wshowkeys

Displays keypresses on screen on supported Wayland compositors (requires wlr_layer_shell_v1 support).

2026-07-24_13-07-27.mp4

Forked from https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/wshowkeys as Drew has moved onto other thigns.

Installation

arch

yay -S wshowkeys-mao-git

nix

Add as a flake input:

{
    inputs = {
        # ...
        wshowkeys = {
            url = "github:DreamMaoMao/wshowkeys";
            inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs"; # optional
        };
    }
}

Then install using nixpkgs harness in system config:

programs.wshowkeys = {
    enable = true;
    package = inputs.wshowkeys.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.default;
};

Without the harness, you will get a setuid error and the app won't run.

other

Dependencies:

• cairo
• libinput
• pango
• udev
• wayland
• xkbcommon

$ meson build
$ ninja -C build
# ninja -C build install
# sudo chmod a+s /usr/bin/wshowkeys

wshowkeys must be configured as setuid during installation. It requires root permissions to read input events. These permissions are dropped after startup.

Usage

wshowkeys [-b|-f|-s #RRGGBB[AA]] [-F font] [-t timeout]
    [-a top|left|right|bottom] [-m margin] [-o output]

• -b #RRGGBB[AA]: set background color
• -f #RRGGBB[AA]: set foreground color
• -s #RRGGBB[AA]: set color for special keys
• -F font: set font (Pango format, e.g. 'monospace 24')
• -t timeout: set timeout before clearing old keystrokes(ms)
• -a top|left|right|bottom: anchor the keystrokes to an edge. May be specified twice.
• -m margin: set a margin (in pixels) from the nearest edge
• -l lenmax: set the key layer max length(px)
• -o output: request wshowkeys is shown on the specified output (unimplemented)
• -M: show modifier keys
• -U: show mouse buttons
• -S: show scroll direction

example:

wshowkeys -a bottom -F 'Sans Bold 30' -s '#B5B520ff' -f  '#ecd29cff' -b '#201B1488' -l 600 -t 500 -M -U -S