Session and UI

Ending the session, and the semantic tree that lets a script press the shell’s own controls.

Verb	What it does
`lock`	Locks the session: every monitor shows the date, the time, who is signed in and a password field over its wallpaper
`session menu`	Opens the Session Surface: lock, sleep, restart, power off and log out
`session suspend`	Asks logind to suspend at once
`session reboot\|poweroff\|logout`	Counts down 60 s on every island first, with Cancel and a button to do it now
`ui describe [--window <name>]`	Prints the windows as a JSON tree of named nodes
`ui press\|focus <name>`	Clicks the node, or focuses a text input, by name through the shell’s own input path
`ui type <name> <text>`	Focuses the text input and types the text as keys to its window
`ui key <name> <key>`	Sends one key, after any of `ctrl+`, `alt+`, `shift+`, `super+`
`ui scroll <name> <lines>`	Wheel lines over the node, positive down
`ui wait <name> [--timeout <seconds>]`	Returns 0 once the node is in the tree, 1 after 5 s (up to 600 s with `--timeout`)

kanade lock
kanade ui describe --window kanade-dock
kanade ui press wifi
kanade ui wait launcher/result#1 --timeout 30

lock exits 0 once niri holds the lock for that call, 1 when niri refuses it, and 3 if not within 5 s or when a password typed on it is accepted or being checked.

ui describe prints id, parent, role, bounds, label, value, focused, pressed, disabled, selected, checked and secret, as of each window’s last frame. Ids are stable paths like dock/app or launcher/result#2. ui press never moves your pointer or focus: it goes through the shell’s own input path.

session reboot, poweroff and logout only warn about what would be lost; nothing stops the action, and Kanade does not let polkit ask for a password, so a request that needs one is refused.

Session and UI

See also