iced_layershell

Warning: This library is not intended for general use. It is specifically built for ashell and will not accept feature requests or bug reports unrelated to ashell. If you need a general-purpose iced layer shell backend, consider iced-layershell or the pop-os/iced fork.

Wayland layer shell backend for iced 0.14. Built to power ashell, a Wayland status bar.

AI-assisted development

This library was developed with the assistance of AI coding agents. The architecture, implementation, code reviews, and documentation were produced through human-AI collaboration. All code has been reviewed and tested by the maintainer.

What this is

A thin bridge between iced's widget/rendering system and the Wayland layer shell protocol via smithay-client-toolkit. It replaces iced_winit for applications that need layer shell surfaces (panels, overlays, status bars) instead of regular windows.

This library is tailored for ashell. It implements exactly the features ashell needs and nothing more. It is not a general-purpose iced backend and does not aim to support every layer shell use case.

Design goals

• Zero idle CPU -- the event loop blocks when nothing happens. No polling, no busy loops.
• Standard iced -- works with upstream iced 0.14 releases, no fork required.
• Frame-synced rendering -- uses Wayland frame callbacks to prevent overrendering.
• Multi-surface -- supports multiple layer surfaces (e.g. status bar + dropdown overlay).

Features

• Layer shell surface management (create, destroy, configure anchor/layer/size/margin/exclusive zone)
• Keyboard input with client-side repeat and physical key mapping, pointer, touch, and scroll events
• Full iced runtime action handling (clipboard read/write, widget focus, font loading)
• HiDPI support with configurable application scale factor
• Output (monitor) tracking with connect/disconnect subscriptions
• Persistent widget UIs with iced's UserInterface caching

Usage

use iced_layershell::*;

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    application(boot, update, view)
        .layer_shell(LayerShellSettings {
            anchor: Anchor::TOP | Anchor::LEFT | Anchor::RIGHT,
            layer: Layer::Top,
            exclusive_zone: 40,
            size: Some((0, 40)),
            ..Default::default()
        })
        .subscription(subscription)
        .theme(|state| state.theme.clone())
        .run()
}

See examples/ for working demos.

What is NOT supported

Features that ashell doesn't need are intentionally omitted:

• Drag and drop
• Popups / xdg-popup
• Session lock surfaces
• Subsurfaces
• Window actions (minimize, maximize, resize, etc.)