Use the desktop
Hornero’s desktop is built around the Quickshell session. A bar or rail gives quick access to workspaces and shell actions; the launcher opens apps and commands; the Dashboard brings together desktop summaries; and the Control Center contains persistent system and shell settings.
Find a task
| Task | Guide |
|---|---|
| Pick a coordinated look | Themes and appearance |
| Change or understand a wallpaper | Wallpapers and color |
| Move between rails, bars, islands, or docks | Layouts |
| Use the keyboard efficiently | Shortcuts |
| Open files or launch applications | Everyday apps |
| Learn how the configured applications fit together | Apps and workflows |
| Open a Settings page or automate a change | horneroctl |
Desktop surfaces
- Launcher searches applications and offers shell actions.
- Dashboard collects useful desktop information without replacing dedicated applications.
- Control Center groups connectivity, media, appearance, shell, and system controls.
- Layout Picker previews bar topology before a layout is selected.
- Notifications, OSD, and session menu have different jobs: notifications keep actionable events, the OSD echoes short-lived hardware changes, and the session menu contains lock and power actions.
- Companion is a small shell character, not a source of system activity.
These surfaces are part of the shell package. Their implementation and keyboard focus contracts live in the Shell repository.
Configuration boundaries
Use Control Center for supported interactive settings and horneroctl for
scripts and diagnostics. horneroctl config paths reports which user files
are active; horneroctl config validate checks the materialized shell config.
The configuration repository owns
factory defaults. Keep personal changes under your user configuration rather
than editing packaged files.