hyprglaze

A Wayland wallpaper daemon for Hyprland that renders GLSL fragment shaders and modular effects to the background layer, with cursor tracking, window geometry awareness, audio reactivity, and live config reload.

Features

• Layer-shell wallpaper: renders behind all windows via wlr-layer-shell
• GLSL shaders with Shadertoy-compatible uniforms (iResolution, iTime, iMouse, iWindow)
• Window awareness: all visible windows passed to shaders with smooth position tracking, identity-based focus
• Audio capture: PipeWire/PulseAudio integration with auto-detected output monitor
• 365 color schemes: Gogh terminal themes via palette uniforms, sprites auto-recolor to match
• Modular effect system: pluggable effects with per-effect config
• Live config reload: edit TOML, changes apply instantly via inotify (including effect switching)
• Frame-rate independent smoothing for cursor, window geometry, and focus transitions
• CPU particle physics: Verlet integration, tracer trails, window collision, cursor repulsion
• Desktop buddy: animated sprite character with AI-driven behavior (Claude Haiku via Bedrock)

Effects

Effect	Description
particles	Verlet physics particles with tracer trails, window collision, focused window gravity
windowglow	Subtle accent glow around focused window, surface tint on unfocused
cellbloom	Voronoi cells shaped by window boundaries and cursor, animated drift points
concentric	SDF concentric rings radiating from window edges, cursor interaction
fluid	Metaball contour lines that merge organically around windows and cursor
aurora	Northern lights curtains that drape and bend around windows, cursor distortion
starfield	Radial starfield with audio-reactive speed, per-band star colors, beat pulses
visualizer	Stereo waveform with Catmull-Rom interpolation, amplitude-driven palette colors
cava	Full-screen mirrored spectrum powered by Cava's FFT/smoothing core, visible beneath transparent windows
milkdrop	Feedback-loop visualizer with kaleidoscope, beat detection, FBO pipeline
buddy	Animated sprite character with procedural behaviors, palette-recolored
ai-buddy	AI-driven buddy with mood system, emote particles, window awareness, wall climbing
glitch	Audio-reactive glitch art with RGB split, block displacement, VHS wobble, scanlines
tide	Time-aware rising water line tied to wall-clock time, with falling teardrops, crater splashes, and Worthington jets
fire	Palette-driven flames rise from every window's top edge; moving windows fade with a directional wipe, neighbors warp from the wake

Install (Arch Linux)

From AUR

yay -S hyprglaze-git

From source

sudo pacman -S zig wayland wayland-protocols mesa libglvnd stb libpulse fftw
zig build
zig build run

Configuration

~/.config/hypr/hyprglaze.toml:

# Effects: particles, windowglow, cellbloom, concentric, fluid, aurora,
#          starfield, visualizer, cava, milkdrop, glitch, buddy, ai-buddy, tide, fire
effect = "fluid"
theme = "Rosé Pine"

[transition]
duration = 0.25

[cursor]
smoothing = 0.85

[geometry]
smoothing = 0.85

[particles]
count = 60
damping = 0.999
pop_threshold = 50

[cava]
bars = 64
autosens = true
glow = 1.0
reflectivity = 1.0
bar_opacity = 1.0
background_opacity = 1.0
noise_reduction = 0.77
lower_cutoff_freq = 50
higher_cutoff_freq = 10000

[buddy]
scale = 2.0
sprite = "sprites/buddy.png"
ai_cooldown = 5.0
max_calls_per_minute = 6

[tide]
start_hour = 6.0      # hour at which the tide is empty
end_hour   = 24.0     # hour at which the tide is full

CLI

hyprglaze --effect fire --theme "Rosé Pine"
hyprglaze --list-effects          # list available effects
hyprglaze --list-themes           # list available themes
hyprglaze --set-theme "Nord"      # persist a theme to the config file (hot-reloads)
hyprglaze --help                  # full flag reference

From source: substitute zig build run -- for hyprglaze.

Audio Effects (visualizer, cava, milkdrop, starfield)

Audio effects capture system audio via PipeWire/PulseAudio. The output monitor is auto-detected. To specify a different sink:

[visualizer]
sink = "alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo"

cava uses the same sink option in its own section:

[cava]
sink = "alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo"

List available sinks with pactl list short sinks.

AI Buddy (AWS Bedrock)

The ai-buddy effect uses Claude Haiku via AWS Bedrock for decision-making. Create ~/.config/hypr/hyprglaze-aws.env:

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1

Requires the aws CLI and model access enabled for us.anthropic.claude-haiku-4-5-20251001-v1:0 in Bedrock.

Shader Uniforms

Uniform	Type	Description
iResolution	vec3	Surface dimensions
iTime	float	Seconds since start
iMouse	vec4	Cursor position (smoothed)
iWindow	vec4	Focused window rect (smoothed)
iPrevWindow	vec4	Previously focused window rect, for outgoing transitions
iWindows[32]	vec4[]	All visible window rects
iWindowCount	int	Number of visible windows
iFocusedIndex	int	Index of the focused window in iWindows (-1 if none)
iPrevIndex	int	Index of the previously focused window in iWindows
iTransition	float	Focus change progress 0 to 1 (newly focused)
iPrevAlpha	float	Outgoing focus progress 1 to 0 (previously focused)
iPalette[16]	vec3[]	Theme color ramp
iPaletteSize	int	Number of palette colors
iPaletteBg/Fg	vec3	Theme background/foreground
iParticles[300]	vec4[]	Effect data (particles, trails, buddy state)
iParticleCount	int	Number of active entries
iSprite	sampler2D	Sprite sheet texture / FBO feedback

Adding an Effect

1. Create src/effects/myeffect.zig with a pub const Context struct (or a directory for complex effects)
2. Implement init(), update(state), upload(shader), deinit()
3. Register in src/effects.zig: add import, tagged union variant, init branch, and default shader path
4. Add default shader to shaders/myeffect.frag
5. Configure via [myeffect] section in TOML, read params with config_mod.EffectParams

The new effect is picked up by --list-effects automatically via comptime reflection on the Effect union.

Credits

• Sprite: Free Tiny Hero Sprites by Craftpix
• Color schemes: Gogh
• Protocol: wlr-layer-shell

License

MIT