Triad Window Manager

First Steps🔗

If you haven't tested Triad yet, the quickest way is a nested Wayland session from your current desktop — no TTY switch needed:

WLR_BACKENDS=wayland ~/.local/bin/triad session

Open a second terminal to tail the log while you explore:

triad logs
tail -f ~/.local/state/triad/triad-session-latest.log

Once you're comfortable, log out and select River (Triad) from your display manager for a full session.

Open a Terminal🔗

The starter config has the terminal bind commented out. Before your first session, open ~/.config/triad/config.kdl, find the Super+Return bind, and uncomment it with a terminal you have installed:

bind "Super+Return" "spawn foot"  // or kitty, alacritty, wezterm, …

Also update the terminal { command "…" } block to match — that's used by the terminal scratchpad (Super+Ctrl+e).

Validate Your Config🔗

Check that Triad parsed your config cleanly:

triad validate-config

If you made edits and want to check a specific file without restarting:

triad validate-config --config ~/.config/triad/config.kdl

Confirm IPC Is Working🔗

Inside a running session:

triad msg state
triad msg workspaces

Both should return JSON. If they hang or fail, Triad isn't running or the socket path is wrong. Check the session log:

ls -la ~/.local/state/triad/
triad logs
tail -n 100 ~/.local/state/triad/triad-session-latest.log

For live-session checks without a reload, triad doctor-live is the native command. Prefer nimble doctorLive; it builds the current CLI first.

Set Your First Bindings🔗

Open ~/.config/triad/config.kdl in your editor. The bindings block is where you define keyboard shortcuts:

bindings {
  bind "Super+Return"  "spawn kitty"
  bind "Super+Space"   "spawn fuzzel"
  bind "Super+q"       "close-window"
  bind "Super+o"       "toggle-overview"
  bind "Super+n"       "switch-layout"
  bind "Super+h"       "focus-left"
  bind "Super+l"       "focus-right"
  bind "Super+j"       "focus-down"
  bind "Super+k"       "focus-up"
}

Save the file. Triad reloads it immediately — no restart needed.

For the full bindings reference, see Key Bindings.

Pick a Layout🔗

Each workspace picks its own layout. Switch the active one:

triad msg tile
triad msg scroller
triad msg monocle

Or cycle through a configured list with a binding:

layout {
  layout-cycle "scroller" "tile" "monocle"
}
bindings {
  bind "Super+n" "switch-layout"
}

See the full layout reference.

Set Up a Shell or Bar🔗

Shell integration is disabled in the starter config. To add a status bar, enable it and configure a profile in the shells block. See Shell Setup.

What's Next🔗