1swaymsg(1) General Commands Manual swaymsg(1)
2
6 swaymsg - Send messages to a running instance of sway over the IPC
7 socket.
8
10 swaymsg [options...] [message]
11
13 -h, --help
14 Show help message and quit.
15 -m, --monitor
17 Monitor for responses until killed instead of exiting after the
18 first response. This can only be used with the IPC message type
19 subscribe. If there is a malformed response or an invalid event
20 type was requested, swaymsg will stop monitoring and exit.
21 -p, --pretty
23 Use pretty output even when not using a tty. Not available for all
24 message types.
25 -q, --quiet
27 Sends the IPC message but does not print the response from sway.
28 -r, --raw
30 Use raw JSON output even if using a tty.
31 -s, --socket <path>
33 Use the specified socket path. Otherwise, swaymsg will ask sway
34 where the socket is (which is the value of $SWAYSOCK, then of
35 $I3SOCK).
36 -t, --type <type>
38 Specify the type of IPC message. See below.
39 -v, --version
41 Print the version (of swaymsg) and quit.
42
44 <command>
45 The message is a sway command (the same commands you can bind to
46 keybindings in your sway config file). It will be executed immedi‐
47 ately.
48 See sway(5) for a list of commands.
50 swaymsg can return pretty printed (standalone-default) or JSON-for‐
52 matted (--raw) output. For detailed documentation on the returned
53 JSON-data of each message type listed below, refer to sway-
54 ipc(7). The JSON-format can contain more information than the
55 pretty print.
56 Tips:
58 • Command expansion is performed twice: once by swaymsg, and
59 again by sway. If you have quoted multi-word strings in your
60 command, enclose the entire command in single-quotes. For exam‐
61 ple, use swaymsg 'output "Foobar Display" enable' instead of
62 swaymsg output "Foobar Display" enable. Furthermore, note that
63 comma separated options also count as multi-word strings, be‐
64 cause commas can be used to execute commands on the same line.
65 • If you are providing a command that contains a leading hyphen
66 (-), insert two hyphens (--) before the command to signal to
67 swaymsg not to parse anything beyond that point as an option.
68 For example, use swaymsg -- mark --add test instead of swaymsg
69 mark --add test.
70 get_workspaces
73 Gets a list of workspaces and their status.
74 get_inputs
76 Gets a list of current inputs.
77 get_outputs
79 Gets a list of current outputs.
80 get_tree
82 Gets a JSON-encoded layout tree of all open windows, containers,
83 outputs, workspaces, and so on.
84 get_seats
86 Gets a list of all seats, its properties and all assigned devices.
87 get_marks
89 Get a JSON-encoded list of marks.
90 get_bar_config
92 Get a JSON-encoded configuration for swaybar.
93 get_version
95 Get version information for the running instance of sway.
96 get_binding_modes
98 Gets a JSON-encoded list of currently configured binding modes.
99 get_binding_state
101 Gets JSON-encoded info about the current binding state.
102 get_config
104 Gets a copy of the current configuration. Doesn't expand includes.
105 send_tick
107 Sends a tick event to all subscribed clients.
108 subscribe
110 Subscribe to a list of event types. The argument for this type
111 should be provided in the form of a valid JSON array. If any of the
112 types are invalid or if a valid JSON array is not provided, this
113 will result in a failure.
114
116 0
117 Success
118 1
120 swaymsg errors such as invalid syntax, unable to connect to the ipc
121 socket or unable to parse sway's reply
122 2
124 Sway returned an error when processing the command (ex. invalid
125 command, command failed, and invalid subscription request)
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128 sway(5) sway-bar(5) sway-input(5) sway-output(5) sway-ipc(7)
129 2023-02-12 swaymsg(1)