How iNiR fits together

iNiR is a few parts that each do one job. You install one thing and inir update keeps all of them current, so none of this needs your attention. It is here for the curious, and for anyone who wants to change a part.

MaterialFamily

WaffleFamily

iRiSFamily

Themes, widgets, web appsPlugins

The baseServices, Settings, IPC, setup, update, wizard

qs-rsRuntime: loads and draws the shell

inir-accelHelpers: colours, thumbnails, images

NiriCompositor: your windows

inirThe command you type

inir.spaceHub catalogue, releases, docs

Point at a part to see where it lives

The short version

• Niri puts your windows on screen. iNiR doesn’t replace it; it draws everything around the windows.
• The base (this repo) is the shell’s engine: services, Settings, the welcome wizard, setup and updates. It has no look of its own.
• Families are the looks. Material, Waffle and iRiS are plugins from the Hub, and so are themes, widgets and web apps.
• The runtime draws the shell. qs-rs does it, and Quickshell stays as the fallback.
• inir-accel does the heavy work the shell asks for: colours from the wallpaper, editor themes (VSCode, OpenCode, Zed), thumbnails, region tools.
• The inir command is what you type: inir update, inir doctor, inir hub, inir bind.
• inir.space is where your machine fetches all of it: the Hub catalogue, the releases and these docs.

The parts

Part	What it does	Repo
The base	Services, config, the Settings core, IPC, setup, update, the welcome wizard, the plugin host	snowarch/iNiR
Families and plugins	Material, Waffle, iRiS, colour themes, iRiS themes, widgets, web apps	snowarch/inir-hub
qs-rs	The runtime that loads the shell and draws it, Quickshell written again in Rust	snowarch/qs-rs
inir-accel	Native helpers: wallpaper colours, editor themes, thumbnails, image work	snowarch/inir-accel
inir-cli	The inir command	snowarch/inir-cli
inir.space	The site, these docs, the Hub catalogue and the release list	snowarch/inir-site

Where each one lives on your machine

Path	What
The folder you cloned, usually ~/inir	The base. inir update pulls new versions into it
~/.config/quickshell/inir/	The shell that runs: the base copied from your clone, with your families linked in
~/.local/share/inir/plugins/	Installed families and other plugins from the Hub
~/.local/share/inir/runtime/<version>/	qs-rs, with the Qt it was built against. current points at the one in use
~/.local/share/inir/accel/<version>/	inir-accel. current points at the one in use
~/.local/bin/inir	What runs when you type inir: it starts the shell and hands every other command on
~/.local/share/inir/cli/inir	The inir command itself
~/.local/share/inir/yt-dlp/	yt-dlp for YouTube Music, upstream’s own build. Every update brings it current
~/.config/inir/	Your settings (config.json), your widgets, themes and web apps
~/.config/niri/config.d/	Niri’s settings, one file per area. Yours: 90-user-extra.kdl
~/.local/state/quickshell/	What the shell remembers: generated colours, notifications, update snapshots

Binaries arrive prebuilt (qs-rs for x86_64, inir-accel for x86_64 and aarch64) and checked against the release’s checksums; nothing compiles on your machine. The previous runtime and helpers stay beside the new ones, so a bad update can go back. When qs-rs can’t start on a system, the shell runs on Quickshell and the next update tries again.

How an update goes

1. inir update, or the update notification, fetches the new base.
2. It fetches the families you use, the runtime, inir-accel and the inir command, and checks each download before it changes anything. A missing piece stops the update with your shell untouched.
3. It copies the new shell, links your families back in and sets right what an older version left in your config. Your settings and your own files stay.
4. It restarts the shell and checks it loads. If it doesn’t, the update goes back to the shell you had and says so.

Plugins move on their own: a new version of a family or a widget reaches you on the next inir update, or from Hub in Settings.

Changing a part

• A family, theme, widget or web app: inir-hub, with its contributing guide.
• The base: this repo. Architecture and Runtime are the map.
• Commands the shell answers: IPC.