CanvasWM is a Wayland compositor that replaces the traditional desktop metaphor with an infinite 2D canvas. Instead of switching between virtual desktops or fighting with tiling layouts, you place windows anywhere on an unbounded surface and navigate with pan and zoom — just like Figma, Miro, or a maps application.

• Infinite canvas — windows live in a continuous 2D coordinate space with no edges
• Zoom to overview — zoom out to see all your windows at once, zoom in to focus
• Momentum scrolling — physics-based pan with natural deceleration
• Spatial memory — remember where things are by their position, not their workspace number

• Rust 1.75+ (2021 edition)
• Wayland development libraries
• Linux with a Wayland-capable graphics driver

sudo apt install libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libudev-dev libinput-dev \
  libgbm-dev libdrm-dev libseat-dev libsystemd-dev

sudo dnf install wayland-devel libxkbcommon-devel systemd-devel libinput-devel \
  mesa-libgbm-devel libdrm-devel libseat-devel

sudo pacman -S wayland libxkbcommon libinput libseat mesa

git clone https://github.com/Fanaperana/canvaswm.git
cd canvaswm
cargo build --release

cargo run

./target/release/canvaswm --backend=drm

./target/release/canvaswm --check-config

CanvasWM loads configuration from ~/.config/canvaswm/ in TOML, JSON, or YAML format.

[background]
mode = "dots"           # "shader", "image", "dots", or "solid"
color = [0.08, 0.08, 0.12, 1.0]
grid_spacing = 60.0
dot_size = 2.0
dot_color = [0.3, 0.3, 0.4, 0.4]
# shader_path = "~/.config/canvaswm/bg.glsl"
# image_path = "~/.config/canvaswm/wallpaper.png"

[zoom]
step = 1.1
fit_padding = 100.0
max_zoom = 1.0

[scroll]
speed = 1.5
friction = 0.94

[effects]
shadows = true
shadow_radius = 24.0
corner_rounding = true
corner_radius = 12.0

[decorations]
mode = "server"         # "server", "client", or "none"
border_width = 2.0
focused_color = [0.4, 0.5, 0.9, 1.0]
unfocused_color = [0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 1.0]

[navigation]
animation_speed = 0.3
nudge_step = 20
pan_step = 100

[snap]
enabled = true
gap = 10
activation_distance = 20
break_force = 50

# Per-app rules
[[window_rules]]
app_id = "firefox"
pinned = true
opacity = 1.0

[[autostart]]
command = "waybar"

CanvasWM supports live GLSL fragment shaders as backgrounds with these uniforms:

CanvasWM is structured as a Rust workspace with five crates:

canvaswm/
├── canvaswm-canvas       # Pure math — viewport transforms, momentum physics, snapping
├── canvaswm-config       # TOML/JSON/YAML config parsing with hot-reload
├── canvaswm-input        # Action and direction type definitions
├── canvaswm-render       # GLSL shaders, decorations, backgrounds, minimap, elements
└── canvaswm-compositor   # Main binary — Smithay event loop, input handling, IPC

The canvas and config crates have zero Wayland dependencies, making them independently testable. The render crate depends only on Smithay's renderer types. The compositor crate wires everything together.

• Multi-pass Kawase blur for window backgrounds
• DRM/KMS bare-metal backend (event loop completion)
• Layer-shell protocol (status bars, launchers)
• XWayland window rendering
• Workspace presets (save/restore canvas layouts)
• Touchpad gesture recognition (three-finger pan, pinch zoom)
• Screencopy protocol for screenshots

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide and Code of Conduct before opening a PR.

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

• Smithay — the Wayland compositor library that makes this possible
• wlroots — for pioneering modular compositor architecture
• The Wayland protocol community for the protocol specifications