niri rules

Kanade changes niri’s config only when you ask it to (kanade niri-config), so these three layer rules are yours to add. The installer’s default config has the first two and leaves the third commented out.

Wallpaper in the overview

awww draws on a Background layer named awww-daemon. niri shows such a layer in the overview and between workspaces only with place-within-backdrop (niri 25.05 or later); without it the overview shows niri’s background color.

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^awww-daemon"
    place-within-backdrop true
}

Blur behind panes

The blur finish asks niri to blur what lies behind the Island, Dock and Banners, which needs niri 26.04 or later. niri blurs a layer’s request as xray — the wallpaper only — so windows behind a pane would show through sharp. This turns xray off for Kanade’s layers.

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^kanade(-dock|-banners)?$"

    background-effect {
        xray false
    }
}

niri marks non-xray effects experimental and recomputes them whenever what lies behind changes, so they cost more GPU than xray.

Banners out of screencasts

A Banner shows a notification’s text, and a screencast (a browser share, OBS) shows the Banner too. Use "screencast", not "screen-capture", which would also blank Kanade’s privacy indicators. Leave the kanade namespace alone: the Island draws the privacy dots, which must stay visible.

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^kanade-banners$"

    block-out-from "screencast"
}

It is off by default, because a viewer then never sees a Banner you wanted to show.

Note

kanade doctor warns while the wallpaper Module is on and no rule places awww-daemon in the backdrop, and while the finish is blur and no rule sets xray false. It never warns about the Banner rule. A pattern it cannot read as plain text counts as matching, so it never warns wrongly.

See also

Installation, appearance configuration, and the niri config CLI.