Getting Started

Installation

AUR

Arch Linux users can install niji from the AUR using the niji-git package.

Nix

On Unix systems using Nix, niji can be easily installed, as well as configured with Home Manager if desired.

niji can be installed and configured with or without the use of flakes, although using flakes is recommended. Either case consists of first declaring niji as a source to fetch, then configuring your nixpkgs to utilize the niji overlay, importing the Home Manager module, and finally configuring your niji installation.

Nix Home Manager (recommended)

Home Manager Installation with Flakes

flake.nix

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";

    home-manager = {
      url = "github:nix-community/home-manager";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
    niji = {
      url = "github:lina-roether/niji";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    };
  };
  outputs = { nixpkgs, home-manager, niji, ...}:
    let
      pkgs = import nixpkgs {
        overlays = [ niji.overlays.default ];
      };
    in
    {
      homeConfigurations = {
        "your-username" = home-manager.lib.homeManagerConfiguration {
          pkgs = import nixpkgs { system = "x86_64-linux"; };
          modules = [
            ./home.nix
            # Without the following you may run into an infinite recursion error!
            home-manager.extraSpecialArgs = { inherit niji pkgs; };
          ];
        };
      };
  };
}

default.nix

{ pkgs, niji, ...}:
{
  imports = [
    ${niji}/home-module.nix
  ];
  programs.niji = {
    enable = true;
    settings = {
      modules = [
        "sway"
      ];
    };
  };
}

Home Manager Installation without Flakes

Example:

default.nix

{pkgs, ...}:
let
  niji = builtins.fetchGit {
    url = "https://github.com/lina-roether/niji";
    ref = "main";
  };
in {
  nixpkgs.overlays = [
    (import ("${niji}/overlay.nix"))
  ];
  imports = [
    "${niji}/home-module.nix"
  ];

  programs.niji = {
    enable = true;
    settings = {
      modules = [ "sway" ];
    };
  };
}

NixOS Package

On NixOS without Home Manager, niji can be installed by adding it to your system packages. Note that this will require manually creating the config.toml for niji to work.

{pkgs, ...}:
let
  niji = builtins.fetchGit {
    url = "https://github.com/lina-roether/niji";
    ref = "main";
  };
in {
  nixpkgs.overlays = [
    (import ("${niji}/overlay.nix"))
  ];
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    niji
  ];
}

Nix Environment Installation

On non-NixOS systems without Home Manager, niji can be installed into the Nix environment using nix-env. Note that this will require manually creating the config.toml for niji to work, since nix-env can’t use the niji Home Manager module.

$ nix-env niji-main -i -f https://github.com/lina-roether/niji/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

Manually

To install niji manually from source, do the following steps:

1. Make sure you have the rust toolchain and just installed
2. Clone the git repository and enter the folder
3. Build the project using just build
4. Install niji using sudo just install

Initial Configuration

Create the configuration file at ~/.config/niji/config.toml. The first step is to choose which modules to use. Take a look at Built-in Modules for a list of available modules. Simply set your desired modules using this syntax:

modules = ["hyprland", "waybar"]

Afterwards, you should set font_family, cursor_theme and cursor_size as basic preferences. Make sure you have the cursor theme installed that you select.

modules = ["hyprland", "waybar"]

[global]
font_family = "Fira Sans"
cursor_theme = "Adwaita"
cursor_size = 22

Lastly, be sure to refer to the documentation of each of your selected modules and check for available configuration options and additional necessary steps for activation.

You can now list available themes using niji theme list, and preview them using niji theme preview <name>. You can also choose an accent color out of pink, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, black and white.

If you’ve picked a theme and accent color, apply it using:

niji theme set <theme> --accent <accent>

Next Steps

After the initial setup, you may want to consider taking a look at Configuration for some advanced configuration options.

If you want to use a custom theme, refer to Custom Themes.

If you want to apply your theme to an application that isn’t supported out of the box, you can take a look at Custom Modules.