maomaowm/docs/ipc.md

title	description
IPC	Control mangowm programmatically using mmsg.

Introduction

mangowm includes a powerful IPC (Inter-Process Communication) tool called mmsg. This allows you to query the window manager's state, watch for events, and execute commands from external scripts.

Basic Usage

The general syntax for mmsg is:

mmsg [-OTLq]
mmsg [-o <output>] -s [-t <tags>] [-l <layout>] [-c <tags>] [-d <cmd>,<arg1>,<arg2>,<arg3>,<arg4>,<arg5>]
mmsg [-o <output>] (-g | -w) [-OotlcvmfxekbA]

Options

Flag	Description
-q	Quit mangowm.
-g	Get values (tags, layout, focused client).
-s	Set values (switch tags, layouts).
-w	Watch mode (streams events).
-O	Get all output (monitor) information.
-T	Get number of tags.
-L	Get all available layouts.
-o	Select output (monitor).
-t	Get/set selected tags (set with [+-^.]).
-l	Get/set current layout.
-c	Get title and appid of focused client.
-v	Get visibility of statusbar.
-m	Get fullscreen status.
-f	Get floating status.
-d	Dispatch an internal command.
-x	Get focused client geometry.
-e	Get the name of the last focused layer.
-k	Get current keyboard layout.
-b	Get current keybind mode.
-A	Get scale factor of monitor.

Examples

Tag Management

You can perform arithmetic on tags using the -t flag with -s (set).

# Switch to Tag 1
mmsg -t 1

# Add Tag 2 to current view (Multiview)
mmsg -s -t 2+

# Remove Tag 2 from current view
mmsg -s -t 2-

# Toggle Tag 2
mmsg -s -t 2^

Layouts

Switch layouts programmatically. Layout codes: S (Scroller), T (Tile), G (Grid), M (Monocle), K (Deck), CT (Center Tile), RT (Right Tile), VS (Vertical Scroller), VT (Vertical Tile), VG (Vertical Grid), VK (Vertical Deck), TG (TGMix).

# Switch to Scroller
mmsg -l "S"

# Switch to Tile
mmsg -l "T"

Dispatching Commands

Any command available in config.conf keybindings can be run via IPC.

# Close the focused window
mmsg -d killclient

# Resize window by +10 width
mmsg -d resizewin,+10,0

# Toggle fullscreen
mmsg -d togglefullscreen

# Disable a monitor power
mmsg -d disable_monitor,eDP-1

Monitoring & Status

Use -g or -w to build custom status bars or automation scripts.

# Watch for all message changes
mmsg -w

# Get all messages without watch
mmsg -g

# Watch focused client appid and title
mmsg -w -c

# Get all available outputs
mmsg -O

# Get all tags message
mmsg -g -t

# Get current focused client message
mmsg -g -c

# Get current keyboard layout
mmsg -g -k

# Get current keybind mode
mmsg -g -b

# Get scale factor of current monitor
mmsg -g -A

Tag Message Format

• State: 0 → none, 1 → active, 2 → urgent

Example output:

Monitor	Tag Number	Tag State	Clients in Tag	Focused Client
eDP-1	tag 2	0	1	0

Monitor	occupied tags mask	active tags mask	urgent tags mask
eDP-1	14	6	0

Virtual Monitors

You can create headless outputs for screen mirroring or remote desktop access (e.g., Sunshine/Moonlight).

# Create a virtual output
mmsg -d create_virtual_output

# Configure it (set resolution)
wlr-randr --output HEADLESS-1 --pos 1920,0 --mode 1920x1080@60Hz

# Destroy all virtual outputs
mmsg -d destroy_all_virtual_output