swaymsg(1)                  General Commands Manual                 swaymsg(1)

NAME
       swaymsg  ‐  Send  messages  to  a running instance of sway over the IPC
       socket.

SYNOPSIS
       swaymsg [options...] [message]

OPTIONS
       ‐h, ‐‐help
           Show help message and quit.

       ‐m, ‐‐monitor
           Monitor for responses until killed instead  of  exiting  after  the
           first  response.  This  can  only be used with the IPC message type
           subscribe. If there is a malformed response  or  an  invalid  event
           type was requested, swaymsg will stop monitoring and exit.

       ‐p, ‐‐pretty
           Use  pretty output even when not using a tty. Not available for all
           message types.

       ‐q, ‐‐quiet
           Sends the IPC message but does not print the response from sway.

       ‐r, ‐‐raw
           Use raw JSON output even if using a tty.

       ‐s, ‐‐socket <path>
           Use the specified socket path. Otherwise,  swaymsg  will  ask  sway
           where  the  socket  is  (which  is  the value of $SWAYSOCK, then of
           $I3SOCK).

       ‐t, ‐‐type <type>
           Specify the type of IPC message. See below.

       ‐v, ‐‐version
           Print the version (of swaymsg) and quit.

IPC MESSAGE TYPES
       <command>
           The message is a sway command (the same commands you  can  bind  to
           keybindings  in your sway config file). It will be executed immedi‐
           ately.

           See sway(5) for a list of commands.

           swaymsg can return pretty printed (standalone‐default) or JSON‐for‐
           matted (‐‐raw) output. For detailed documentation on  the  returned
           JSON‐data  of  each  message  type  listed below,    refer to sway‐
           ipc(7). The JSON‐format  can  contain  more  information  than  the
           pretty print.

           Tips:
           •   Command  expansion  is  performed  twice:  once by swaymsg, and
               again by sway. If you have quoted multi‐word  strings  in  your
               command, enclose the entire command in single‐quotes. For exam‐
               ple,  use  swaymsg  ’output "Foobar Display" enable’ instead of
               swaymsg output "Foobar Display" enable. Furthermore, note  that
               comma  separated  options also count as multi‐word strings, be‐
               cause commas can be used to execute commands on the same line.
           •   If you are providing a command that contains a  leading  hyphen
               (‐),  insert  two  hyphens (‐‐) before the command to signal to
               swaymsg not to parse anything beyond that point as  an  option.
               For  example, use swaymsg ‐‐ mark ‐‐add test instead of swaymsg
               mark ‐‐add test.


       get_workspaces
           Gets a list of workspaces and their status.

       get_inputs
           Gets a list of current inputs.

       get_outputs
           Gets a list of current outputs.

       get_tree
           Gets a JSON‐encoded layout tree of all  open  windows,  containers,
           outputs, workspaces, and so on.

       get_seats
           Gets a list of all seats, its properties and all assigned devices.

       get_marks
           Get a JSON‐encoded list of marks.

       get_bar_config
           Get a JSON‐encoded configuration for swaybar.

       get_version
           Get version information for the running instance of sway.

       get_binding_modes
           Gets a JSON‐encoded list of currently configured binding modes.

       get_binding_state
           Gets JSON‐encoded info about the current binding state.

       get_config
           Gets a copy of the current configuration. Doesn’t expand includes.

       send_tick
           Sends a tick event to all subscribed clients.

       subscribe
           Subscribe  to  a  list  of  event types. The argument for this type
           should be provided in the form of a valid JSON array. If any of the
           types are invalid or if a valid JSON array is  not  provided,  this
           will  result  in a failure. For a list of valid event types and the
           data returned with them refer to sway‐ipc(7).

RETURN CODES
       0
           Success

       1
           swaymsg errors such as invalid syntax, unable to connect to the ipc
           socket or unable to parse sway’s reply

       2
           Sway returned an error when processing  the  command  (ex.  invalid
           command, command failed, and invalid subscription request)

SEE ALSO
       sway(5) sway‐bar(5) sway‐input(5) sway‐output(5) sway‐ipc(7)

                                  2024‐12‐11                        swaymsg(1)