Sway Per-window Keyboard Layout

expand_circle_right February 10, 2026

In Sway, swaymsg -m is to monitor (watch) events. For example, swaymsg -m -t subscribe '["window"]' is to watch (monitor) window event in Sway. Sway (5), Sway-ipc (7) and swaymsg (1) man pages are to read.

Based on event monitoring of swaymsg -m -t subscribe '["window", "input"]', the following script was written to implement per-window keyboard layout in sway.

#!/bin/dash

if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]; then
    exit 0
fi
trap 'rm "$LOGFI"' EXIT
trap 'exit 0' INT
SCRIPTNAME="$(basename -- "$0")"
if pidof -x "$SCRIPTNAME" -o "$$"; then
    pkill -INT "$SCRIPTNAME"
    exit 0
fi
MSHTD=/tmp/minsoehan.msh.9.d
LOGFI="$MSHTD"/mswaykbd.log
KBID="1:1:AT_Translated_Set_2_keyboard"
mkdir -p "$MSHTD"
echo "0:0" > "$LOGFI"
swaymsg -m -t subscribe '["window", "input"]' | jq -r --unbuffered '
    if .change == "close" then
        "CLOSE:" + (.container.id | tostring)
    elif .change == "focus" then
        "FOCUS:" + (.container.id | tostring)
    elif .input.identifier == "'$KBID'" then
        "KBLCH:" + (.input.xkb_active_layout_index | tostring)
    else
        empty
    end' | while read -r EVENT; do
    TYPE=$(echo "$EVENT" | cut -d ':' -f 1)
    VALU=$(echo "$EVENT" | cut -d ':' -f 2)
    case $(echo "$EVENT" | cut -d ':' -f1) in
        "CLOSE")
            TODELE="$VALU"
            ;;
        "FOCUS")
            PREEVT=$(tail -n 2 "$LOGFI" | head -n 1)
            PRECTN=$(echo "$PREEVT" | cut -d ':' -f 1)
            if [ "$VALU" -eq "$PRECTN" ]; then
                PREKBL=$(echo "$PREEVT" | cut -d ':' -f 2)
            else
                PREKBL=$(grep ^"$VALU": "$LOGFI" | tail -n 1 | cut -d ':' -f 2)
            fi
            if [ -z "$PREKBL" ]; then
                PREKBL=0
            fi
            NOWKBL=$(swaymsg -t get_inputs | jq -r --arg id "$KBID" '.[] | select(.identifier == $id) | .xkb_active_layout_index')
            if [ "$PREKBL" -ne "$NOWKBL" ]; then
                swaymsg input type:keyboard xkb_switch_layout "$PREKBL"
            fi
            echo "${VALU}:${PREKBL}" >> "$LOGFI"
            if [ -n "$TODELE" ]; then
                sed -i "/^${TODELE}:/d" "$LOGFI"
                unset TODELE
            fi
            ;;
        "KBLCH")
            CTNID=$(swaymsg -t get_tree | jq -r '.. | try select(.focused == true) | .id')
            echo "${CTNID}:${VALU}" >> "$LOGFI"
            ;;
    esac
done

And the following script is to have keyboard layout id on the status bar:

#!/bin/dash

if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]; then
    exit 0
fi

if [ -n "$2" ] && [ "$1" -eq "$1" ] 2>/dev/null; then
    :
else
    exit 0
fi

MSKI=/dev/shm/mski

trap 'rm -f /dev/shm/mski; pkill -SIGRTMIN+"$1" "$2"' EXIT
trap 'exit 0' INT

SCRIPTNAME="$(basename -- "$0")"
if pidof -xq "$SCRIPTNAME" -o "$$"; then
    pkill -INT "$SCRIPTNAME"
fi

swaymsg -t get_inputs | jq -r '.[] | select(.identifier == "1:1:AT_Translated_Set_2_keyboard").xkb_active_layout_index' > "$MSKI"
pkill -SIGRTMIN+"$1" "$2"

swaymsg -m -t subscribe '["input"]' | jq -r --unbuffered '.input | select(.identifier == "1:1:AT_Translated_Set_2_keyboard").xkb_active_layout_index' | while read INDEX; do
echo "$INDEX" > "$MSKI"
pkill -SIGRTMIN+"$1" "$2"
done

The script is to run with two parameters, first is number of SIGRTMIN and second is the script name that is to update statusbar on the fly. For instance, kbid 4 status.

Categories • Tech • Dash

Tags • Dash • Sway • Xkb