wl-kbptr

Keyboard-driven mouse pointer for Wayland. Replaces mouseless, which is X11-shaped and breaks on niri.

Upstream: https://github.com/moverest/wl-kbptr

Install

Bundled with the niri install target:

just niri-window-manager

Or standalone:

yay -S wl-kbptr jq

jq is required by the wl-kbptr-other-output helper (see Multi-monitor notes). Config lives at ~/.config/wl-kbptr/config, stowed from niri/dot-config/wl-kbptr/config in this repo.

Binds

	Current monitor	Other monitor
default (tile,bisect)	`Mod+G`	`Mod+A`
+ click	`Mod+Shift+G`	`Mod+Shift+A`
coarse (tile only)	`Mod+Alt+G`	`Mod+Alt+A`
tile + split	`Mod+Ctrl+G`	`Mod+Ctrl+A`
bisect → tile	`Mod+N`	`Mod+M`
bisect → tile + click	`Mod+Shift+N`	`Mod+Shift+M`
detect + click (X-ray)	`Mod+X`	—
detect only	`Mod+Shift+X`	—

The Mod+N/Mod+M families coarse-aim first, then refine on a grid: press the chord, bisect into the rough quadrant with a/s/d/f/z/x/c/v (positional left hand), recurse as deep as you want, then press Enter to hand the current area off to tile. Tile then shows labeled cells over that area — type the label, cursor warps. Different mental model from Mod+G (“scan grid, type label”): “point first, label second”.

Other-monitor binds run ~/.local/bin/wl-kbptr-other-output (stowed from niri/dot-local/bin/wl-kbptr-other-output). The helper picks the non-focused output, calls niri msg action focus-monitor to flip keyboard focus there, then runs wl-kbptr -O <name>. Extra args are forwarded so each variant passes its own -o modes=....

Mid-stream click keys

In any mode, pressing j/k/l commits the current cursor position and clicks. No need to chain click mode for occasional clicks.

Key	Click
`j`	left
`k`	right
`l`	middle

Modes

Mode	What it does
`tile`	Grid of labeled cells. Type the label → cursor jumps to cell center.
`bisect`	Splits area into 2x4 (or 2x2 if square). One keypress per cell to refine.
`split`	Crosshair-style refinement; arrow keys (or wasd/h) shrink the area toward that side.
`click`	Commits position with a click. Default left; override with `-o mode_click.button=right`.
`floating`	Reads `WxH+X+Y` rectangles from stdin. Skip unless you script your targets.

Chains are left-to-right: each mode hands the chosen area to the next.

Cell-pick keys (`home_row_keys`)

home_row_keys is exactly 11 characters: first 8 = bisect cells, last 3 = click buttons (left/right/middle).

Our config is asdfzxcvjkl:

  keyboard          screen cells
  a s d f             0 1 2 3   (top)
  z x c v             4 5 6 7   (bottom)

  j = left click
  k = right click
  l = middle click

Left hand drives bisect, right hand drives clicks. Symmetric, all stays on the home row.

Universal keys

Key	Action
`Enter`	Commit current position; advance to next mode in chain
`Backspace`	Undo last keypress (works across mode boundaries)
`Escape`	Cancel — no warp, no click

Useful CLI flags

Flag	Use case
`-O <NAME>`	Target a specific output (`DP-2`, `eDP-1`, …).
`-r WxH+X+Y`	Restrict overlay to a region (e.g. inside a single window).
`-o KEY=VAL`	Override config inline (`-o modes=tile,bisect,click`).
`-p`	Print result, don’t warp or click. Test mode.
`-c FILE`	Load alternate config file.

Multi-monitor notes

Default behavior (no -O): wl-kbptr passes NULL to layer-shell; niri assigns the overlay to the focused output. So Mod+G always uses the monitor your keyboard focus is on.
Mod+M family targets the other monitor via the helper script. niri only routes keyboard input to a layer-surface on the focused output, so the helper calls niri msg action focus-monitor <name> before launching wl-kbptr. Without that, the overlay appears but typing keeps going to the previously-focused window.
3+ monitors: the helper picks an arbitrary non-focused one. For deterministic ordering, edit wl-kbptr-other-output.

Gotchas

~/.local/bin is not in niri’s PATH. Bind helper scripts with the full ~/.local/bin/<name> path. Bare command names silently no-op.
Split mode + our home_row_keys. j/k/l are click buttons, so they don’t navigate in split. Use arrow keys, or w/a/s/h for up/left/down/left fallback. See issue #42.
Maintainer comment in #42 misstates click order. The thread says i,j,k = right/left/middle, but the v0.4.1 source has indices 8/9/10 as LEFT/RIGHT/MIDDLE. Trust the source.

Files

docs/wl-kbptr.md                          # this file
niri/dot-config/wl-kbptr/config           # home_row_keys + default mode chain
niri/dot-config/niri/binds.kdl            # Mod+G and Mod+M bind families
niri/dot-local/bin/wl-kbptr-other-output  # helper for the Mod+M family

tmux → herdr