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This page contains the base configuration options for Ashell.

It allows you to configure things like the log level, the monitor(s) used to render the status bar, and the bar's position.

All these configurations are defined in the root of the toml file.

Logging

The [logging] section controls log level, destination, and file location.

By default, ashell logs at warn level to a file directly inside $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, for example /run/user/1000/ashell_rCURRENT.log. When $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is unset or is not a private per-user directory, the fallback is $TMPDIR/ashell-<uid>/ (typically /tmp/ashell-1000/), created with mode 0700. If that directory exists but is not yours with mode 0700, ashell logs to stderr instead. Log files are rotated daily or when they reach 10 MB, and the last 7 files are kept.

See log levels for the full filter syntax.

Options

• level sets the log verbosity: "error", "warn", "info", or "debug" (default: "warn").
• target sets where to write logs: "file" (default), "stdout", or "stderr".
• directory sets a custom log directory (only used when target = "file"). Supports ~ and environment variable expansion, and is created if missing. Defaults to $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR.

warning

Changing the [logging] section requires restarting ashell to take effect. The log destination is set once at startup and cannot be changed via hot-reload.

caution

On multi-user systems, avoid setting directory to a shared path like /tmp/ashell. ashell does not check the ownership or mode of a directory you set yourself. The default directories are private to your user.

Examples

[logging]
level = "debug"

[logging]
level = "warn,ashell=info,ashell::services::network=debug"

[logging]
target = "stdout"

[logging]
target = "file"
directory = "~/.local/log/ashell"

The level option supports fine-grained control per Rust module, e.g. "warn,ashell::services::network=debug". To understand all possible module names, check the source code. The src folder is the root of the ashell module, and every directory or file under it declares a module or submodule. For example, src/modules/media_player.rs maps to ashell::modules::media_player.

warning

Don't confuse Ashell features (called "modules") with Rust modules (defined with mod.rs or in files). In this configuration, we're referring to Rust modules.

Language & Region

Ashell supports localization through two independent root-level options.

• language controls the language used for translated UI strings.
• region controls locale-dependent formatting: the date/time format and the unit system (metric vs. imperial), which in turn affects things like the temperature unit and the default wind speed unit.

Both accept a BCP-47 / POSIX-style locale identifier (e.g. "en-US", "it-IT"). They are optional and fall back to your environment: language resolves from $LC_ALL, then $LC_MESSAGES, then $LANG, and region resolves from $LC_ALL, then $LC_TIME, then $LANG. The unit system resolves from region, then $LC_ALL, then $LC_MEASUREMENT, then $LANG; if none of them is set it follows the date/time locale.

When nothing matches, the two options fall back separately: language falls back to en-US, and region falls back to en-GB (so dates use day/month ordering and the unit system is metric).

language = "en-US"   # UI language
region   = "it-IT"   # date format + unit system

Available translations

ashell currently ships UI translations for:

• en-US (also the fallback for any unmatched language)
• de-DE
• fr-FR
• ru-RU
• uk-UA

Setting language to anything else is not an error; untranslated strings just fall back to English. region is not restricted to this list: it accepts any locale the chrono crate knows, so you can pair an English UI with, say, Italian date formatting.

Unit system

region (or $LC_MEASUREMENT) selects imperial units only for en_US, en_LR and my_MM. Every other locale, including en-GB, resolves to metric. Imperial means Fahrenheit for temperatures and mph for wind speed.

Individual modules can opt out of the unit system: see system_info.temperature.units and tempo.wind_speed_unit.

Outputs

You can configure which monitor(s) should display the status bar.

It can render on all monitors, only on the active one (the focused monitor when Ashell starts), or on a list of specified monitors.

Output Examples

Render the status bar on all monitors:

outputs = "All"

Render the status bar on the active monitor:

outputs = "Active"

Render the status bar on a specific list of monitors:

outputs = { Targets = ["DP-1", "eDP-1"] }

Targets match connector names or case-sensitive substrings of the combined name make model and compositor-provided Wayland description.

Wayland descriptions have no standard format and may differ from labels shown by hyprctl monitors or niri msg outputs. Use wayland-info to inspect the advertised descriptions, preserving their spacing and punctuation in your targets. Serial-number targets only work when the serial is included in the Wayland description.

Position & Layer

Configure the bar position and Wayland layer.

Position Options

• "Top" - Bar at top of screen (default)
• "Bottom" - Bar at bottom of screen

Layer Options

• "Overlay" - Above everything including fullscreen
• "Top" - Above everything excluding fullscreen
• "Bottom" - Above background, below windows (default)

Examples

position = "Top"
layer = "Overlay"

position = "Bottom"
layer = "Bottom"

Close menu with esc

You can enable the use of the Esc key to close the menu.

warning

With these features enabled, ashell will use the keyboard in an exclusive way when a menu is open.

This means other applications will not be able to use the keyboard when the menu is open.

enable_esc_key = true

Visibility Toggle

You can toggle the visibility of the status bar using the built-in IPC socket:

# Toggle ashell visibility
ashell msg toggle-visibility

This is the recommended approach for keybind-based toggling or scripting.

Alternatively, you can still use a SIGUSR1 signal:

kill -SIGUSR1 $(pidof ashell)

Config Load

You can load another config file, this can be useful for managing different themes

ashell msg load-config ~/.config/ashell/mac_bar.toml

Notes

• Switching configurations, won't save them as default. Ashell will start with the default config (config.toml) or the one passed with --config-path at startup.
• Hot reloading will not change the font configuration. A full restart of ashell will be needed for font changes.

OSD (On-Screen Display)

Ashell can show a transient overlay when volume, microphone, brightness, airplane mode or idle inhibitor changes via IPC commands. This is useful for binding compositor keys to ashell:

# Volume
ashell msg volume-up
ashell msg volume-down
ashell msg volume-toggle-mute

# Microphone
ashell msg microphone-up
ashell msg microphone-down
ashell msg microphone-toggle-mute

# Brightness
ashell msg brightness-up
ashell msg brightness-down

# Airplane mode
ashell msg toggle-airplane-mode

# Idle Inhibitor
ashell msg toggle-idle-inhibitor

The OSD appears at center-bottom and auto-hides after a timeout. To suppress it for a specific command, add --no-osd:

ashell msg volume-up --no-osd

OSD Configuration

[osd]
enabled = true   # Disabled by default; set to true to enable the OSD overlay
timeout = 1500   # Auto-hide delay in milliseconds
show_volume_percentage = true    # Show percentage text next to volume/mic bar
show_brightness_percentage = true # Show percentage text next to brightness bar

Animations

Ashell ships a master toggle for UI animations (bar module width transitions, menu open/close, toast slides, sub-menu accordion, toggle color fades, etc.). It defaults to false, so ashell keeps its historical static behavior unless you opt in:

[animations]
enabled = true