Environment Variables

Compositor Detection

Variable	Checked By	Purpose
`HYPRLAND_INSTANCE_SIGNATURE`	`services/compositor/hyprland.rs`	Detects Hyprland compositor
`NIRI_SOCKET`	`services/compositor/niri.rs`	Detects Niri compositor

ashell checks these in order. The first one found determines the compositor backend.

Config Path

Variable	Purpose
`XDG_CONFIG_HOME`	Base directory for config. Default config path is `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ashell/config.toml` (or `~/.config/ashell/config.toml` if unset)

The config path can also be overridden with the --config-path CLI flag, which takes precedence over environment variables.

Graphics

Variable	Purpose
`WGPU_BACKEND`	Force a specific GPU backend. Set to `gl` for OpenGL (useful for NVIDIA compatibility)

Logging

ashell uses flexi_logger which reads the log level from the config file’s logging.level field. The format follows env_logger syntax:

# In config.toml
[logging]
level = "debug"
# level = "warn,ashell::services=debug"
# level = "info,ashell::modules::settings=trace"

logging.target selects the destination ("file", the default, or "stdout" / "stderr") and logging.directory overrides the log directory used by the "file" target.

Wayland

Variable	Purpose
`WAYLAND_DISPLAY`	The Wayland display socket. Must be set for ashell to run
`LD_LIBRARY_PATH`	May need to include paths to Wayland/Vulkan/Mesa libraries (handled automatically by Nix wrapper)