command-center/agent/managed-skills/noctalia-bar-layout-edit/SKILL.md

name, description

name	description
noctalia-bar-layout-edit	Edit/verify Noctalia v5 bar widget layout (start/center/end, taskbar workspace grouping) on Frank's symlinked dotfiles workstations

Noctalia v5 bar layout edit

Bar widget layout on Frank's noctalia v5 workstations is GUI-override state, not config.toml.

Where

• Layout file: ~/.local/state/noctalia/settings.toml → [bar.<name>] keys start / center / end (arrays of widget ids; [widget.<id>] subtables hold per-widget settings).
• On Frank's boxes this file is a symlink into the command-center repo (e.g. ~/.omp/dotfiles/noctalia/.local/state/noctalia/settings.toml) — edit the repo file, not the link path (atomic-rename writes through the link path would replace the symlink).
• Layer order: built-in defaults < ~/.config/noctalia/config.toml (+[include]) < settings.toml (wins). Noctalia writes through symlinks and keeps them.
• Defaults when a key is absent: start = ["launcher","wallpaper","workspaces"], center = ["clock"].

Apply/verify loop (no restart, no reload IPC)

1. Edit the repo settings.toml.
2. noctalia config validate (checks merged layers; also noctalia config export [full] | yq -p toml to inspect effective values).
3. Both layers are file-watched → hot-reload. Prove visually: noctalia msg screenshot-fullscreen saves a PNG to ~/Pictures; read the image and inspect the bar.

Taskbar recipes

• Move window indicator beside workspaces: put "taskbar" in start after "workspaces".
• Combine workspaces+windows into ONE widget: [widget.taskbar] group_by_workspace = true — per-workspace capsules with disc labels (focused/occupied/empty/urgent colors); workspace_group_content = "icons"|"count"|"dots" (count/dots: left-click activates the workspace); hide_empty_workspaces, show_workspace_label, minimal, workspace_label_placement = corner|centered|inside. Requires compositor per-window workspace assignment (niri: yes; LabWC: no → stays flat).
• The workspaces widget itself has no window display; styles are regular/minimal/focus_hint only.

Law

Full widget/setting tables: https://docs.noctalia.dev/noctalia/bar/ and .../bar/widgets// . Commit bar changes atomically to the command-center repo (checkout is the deployment).