Niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor that arranges windows in columns on an infinite horizontal strip, with dynamic workspaces arranged vertically and independent window management per monitor.
The compositor solves the problem of traditional tiling managers where opening new windows forces existing ones to resize. Niri's approach keeps windows in a scrollable column layout where new windows never cause existing ones to shrink. Each monitor maintains its own separate window strip and workspace set, with workspaces that are truly dynamic—there is always an empty workspace available below the current ones. The system preserves workspace arrangements across monitor disconnections and reconnections, moving workspaces back to their original monitor when it reconnects.
Niri suits users who want a tiling window manager without the constraint of fitting everything on screen at once, and who value smooth animations and visual polish. The compositor includes touchpad and mouse gestures, window tabbing, configurable layout options with gradient borders, background blur effects, and a zoomed overview for navigating workspaces. It supports screencasting through xdg-desktop-portal-gnome with the ability to block sensitive windows from captures. The tool works with screen readers and offers live-reloading configuration. Anyone considering adoption should note that the compositor is built in Rust using the Smithay framework and targets Wayland systems.
The project receives issues from both core maintainers and outside users without being overwhelmed by external support requests. Maintainers typically respond to new issues and pull requests within hours. Work in the issue tracker centers on bugs, input handling, and non-application concerns, indicating active attention to core compositor functionality and user interaction rather than application-specific features.
