<div align="center">

PlasmaZones

<img src="icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/plasmazones.svg" alt="PlasmaZones" width="96">

Window zone management for Wayland compositors

Define zones on your screen. Drag windows into them. Done.

<br>

</div>

---

Table of Contents

• How It Works
• Features
  • Window Snapping
  • Autotiling
  • Shader Effects
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Configuration
• Troubleshooting
• D-Bus API
• Project Structure
• Contributing
• Support

---

How It Works

Hold Alt (or your configured modifier) while dragging a window. Zones light up. Drop the window into one and it resizes to fill that zone.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/drag-snap.gif" alt="Drag and Snap" /> </p>

---

Features

Window Snapping

Snapping

• Drag with modifier key or mouse button to snap windows to zones
• Always-active mode: zones activate on every drag without a modifier
• Enable/disable snapping globally
• Snap all visible windows to zones at once
• Auto-assign windows to first empty zone per layout
• Snap to multiple zones at once
• App-to-zone rules: auto-snap apps to specific zones on launch

Movement

• Move windows between zones with keyboard shortcuts
• Swap windows between zones directionally
• Rotate windows clockwise/counterclockwise through zones
• Push window to first empty zone
• Restore original size on unsnap
• Per-window floating toggle
• Staggered animations with elastic and bounce easing curves

Focus & Cycling

• Focus adjacent zones without mouse
• Cycle through windows stacked in the same zone

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/keyboard-nav.gif" alt="Keyboard Navigation" /> </p>

Layout Editor

• Visual canvas for drawing and resizing zones
• 12 built-in templates (columns, grids, fibonacci, master-stack, focus+stack, and more)
• Undo/redo, copy/paste, cut, duplicate
• Split zones horizontally or vertically
• Grid and edge snapping
• Fill available space / auto-expand
• Fullscreen editing mode
• Per-zone colors and styling
• Restrict layouts to specific screens, desktops, or activities

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/editor.gif" alt="Layout Editor" /> </p>

Autotiling

Enable autotiling per-screen and windows arrange themselves using one of 11 algorithms:

| Algorithm | Description | |-----------|-------------| | Master+Stack | Main window with a stack beside it | | Centered Master | Main window centered, stacks on both sides | | Three Column | Even three-column split | | Columns | Equal vertical columns | | Rows | Equal horizontal rows | | Grid | Automatic grid arrangement | | Dwindle | Recursive halving, alternating direction | | Spiral | Recursive halving in a spiral | | BSP | Binary space partitioning | | Wide | Horizontal main area with stacked columns below | | Monocle | One window at a time, cycle between them |

• Per-screen algorithm selection with independent settings
• Configurable master ratio and master count (separate settings for Centered Master vs Master+Stack)
• Inner and outer gaps with per-side control (top/bottom/left/right)
• Smart gaps — no gaps when only one window is tiled
• Max windows cap — overflow windows float automatically
• Hide title bars on tiled windows, with colored borders
• Window insertion position: end, after focused, or as master
• Focus follows mouse and focus new windows
• Minimized windows float, unminimized windows rejoin tiling
• Per-window floating toggle
• Staggered tiling animations
• Respect window minimum sizes (toggleable) — tiles expand to honor size hints reported by the application

Tip: Some apps enforce a minimum size that prevents tiles from reaching their intended geometry. To fix this, create a KWin Window Rule: System Settings → Window Management → Window Rules → add a rule matching the window class, set Minimum Size to Force 0×0 under the Size & Position tab. This removes the constraint so PlasmaZones can tile the window at any size.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/autotiling.gif" alt="PlasmaZones Autotiling" width="800"> </p>

Shader Effects

14 built-in GLSL shader effects for zone overlays, including audio-reactive visuals:

| Effect | Description | |--------|-------------| | Aretha Shell | Cyberpunk hex grid with data streams | | Berry Drift | Metaball blobs in berry and violet tones | | CachyOS Drift | Crystalline drift with domain-warped FBM and iridescent glow | | Cosmic Flow | Fractal noise with animated colors | | Liquid Canvas | Wallpaper as a liquid painting with flow distortion | | Magnetic Field | Mouse-reactive field with orbiting particles | | Mosaic Pulse | Audio-reactive stained glass mosaic | | Nexus Cascade | Plasma with distortion, bloom, and chromatic aberration | | Prismata | Prismatic facets with audio-reactive chromatic fracture | | Sonic Ripple | Audio-reactive concentric rings with bass shockwaves | | Spectrum Bloom | Polar contour with frequency-driven shape morphing | | Spectrum Pulse | Audio-reactive neon energy with CAVA integration | | Toxic Circuit | Glowing circuit traces with digital corruption | | Voxel Terrain | Infinite 3D voxel world with neon edges and audio-reactive glow |

Up to 4 custom image textures per shader, plus desktop wallpaper sampling.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/shaders.gif" alt="Shader effects showcase" /> </p>

Custom shaders supported — see the Shader Guide on the wiki.

Snap Assist

After snapping a window, an overlay shows the remaining empty zones with thumbnails of other windows. Click a thumbnail to snap it into a zone.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/snap-assist.gif" alt="PlasmaZones Snap Assist" width="800"> </p>

Zone Selector

Drag to screen edge to reveal a layout picker. Jump straight to any layout and zone.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/zone-selector.gif" alt="Zone Selector" /> </p>

Layout Picker

Press Meta+Alt+Space to open a fullscreen layout picker. Click any layout to switch.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/screenshots/layout-popup.png" alt="Layout Picker" /> </p>

Visual Layout OSD

See a preview of the layout when switching, not just text.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/layout-switch.gif" alt="Cycling layouts with OSD" /> </p>

Navigation OSD

Move, focus, swap, rotate, and push actions show a brief overlay with the affected zone numbers.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/navigation-osd.gif" alt="PlasmaZones Navigation OSD" width="800"> </p>

Multi-Monitor & Virtual Desktops

• Per-monitor layouts (same or different)
• Per-virtual-desktop layouts
• Per-activity layouts (optional, requires PlasmaActivities)
• Per-monitor zone selector settings
• Per-screen shader selection
• Screen-targeted app-to-zone rules

Settings App

Standalone settings app (plasmazones-settings) with sidebar navigation:

• Overview — Per-screen mode (snapping/tiling) with live context display
• Layouts — Create, duplicate, import/export zone layouts with 26 templates
• Snapping — Activation, zone appearance (colors, opacity, borders, blur, shaders), animations, zone selector, per-monitor/desktop/activity assignments
• Tiling — Per-screen algorithm selection, master ratio/count, gaps, title bar hiding, insertion order, focus behavior, per-monitor/desktop/activity assignments
• General — OSD style, layout switch notifications, global behavior, editor shortcuts
• Exclusions — Window class exclusion lists with interactive picker, minimum size thresholds

On KDE Plasma, a System Settings entry provides version info and a launcher to the settings app.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/media/videos/settings.gif" alt="PlasmaZones Settings" width="800"> </p>

---

Installation

Requirements

• Any Wayland compositor with layer-shell support
• Qt 6.6+
• LayerShellQt 6.6+
• CMake 3.16+
• C++20 compiler

Optional (for full KDE integration):

• KDE Frameworks 6.6+ (KWin effect, System Settings, KGlobalAccel shortcuts)
• PlasmaActivities (activity-based layouts)

Arch Linux (AUR)

# Binary package (prebuilt)
yay -S plasmazones-bin

# Source package (builds locally)
yay -S plasmazones

Fedora (COPR)

sudo dnf copr enable fuddlesworth/PlasmaZones
sudo dnf install plasmazones

openSUSE Tumbleweed (OBS)

Community-maintained package by ilFrance:

sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:ilFrance/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:ilFrance.repo
sudo zyppe