Niri Plus / Desktop guide

Volume and brightness feedback

Hardware keys provide small, replaceable notifications through the existing notification daemon. The helpers keep microphone and speaker feedback distinct; the popups are transient and do not enter SwayNC history. Symbolic icons distinguish speaker, microphone and brightness feedback. Audio icons reflect the resulting level or mute state; the percentage remains visible beside the notification's progress indicator.

Install the helpers

The volume helper uses WirePlumber's wpctl and notify-send from libnotify. The brightness helper uses brightnessctl and the same notifier. In the main walkthrough, SOURCE names the verified example tree. On Arch:

sudo pacman -S --needed wireplumber libnotify brightnessctl
install -Dm755 "$SOURCE/examples/feedback/notify-volume" "$HOME/.local/bin/notify-volume"
install -Dm755 "$SOURCE/examples/feedback/notify-brightness" "$HOME/.local/bin/notify-brightness"

Inspect any existing files with these names before installing. A running audio server and WirePlumber supply the default sink/source; the notification daemon must already be selected. ~/.local/bin must be available in Niri's PATH.

Bind and inspect

Inspect the six entries in the Niri binding fragment from the verified SOURCE tree, then merge them into the existing binds block, replacing existing bindings for those keys. The fragment is:

XF86AudioLowerVolume allow-when-locked=true { spawn "notify-volume" "down"; }
XF86AudioRaiseVolume allow-when-locked=true { spawn "notify-volume" "up"; }
XF86AudioMute allow-when-locked=true { spawn "notify-volume" "mute"; }
XF86AudioMicMute allow-when-locked=true { spawn "notify-volume" "mic-mute"; }
XF86MonBrightnessDown allow-when-locked=true { spawn "notify-brightness" "down"; }
XF86MonBrightnessUp allow-when-locked=true { spawn "notify-brightness" "up"; }

Keep one binds block and preserve the existing layout and unrelated keys. Validate the complete configuration with niri validate. These bindings retain the personal behavior of allowing hardware controls while locked.

Volume changes use five-percentage-point steps, with increases capped at 100%. Mute targets the default output; microphone mute targets the default input. The helper reads the resulting level and replaces only that control's prior popup. You can inspect the default audio nodes without changing them:

wpctl status
wpctl get-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@
wpctl get-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SOURCE@

The helpers' show and mic-show modes display a popup without changing volume. Use them in your own session when ready to check appearance. Then make a small volume change and restore it. Audio opens pavucontrol for device and per-application routing; the feedback helper retains the selected default device.

Internal and external brightness

The brightness helper addresses the Linux backlight class, not keyboard LEDs. It changes brightness in five-percentage-point steps and keeps the decrease above zero. A machine without a backlight device gets a no-op. Check device access with brightnessctl --list before relying on the keys.

External-monitor DDC/CI is a separate, hardware-dependent path. Physical monitor controls are the baseline; installing this helper does not establish DDC support. Test a small backlight adjustment and restore it on each applicable laptop.

Restore your previous binding entries and helper files to undo this addition. The isolated desktop example check uses command stubs for audio and notification calls; it does not change live audio, send a desktop popup or adjust a display.