Unified Taskbar

A Dank Material Shell plugin that displays running applications grouped by workspace in pill-shaped containers on the DankBar.

Features

• Windows organized by workspace in pill-shaped containers
• Multi-compositor support: Niri, Hyprland, Sway, DWL, Scroll, Miracle
• Click workspace pills to switch workspaces
• Click to focus windows, middle-click to close, right-click for context menu
• Optional app grouping with window count badges
• Right-click menu with application desktop-entry actions (when supplied), Close, and grouped-window selection/Close All when Group by App is enabled. Close targets the representative window; Close All affects only the selected workspace/app group.
• Compact icon-only mode
• Horizontal and vertical bar support

Settings

Setting	Description
Compact Mode	Show only app icons without window titles
Group by App	Collapse multiple windows of the same app into one entry with a count badge
Show All Monitors	Show workspaces from all monitors instead of only the current one
Reverse Monitor Order	Reverse the order in which monitors are displayed when showing all monitors
Filled Pills (Vertical)	Use solid filled workspace pills instead of outlined borders
Icon Padding	Padding around the icon group inside each workspace pill. Set to 0 for a flush look
Item Spacing	Spacing between individual app icons within a workspace
Workspace Spacing	Spacing between workspace pills

Installation

Via DMS Settings

Open settings (Mod + ,) → Plugins → Browse → search "Unified Taskbar"

Via CLI

dms plugins install unifiedTaskbar

Manual

git clone https://github.com/jslandau/dms-unified-taskbar.git \
  ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/UnifiedTaskbar
dms restart

Requirements

• Dank Material Shell >= 1.2.0

Development / Testing

The JavaScript tests use Node.js 18 or newer and the built-in node:test runner. Run the complete dependency-free suite (including workspace dispatch, TaskbarModel behavior, and QML-runner failure-mode tests) with:

node --test tests/*.test.js

The production-QML integration scenario requires Quickshell 0.3.1 (the installed runtime is Quickshell 0.3.1 on Arch Linux). It launches the standalone harness with an offscreen Qt surface and the software Qt Quick backend, so it does not require a running DMS session:

node tests/run-qml-tests.js

The runner fails on a missing qs executable, missing imports/runtime, assertion failures, non-zero exits, or a timeout; it does not silently skip integration coverage. To select a specific executable, use either supported override:

QS_EXECUTABLE=/path/to/qs node tests/run-qml-tests.js
# or
QS_TEST_EXECUTABLE=/path/to/qs node tests/run-qml-tests.js

The runner supplies QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen and QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software and stages the production components in a unique temporary configuration, cleaned after each run. A warning that WAYLAND_DISPLAY is present while using offscreen mode is expected; destroyed-object warnings fail the suite.

Verified development runtime: Dank Material Shell v1.5.3, Quickshell 0.3.1, and Niri 26.04 (8ed0da4). The full plugin smoke checklist is only partially completed (results below). Use this manual Niri checklist in both horizontal and vertical modes:

• Exercise grouped and ungrouped entries; switch between populated and empty workspaces.
• Focus and cycle windows, change titles, and verify highlights and titles are current.
• Close the first and middle entries; confirm the current action target is not stale.
• Move windows between workspaces and outputs; verify stable identity and correct membership.
• Toggle follow-focus, all-monitors, and reverse-monitor-order settings.
• Test left-click, middle-click, and right-click/context-menu actions.
• Record DMS/Quickshell versions and note any stale titles, incorrect highlights, or QML warnings.

The isolated harness does not replace this live-session validation and does not claim an automated Niri smoke result. Track this checklist as niri_taskbar_smoke: partially completed. Live validation on 2026-09-07 loaded the updated plugin in normal systemd-managed DMS, exercised 30 populated/empty workspace switches in each orientation, and restored the bottom bar. No taskbar-related TypeErrors, ReferenceErrors, binding loops, or destroyed-object warnings were found in the checked journal. The operator confirmed correct highlights, titles, and left-click behavior in horizontal non-compact mode. Vertical/compact visual checks, grouping/settings permutations, and window movement/close stress remain unverified; only one output was connected.

Before/after profiling was attempted with qmlprofiler attached to Quickshell's debug port, explicitly stopping recording and flushing before disconnecting. Each version ran the same 60-workspace-switch sequence. Both retry traces were saved with successful profiler exits, but contained many negative-duration ranges (54,642/114,176 before; 52,445/110,631 after), so timing totals are not accepted as performance evidence. Event counts support reduced reactive work: entryData evaluations 2,400 → 0, title evaluations 1,200 → 0, and focus-expression evaluations 2,400 → 160. These are single-run diagnostic counts, not a timing or FPS benchmark; trustworthy comparative timing and many-window close profiling remain pending. Traces and the old installed-plugin backup are under ~/.local/share/polytoken/sessions/0af42y-rack/live-validation/ (before-retry.qtd, after.qtd, plugin-before/). Normal DMS was restored with the updated plugin and debugging disabled.

The operator also verified middle-click close. The then-installed right-click menu showed only Close, which inspection confirmed was hard-coded rather than a Niri capability-discovery failure. The subsequent context-menu enhancement adds grouped-window selection, desktop-entry actions, and Close All. Live testing confirmed desktop actions (New Window), grouped-title selection, and Close All. Grouped actions initially failed because plugin-only reload retained an old EntryRecord component; diagnostic inspection showed the new methods were undefined. A full DMS restart loaded the new components and the operator confirmed both actions work. Restart DMS after changing dependent QML component APIs; plugin-only reload may retain cached dependencies. The menu background was made opaque after readability feedback.

The public model snapshot contains compositor, selected workspaces, the complete ordered windows list, and groupByApp. Callers do not supply keys: the production model derives native Niri keys from niriWindowId and otherwise assigns monotonic keys to the actual toplevel object. Older inputs without native IDs have object-lifetime stability only, not continuity across unidentified wrapper replacement. Snapshot collection still takes linear work on focus changes; unchanged entry models are retained. DWL retains the existing all-windows-on-client-tags approximation, with unavoidable output replication; workspace sorting is unchanged. The installed DMS 1.5.3 has renamed the legacy DWL service, so legacy DWL full-shell integration is not validated here.

Automated validation for this change: 32 Node tests and 8 real-Quickshell scenarios passed. The QML scenarios cover keyed delegate reorder/removal, snapshot coalescing, populated active/focus/title updates, empty-workspace transitions, current-wrapper actions/grouped cycling, remove/re-add before retirement, and actual teardown with a queued reconciliation. Tests execute production JS and QML; they do not load DMS services or the full plugin UI.

License

MIT