swaync

Recipe card from the charly-selkies plugin (Images — the deployable catalog).

swaync – SwayNotificationCenter

Candy Properties

Property	Value
Dependencies	`dbus`
Service	`swaync` (supervisord, priority 14, startsecs=2)
Install files	`charly.yml`, `task:`, `swaync-wrapper`, `config.json`, `style.css`

Packages

SwayNotificationCenter (RPM) – provides swaync, swaync-client

Service

Runs as a supervisord service (priority 14, startsecs=2) via swaync-wrapper which waits for the Wayland socket before starting. The wrapper uses pkill -9 -x swaync (exact name match) to kill any stale instance before exec, preventing D-Bus name conflicts on restart. startsecs=2 gives swaync time to claim the D-Bus name before supervisord declares it running. Priority 14 ensures swaync starts after the compositor (10-12) but before waybar (15), so the notification indicator module is ready.

D-Bus Auto-Activation Fix

The task: removes D-Bus auto-activation service files (org.erikreider.swaync.service, org.erikreider.swaync.cc.service) at build time. Without this fix, D-Bus spawns a competing swaync instance when waybar’s swaync-client -swb queries the notification service ~2 seconds after startup. The SystemdService= directive in those files is intended to delegate to systemd, but since containers use supervisord (not systemd as PID 1), D-Bus falls back to Exec=/usr/bin/swaync, creating a second instance that steals the D-Bus bus name from the supervisord-managed one — causing the supervisord instance to exit with FATAL status.

Configuration

config.json (`~/.config/swaync/config.json`)

Notification panel on right side, overlay layer
Widgets: inhibitors, title, dnd (Do Not Disturb), mpris (media), notifications
Timeouts: 6s normal, 4s low, 0s critical (stays visible)
Control center: 420px wide, top-right corner

style.css (`~/.config/swaync/style.css`)

Catppuccin Mocha theme matching waybar:

Color-coded notification priorities: blue (normal), red (critical), gray (low)
MPRIS media player widget
DnD toggle switch
Rounded corners, semi-transparent backgrounds

Waybar Integration

The waybar custom/notification module displays a notification bell icon using swaync-client:

Click: toggle notification panel (swaync-client -t)
Right-click: toggle Do Not Disturb (swaync-client -d)
Icons use Nerd Font symbols (from desktop-fonts candy)

Compositor Compatibility

Works with any wlroots compositor via wlr-layer-shell protocol:

sway – replaces mako (mako removed from sway layer)
labwc – first notification daemon (none was previously included)

Testing Notifications

Send and verify notifications declaratively with the dbus: check verb (served out-of-process by candy/plugin-dbus, driving the session bus with gdbus — no shell quoting issues), run with charly check live <image> --filter dbus:

notify-test:
    check: a desktop notification is delivered
    dbus: notify
    context: [deploy]
    text: Title
    description: Body text
notifications-registered:
    check: swaync is receiving notifications
    dbus: list
    context: [deploy]
    stdout:
        contains: Notifications

Host-side alternatives:

# charly cmd with completion notification (gdbus, host-side)
charly cmd <image> "sleep 2 && echo done"

# Low-level: notify-send (requires libnotify layer)
charly cmd <image> "notify-send 'Title' 'Body text'" --no-notify

# swaync-client operations
charly cmd <image> "swaync-client -c"    # notification count
charly cmd <image> "swaync-client -C"    # clear all
charly cmd <image> "swaync-client -t"    # toggle panel
charly cmd <image> "swaync-client -d"    # toggle DnD

Used In

/charly-selkies:sway-desktop – via metalayer composition
/charly-selkies:selkies-desktop-layer – via metalayer composition

Used In Boxes

/charly-selkies:sway-browser-vnc (via sway-desktop metalayer)
/charly-selkies:selkies-labwc (via selkies-desktop metalayer)
/charly-selkies:selkies-labwc-nvidia (via selkies-desktop metalayer)

/charly-infrastructure:dbus-layer – D-Bus session bus dependency
/charly-selkies:libnotify – notify-send CLI (optional; the dbus: notify check verb uses gdbus instead)
/charly-selkies:waybar – notification bell module
/charly-selkies:waybar-labwc – same notification bell module
/charly-selkies:desktop-fonts – Nerd Font icons for notification bell

When to Use This Skill

Use when the user asks about:

Desktop notifications in containers
SwayNotificationCenter configuration or styling
Notification bell in waybar
Do Not Disturb mode

/charly-image:layer — candy authoring reference (charly.yml schema, task verbs, service declarations)
/charly-check:check — declarative testing (check: block, charly check box, charly check live)