently dropped (first one to initialize wins), but it's clearer to leave it in one place.

Popup interactions

Gesture	Behavior
Left-click on the card body	Focus the source application and dismiss the notification.
Right-click on the card body	Hide the popup card only; the notification stays in the notification center.
Close button (×)	Dismiss the notification fully.
Action button	Invoke that action and dismiss the notification.

Pager

Shows workspaces and windows.

[applets.pager]
display = "workspaces"
appearance = "numbers"
active_workspace_label = "{name}"
inactive_workspace_label = "{index}"

Option	Default	Meaning
display	"windows"	Indicator and scroll target: "workspaces" or "windows".
appearance	"dots"	Indicator style: "dots" or "numbers".
active_workspace_label	"{index}"	Label format for the current workspace when appearance = "numbers".
inactive_workspace_label	"{index}"	Label format for other workspaces when appearance = "numbers".

Workspace label placeholders: {index}, {id}, {name}. Unnamed workspaces render {name} as an empty string.

Privacy

Shows privacy indicators such as microphone, camera, screen sharing, and location use.

The privacy applet has no config; add or remove privacy from a panel to show or hide it.

Removable

Shows USB drives and removable storage.

[applets.removable]
show_when_empty = false
label_format = "{mounted}/{count}"
tooltip_format = "{count} removable device(s), {mounted} mounted"

Option	Default	Meaning
show_when_empty	false	Keep visible with no removable devices.
label_format	""	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{count} removable device(s), {mounted} mounted"	Hover text.

Placeholders: {count}, {mounted}.

Session

Shows the current user and opens session actions.

[applets.session]
label_format = "{user}"
tooltip_format = "{user} on {host}"
show_lock = true
show_logout = true
show_suspend = true
show_hibernate = false
show_reboot = true
show_shutdown = true
confirm_logout = true
confirm_suspend = true
confirm_hibernate = true
confirm_reboot = true
confirm_shutdown = true

Option	Default	Meaning
label_format	"{user}"	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{user} on {host}"	Hover text.
show_lock	true	Show lock action.
show_logout	true	Show logout action.
show_suspend	true	Show suspend action.
show_hibernate	false	Show hibernate action.
show_reboot	true	Show restart action.
show_shutdown	true	Show shutdown action.
confirm_logout	true	Ask before logout.
confirm_suspend	true	Ask before suspend.
confirm_hibernate	true	Ask before hibernate.
confirm_reboot	true	Ask before restart.
confirm_shutdown	true	Ask before shutdown.

Placeholders: {user}, {host}, {uptime}, {state}.

Tray

Shows app tray icons.

[applets.tray]
icon_size = 16
show_passive = false

Option	Default	Meaning
icon_size	16	Tray icon size. Clamped from 12 to 32.
show_passive	false	Show passive tray items.

Weather

Shows current weather and a forecast popover.

[applets.weather]
city_name = "Warsaw, PL"
hourly_slots = 5
forecast_days = 5
label_format = "{temp}"
tooltip_format = "{condition} · {temp} · feels like {feels_like} · {location}"
refresh_interval = 1800

Option	Default	Meaning
city_name	""	Place to fetch. When empty, weather uses the shared [location] settings.
hourly_slots	5	Hourly entries in the popover. Clamped from 1 to 8.
forecast_days	5	Forecast days in the popover. Clamped from 1 to 10.
label_format	"{temp}"	Panel text.
tooltip_format	"{condition} · {temp} · feels like {feels_like} · {location}"	Hover text.
refresh_interval	1800	Seconds between updates. Minimum 60.

Placeholders: {temp}, {condition}, {feels_like}, {location}.

To use your shared location, configure [location] and leave city_name empty:

[location]
provider = "static"
latitude = 52.2297
longitude = 21.0122

[applets.weather]
city_name = ""