Status Bar

Mosaico includes a configurable status bar that sits at the top of each monitor. It is configured in ~/.config/mosaico/bar.toml.

Configuration

enabled = true
height = 28
monitor = "all"      # "all", "primary", or 0-based index

[colors]
background = "base"      # Named theme color or hex
foreground = "text"
accent = "blue"

[[left]]
type = "workspaces"

[[center]]
type = "clock"
format = "%H:%M"

[[right]]
type = "cpu"

General Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
`enabled`	bool	`true`	Show or hide the bar
`height`	int	`28`	Bar height in pixels
`monitor`	string	`"all"`	Which monitors show the bar

The monitor field accepts:

"all" – show on every monitor
"primary" – show only on the primary monitor
A number (e.g. 0, 1) – show on a specific monitor by index

Colors can be specified as hex values ("#1e1e2e") or as named theme colors ("blue", "green", "mauve", etc.). The named-color palette depends on the active theme family (Catppuccin, Rosé Pine, Tokyo Night); see Theming for the full list per family.

Setting	Description
`background`	Bar background color
`foreground`	Default text color
`accent`	Highlight color for active elements

Widgets

Widgets are placed in [[left]], [[center]], or [[right]] arrays.

Widget	Description	Options
`workspaces`	Workspace indicator pills	–
`active_window`	Icon of the focused window	–
`layout`	Current layout mode	–
`clock`	Current time	`format` (strftime)
`date`	Current date	`format` (strftime)
`ram`	RAM usage percentage	–
`cpu`	CPU usage percentage	–
`update`	Update indicator	–
`media`	Currently playing track	`max_length`
`paused`	Shown (in red) when hotkeys are paused	`color`

The active_window widget displays the application icon of the currently focused window. It extracts the icon from the running process and renders it as a bitmap in the bar. When no window is focused or the icon cannot be determined, the widget is hidden automatically.

The media widget shows the currently playing track (“Artist - Title”) using the Windows media transport controls API (GSMTC). It works with Spotify, browser media (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.), VLC, and any app that integrates with Windows media controls. When nothing is playing, the widget is hidden automatically. Long titles are truncated to max_length characters (default 40) with an ellipsis. Some third-party media apps may not register with GSMTC and will not be detected.

[[right]]
type = "media"
icon = "\uF001"       # music note icon
max_length = 40       # truncate long titles

Example: Full Bar

[[left]]
type = "workspaces"

[[left]]
type = "active_window"

[[left]]
type = "layout"

[[center]]
type = "clock"
format = "%H:%M"

[[right]]
type = "media"
icon = "\uF001"
max_length = 40

[[right]]
type = "cpu"

[[right]]
type = "ram"

[[right]]
type = "date"
format = "%a %d %b"

The paused widget is auto-hidden when hotkeys are active and shown in red when they are paused. It is included in the default config and is added automatically to existing bar.toml files on daemon startup (along with any other new default widgets from future versions).

Work Area

The bar reserves space at the top of the monitor. The tiling layout automatically accounts for the bar height so windows do not overlap it.

Hot-Reload

Changes to bar.toml are automatically applied while the daemon is running. The bar is recreated with the new settings and all monitors are retiled.

Keyboard shortcuts

Mosaico