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Mako is a lightweight notification daemon for Wayland compositors, providing desktop notifications with customizable appearance and behavior.

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Overview

Mako is configured to run automatically when Hyprland starts, handling all desktop notifications from applications and system events.

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Autostart configuration

Mako is launched automatically in the Hyprland configuration:
.config/hypr/hyprland.conf
exec-once = mako
Mako starts automatically with Hyprland and runs in the background to handle all notifications.

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Default configuration

If no configuration file exists, Mako uses sensible defaults. You can create a custom configuration at ~/.config/mako/config.

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Basic configuration example

~/.config/mako/config
# Appearance
font=JetBrainsMono Nerd Font 12
background-color=#1e1e2e
text-color=#cdd6f4
border-color=#89b4fa
border-size=2
border-radius=10

# Position and size
width=400
height=150
margin=10
padding=15

# Behavior
default-timeout=5000
ignore-timeout=0

# Icons
icons=1
max-icon-size=64
icon-path=/usr/share/icons/Papirus-Dark

# Grouping
group-by=app-name

# Urgency levels
[urgency=low]
border-color=#7f849c

[urgency=normal]
border-color=#89b4fa

[urgency=critical]
border-color=#f38ba8
default-timeout=0

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Configuration options

  • font: Font family and size for notification text
  • background-color: Notification background color
  • text-color: Text color
  • border-color: Border color around notifications
  • border-size: Border thickness in pixels
  • border-radius: Corner radius for rounded corners
  • width: Maximum width of notifications
  • height: Maximum height of notifications
  • margin: Margin between notifications and screen edge
  • padding: Internal padding within notifications
  • anchor: Screen position (top-right, top-left, bottom-right, bottom-left, top-center, bottom-center, center)
  • default-timeout: Time in milliseconds before auto-dismissal (0 = never)
  • ignore-timeout: Ignore application-specified timeout
  • max-visible: Maximum number of visible notifications
  • sort: Sorting method (+time, -time, +priority, -priority)
  • icons: Enable/disable icons (1/0)
  • max-icon-size: Maximum icon size in pixels
  • icon-path: Path to icon theme directory

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Position examples

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Top-right (default)

anchor=top-right
margin=10

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Bottom-center

anchor=bottom-center
margin=20

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Top-left

anchor=top-left
margin=10,10,0,0

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Urgency levels

Customize appearance based on notification urgency: 
[urgency=low]
border-color=#6c7086
default-timeout=3000

[urgency=normal]
border-color=#89b4fa
default-timeout=5000

[urgency=critical]
border-color=#f38ba8
text-color=#f38ba8
default-timeout=0
ignore-timeout=1
Critical notifications should have default-timeout=0 to prevent automatic dismissal.

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Per-app configuration

Customize notifications for specific applications: 
[app-name="Spotify"]
border-color=#1db954
default-timeout=3000

[app-name="Discord"]
border-color=#5865f2
group-by=app-name

[app-name="Firefox"]
default-timeout=10000

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Theming with color schemes

background-color=#1a1b26
text-color=#c0caf5
border-color=#7aa2f7

[urgency=low]
border-color=#565f89

[urgency=critical]
border-color=#f7768e

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Advanced features

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Notification grouping

group-by=app-name
max-visible=5
Groups notifications from the same application together.

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Progress bars

Mako automatically displays progress bars for notifications that include progress information: 
progress-color=over #89b4fa

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Actions support

Mako supports notification actions (buttons): 
actions=1

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Controlling Mako

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Command line operations

# Reload configuration
makoctl reload

# Dismiss all notifications
makoctl dismiss --all

# Dismiss last notification
makoctl dismiss

# Restore last dismissed notification
makoctl restore

# Toggle do-not-disturb mode
makoctl mode -t dnd

# Check Mako status
makoctl list
Add keybindings in Hyprland to control Mako:
bind = $mainMod, N, exec, makoctl dismiss
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, N, exec, makoctl dismiss --all

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Do Not Disturb mode

Create a DND mode configuration:
~/.config/mako/config
[mode=dnd]
invisible=1
Activate/deactivate: 
makoctl mode -s dnd    # Enable DND
makoctl mode -s default # Disable DND

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Testing notifications

Send test notifications to verify your configuration: 
# Basic notification
notify-send "Test" "This is a test notification"

# With urgency level
notify-send -u critical "Important" "This is critical!"

# With icon
notify-send -i firefox "Firefox" "Download complete"

# With timeout
notify-send -t 10000 "Long" "This shows for 10 seconds"

# With action buttons
notify-send -A "yes=Yes" -A "no=No" "Question" "Do you agree?"

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Common use cases

Battery warnings

Notifications for low battery levels

Volume changes

Visual feedback for volume adjustments

Media playback

Now playing information from media players

System updates

Package manager update notifications

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Troubleshooting

Check if Mako is running:
pgrep -a mako
If not running, start it:
mako &
Reload the configuration:
makoctl reload
Or restart Mako:
killall mako && mako &
Install an icon theme:
sudo pacman -S papirus-icon-theme
Set icon path in config:
icon-path=/usr/share/icons/Papirus-Dark
Adjust the margin to avoid overlapping:
anchor=top-right
margin=50,10,10,0  # top,right,bottom,left

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Integration with other tools

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Waybar integration

Add a notification indicator to Waybar: 
"custom/notifications": {
  "format": "{icon} {}",
  "format-icons": {
    "notification": "<span foreground='red'><sup></sup></span>",
    "none": "",
    "dnd-notification": "<span foreground='red'><sup></sup></span>",
    "dnd-none": ""
  },
  "return-type": "json",
  "exec": "makoctl list",
  "on-click": "makoctl dismiss",
  "on-click-right": "makoctl dismiss --all",
  "escape": true
}

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Performance considerations

  • Keep max-visible reasonable (3-5) to avoid cluttering the screen
  • Use default-timeout to automatically dismiss notifications
  • Group notifications by app to reduce visual clutter
  • Disable icons for minimal resource usage

Hyprland

Mako autostart configuration

Waybar

Integrate notification indicators

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Resources

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