Hyprland Control

Drive the Hyprland desktop with hyprctl. Everything is queryable as JSON (-j) and pipeable through jq, and every action is a dispatch.

Only works on Hyprland (echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP → Hyprland). On X11 use wmctrl/xdotool instead.

Query state (read-only, always safe)

hyprctl clients -j        # all windows: class, title, address, at[x,y], size[w,h], workspace, pid
hyprctl activewindow -j   # the focused window
hyprctl workspaces -j     # all workspaces
hyprctl activeworkspace -j
hyprctl monitors -j       # outputs: name, resolution, scale, position, focused
hyprctl cursorpos         # "X, Y" in logical pixels
hyprctl devices -j        # keyboards, mice

Useful extractions:

# active window class + title
hyprctl activewindow -j | jq -r '.class + " — " + .title'
# find a window's address by class
hyprctl clients -j | jq -r '.[] | select(.class=="firefox") | .address'
# list "class | title | workspace" for every window
hyprctl clients -j | jq -r '.[] | "\(.class)\t\(.title)\tws\(.workspace.id)"'

A window is targeted by a selector: address:0x… (most precise), class:…, initialclass:…, title:…, initialtitle:…, or pid:….

Act (dispatch)

# focus
hyprctl dispatch focuswindow address:0x55feac7945f0
hyprctl dispatch focuswindow class:org.kde.konsole
hyprctl dispatch movefocus l            # l/r/u/d — focus neighbour

# workspaces
hyprctl dispatch workspace 3            # switch to workspace 3
hyprctl dispatch movetoworkspace 3      # move active window to ws 3 (and follow)
hyprctl dispatch movetoworkspacesilent 3,address:0x…   # move a specific window, don't follow

# move / resize the active (or addressed) window
hyprctl dispatch togglefloating         # floating windows can be placed freely
hyprctl dispatch movewindowpixel "exact 100 100,address:0x…"
hyprctl dispatch resizewindowpixel "exact 1280 800,address:0x…"
hyprctl dispatch fullscreen 1           # 0=full, 1=maximize
hyprctl dispatch closewindow address:0x…

# cursor
hyprctl dispatch movecursor 960 540     # absolute, logical pixels

Launch an app (optionally onto a workspace)

hyprctl dispatch exec firefox
# launch silently onto workspace 4 without switching to it:
hyprctl dispatch exec "[workspace 4 silent] firefox"
# launch floating, centered:
hyprctl dispatch exec "[float; center] kitty"

After launching, poll hyprctl clients -j for the new window's address before acting on it — it isn't there instantly.

Batch several actions

hyprctl --batch "dispatch workspace 2 ; dispatch exec kitty ; dispatch movecursor 100 100"

Runtime config tweaks

hyprctl keyword general:gaps_out 5      # change a setting live (not persisted)
hyprctl reload                          # reload hyprland.conf

Notes & gotchas

• Coordinates are logical pixels. If a monitor has scale ≠ 1 (hyprctl monitors -j | jq '.[].scale'), logical ≠ physical — matters when pairing with screenshots (see the screen-capture and visual-computer-use-loop skills).
• Multi-monitor: window at is global across all outputs; account for monitor position offsets.
• Tiled windows ignore pixel moves/resizes — togglefloating first.
• Confirm before closewindow on anything with unsaved work.

Pairs with

• screen-capture — see what's on screen.
• gui-input-automation — click/type into the window you focused.
• clipboard-and-notifications — notify-send to report what you did.