Morghulis Desktop Shell
A lightweight, hackable Wayland desktop shell that bridges minimal compositors like Hyprland and River with everyday desktop comforts.
Wayland Linux Desktop Shell Hyprland River Vala Open Source
What This Is (Plain Words)
Morghulis is a small brainy helper that gives you “desktop environment” feelings (panels, indicators, little quality-of-life bits) while you keep using lean Wayland compositors like Hyprland or River. Think: glue + polish, without turning your system into a heavy monster.
Why It Exists
- Tiling compositors are awesome but spartan.
- Full desktop environments are comfy but often heavy or opinionated
- Morghulis tries to sit in the middle: light, modular, friendly to tinkerers.
What You Get
- A shell layer: panels / bars / status info (depending on modules you enable)
- Trays / indicators potential (system info, workspaces, etc.)
- Sensible defaults without locking you in
- Plays nicely with Hyprland and River instead of replacing them
Core Ideas
- Keep it light: only do what a compositor doesn’t.
- Make it scriptable / extensible.
- Stay out of your way (no giant config maze).
- Let advanced users dig in; let casual users just run it.
Under the Hood (Soft Peek)
- Written mainly in Vala (which transpiles to C and hooks into GNOME/GTK style ecosystems).
- Talks Wayland.
- Modular structure so features can evolve without bloat.
Typical Use Flow
- You already use Hyprland or River.
- You want a cleaner “desktop layer” (panels, little helpers).
- You add Morghulis.
- You feel less naked, still fast.
Who Is It For?
- Linux rice enjoyers.
- People building a custom Wayland setup.
- Users who don’t want to run KDE/GNOME but still want niceties.
- Tinkerers who like reading source and adjusting things.
Philosophy in 7 Words
Stay small. Add polish. Never own you.
Early Taste (Imagined Examples)
- Workspace indicator
- Clock + system stats
- Quick launcher (future-friendly)
- Theming surface (colors/fonts you control)
Future Possibilities
- Plugin marketplace style discovery
- More indicators (battery, media, notifications)
- Config hot-reload
- Simple theming packs
Tech Stack (Simple)
- Language: Vala
- Protocol: Wayland
- Style: Lightweight, modular
License
MIT — do cool things, share improvements.