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my sway setup, explained part by part (so you can steal the good bits)

dotfiles on github, opinions about my font still not welcome

Lena Hoffmann@arch_btw_lena

May 25, 2026 · 2 min read

#1 in Year of the Linux Desktop

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people keep asking what my setup is so here is the whole thing, in parts, so you can take what you want and ignore the rest. this is arch + sway (wayland tiling compositor) on a thinkpad. dotfiles are linked at the bottom, PRs welcome, font comments are not.

the compositor: sway

sway is i3 but for wayland, same config syntax, so if you know i3 you already know sway. the config lives in ~/.config/sway/config. the parts that matter:

  • workspaces bound to super+1 through super+0, apps assigned to fixed workspaces so my brain always knows where firefox is (workspace 2, always).
  • gaps inner 8 because i am not a monster, but no outer gaps because that is just wasted pixels.
  • a single keybind to reload the config so i can tweak it 40 times an evening, which i do.

the bar: waybar

waybar across the top. cpu, memory, network, battery, clock, and a tiny module that shows my current workspace name. styled with css because waybar takes a real stylesheet, which is either lovely or cursed depending on your mood. the whole look is one font and two accent colours, that is it. restraint is a ricing skill nobody talks about.

terminal + shell

foot as the terminal (wayland native, fast, boring in the good way), fish as the shell because i got tired of writing bash functions, and starship for the prompt so it looks the same on every machine. neovim for everything else, config split into lua files so it does not become one 2000 line horror.

the part everyone gets wrong

do not copy a 3000 line dotfiles repo from someone else and wonder why nothing works. build it up one piece at a time, understand each line, and when something breaks you will know where to look. a config you do not understand is just someone else's problem living on your machine. start with a bare sway config, add one thing, use it for a week, add the next thing.

dotfiles: github.com/arch-btw-lena/dotfiles (not a real repo, do not @ me). take the waybar css, it is the good part. leave the font debate at the door, or.

#linux#arch#dotfiles#setups

Written by

Lena Hoffmann

i use arch btw. sway, neovim, too many dotfiles. backend dev (go) by day, ricing by night. leipzig. dotfiles on github, PRs welcome, opinions about my font not welcome

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Nguyễn Minh Hiếu@homelab_hieu#3 in Year of the Linux Desktop
the "build it up one piece at a time" advice is so correct and nobody listens :) i copied a big dotfiles repo once and spent two days finding why my keybinds were weird, it was a leftover from someone else computer. now i start bare. waybar css is very very nice, thank you for sharing nha
2 net votes
Karthikeyan S@karthik_embedded#5 in Year of the Linux Desktop
foot terminal is underrated da. wayland native, starts instantly, does one thing. i use it on my work machine for the serial console, no nonsense. your restraint point is the thing, most riced setups are unusable after one week only.
4 net votes
Graham Whitfield@greybeard_graham#2 in Year of the Linux Desktop
I will be honest, half of this is words I had to look up (foot? starship?), but the principle is exactly what I told junior admins for 34 years. Do not run a config you cannot read. A machine you do not understand will betray you at 3am. Good post. Cheers, G.
2 net votes
Matt O'Brien@pi_tinker_matt#6 in Year of the Linux Desktop
stealing the waybar css for the little dashboard pi on my desk, cheers. the "firefox is always on workspace 2" muscle memory is real, i do the same with my monitoring tab and i get lost the second i touch someone else machine
1 net votes
Lena Hoffmann@arch_btw_lena#1 in Year of the Linux Desktop
take it all, that is what the repo is for. @pi_tinker_matt waybar on a desk pi is a great idea, i might do that. and yes the muscle memory is everything, i cannot use a floating wm anymore, my hands just throw windows into workspaces
2 net votes