What Is Dunst and What Is dunst-project.org?

Updated

Dunst is a lightweight replacement for the notification daemons that most desktop environments ship with. dunst-project.org is its official project home, linking to a showcase, download page, documentation, and changelog. It is aimed at people running window-manager-centric setups who want notifications they can fully control, and it is toolkit-independent, so it does not drag in a desktop environment's libraries.

What Dunst actually does

A notification daemon is the background service that draws pop-up notifications (new mail, volume changes, chat messages) and handles dismissing them. Dunst takes that role over and makes it configurable through a simple configuration file, with hot reloading so changes apply without a restart. It runs natively on both X11 and Wayland and is described as usable across Linux distributions and BSDs thanks to minimal dependencies.

Features worth knowing before you install

Feature What it gives you
Customizability Fonts, icons, timeouts, colors, and shortcuts are all set in the config file; hot reload applies edits live
Rules Match notification patterns to change appearance or behavior — e.g. recolor messages from certain contacts, or keep important work alerts on screen until dismissed
History Replay the last notification with a shortcut, or keep tapping to browse notification history
Pause levels Pause notifications by priority, so you can build a Do Not Disturb mode that only silences low-priority items
Keyboard and mouse control Bind shortcuts to close the oldest or all notifications, or show history; left-click dismisses one, right-click dismisses all
Multi-monitor Choose a fixed monitor for notifications or follow keyboard/mouse focus
Context menu Open a dmenu-based menu for visible notifications to launch their URLs or run associated actions
Scriptable Run custom scripts on matching notifications, such as reading them aloud with espeak

Who it fits, and who should look elsewhere

Dunst suits users who assemble their own desktop from a window manager and want notification behavior tuned by hand — the project explicitly targets "window manager centric setups." If you use a full desktop environment and are happy with its built-in notifications, replacing the daemon buys you little. If you need notifications on Wayland or X11 without toolkit dependencies, Dunst is a direct fit.

Getting started and getting help

Start at dunst-project.org: the Download page covers installation, the Documentation covers configuration and rules, and the Changelog tracks releases. For bugs or feature requests, the project asks you to check the FAQ and documentation first, then file an issue on its GitHub issue tracker.