Input and Animation Commands

Inspect input devices and sources, select a source, and preview registered animations.

Commands require a running session. Animation previews act on a live compatible target.

Layer surfaces

List current layer-shell surfaces and their namespaces with:

gnoblinctl layer list

The command reads the API 1.37 layers.list snapshot and keeps the layers object in JSON output. Records include a state revision.

Use a surface's namespace as the layer value in a window rule. The animation surfaces command reports the same surfaces for animation previews.

Input devices

List input devices detected by the compositor with:

gnoblinctl input devices

Each record reports the device name, type, seat, and available capabilities. Vendor and product IDs appear when the compositor provides them.

Device IDs last only for the current compositor session. The command returns a one-time snapshot through the shared Lua read introduced in API 1.46. This read requires the Lua supervisor for every supported socket client version.

API 1.4 socket clients can also subscribe to device add and removal events. gnoblinctl input list reads the API 1.6 input.sources snapshot through the shared Lua read introduced in API 1.46. It prints the configured XKB sources.

gnoblinctl input current reads input.current_source through the same Lua route. Its JSON record includes available and, when known, source.

gnoblinctl input select TYPE ID calls input.select and waits for Mutter to confirm the layout change. Copy TYPE and ID exactly from gnoblinctl input list; they identify a configured XKB source.

gnoblinctl input orientation-lock reads the current orientation-lock record through input.orientation_lock. Pass on or off to set the lock; pass inherit to clear the runtime override and restore the configured value or follow the system setting. This command does not write the config file.

gnoblinctl input orientation-lock
gnoblinctl input orientation-lock on
gnoblinctl input orientation-lock inherit

The Lua-only aliases gnoblin.input.list() and gnoblin.input.current() are not socket methods. Socket clients use the names above.

Animations

Use animation previews to inspect registered curves for compatible window and layer-shell targets. A preview starts paused and changes only the target's visual transform; it does not minimize or close the target.

gnoblinctl animation list
gnoblinctl animation get gnome-open
gnoblinctl animation surfaces
gnoblinctl animation inspect gnome-open --window active
session=$(gnoblinctl animation preview gnome-open --window active --format table | sed -n 's/^session: //p')
gnoblinctl animation seek "$session" 50
gnoblinctl animation step "$session" 16
gnoblinctl animation play "$session"
gnoblinctl animation pause "$session"
gnoblinctl animation stop "$session"

Omitting --window uses the active window. For a layer-shell target, pass --layer ID or --namespace NAME. The namespace must match exactly one visible surface.

seek accepts an integer percentage from 0 to 100. step accepts elapsed time in milliseconds. play and pause change playback; stop restores the target’s original visual state.

Seeking to 100% keeps the last frame visible until stop.

inspect --event EVENT selects an event variant. preview --autoplay starts playback immediately.

animation surfaces prints layer surface IDs, namespaces, and titles. Layer surfaces are not included in window list.

The Lua console exposes the same snapshot through gnoblin.animations.surfaces(). Its surfaces array and nested records are read-only:

for _, surface in ipairs(gnoblin.animations.surfaces().surfaces) do
    print(surface.id, surface.namespace, surface.title)
end

Inspect the resolved animation for a visible target with gnoblin.animations.inspect {name, target, event?, target_type?}. The result and its nested tables are read-only:

local inspection = gnoblin.animations.inspect {
    name = "gnome-open",
    target = "active",
}
print(inspection.event, inspection.duration)

animation list marks entries that current preview targets can run with previewable.

animation get NAME prints the configured record for an exact name and returns null when no animation matches. Use --json in scripts.

inspect --event EVENT accepts the animation events supported by the config, such as open, close, focus, minimize, and workspace-switch. The animation guide lists the events and their target types.

Workspace and shadow animations run on internal compositor actors or effects, so the current CLI cannot preview them against a window or layer surface.

See the animation guide for custom curves, events and GNOME-style presets.