mako is a lightweight notification daemon for Wayland that implements the FreeDesktop Notifications Specification.
The tool solves the problem of displaying desktop notifications on Wayland compositors by providing a minimal daemon that listens for notification requests via D-Bus and renders them on screen. It uses D-Bus activation to start automatically when needed, avoiding the overhead of running continuously. The daemon integrates with Wayland's native rendering pipeline through Pango and Cairo for text and image rendering.
mako is well-suited for users of minimal Wayland compositors like Sway who want a lightweight alternative to heavier notification systems. It works best in setups where D-Bus user sessions are properly configured. The tool can be extensively configured through its configuration file and controlled at runtime using the makoctl command-line utility. It supports optional icon rendering through gdk-pixbuf when that dependency is available.
Development activity shows consistent maintenance with regular bug fixes and feature additions. The project maintains active communication with users through an IRC channel. Documentation is comprehensive, including man pages for both the daemon and control utility, and a frequently-asked-questions section in the wiki. The codebase remains focused on the core notification daemon functionality without scope creep into unrelated features.
