Which Wayland compositors does wayscriber support?

Updated

wayscriber is a Linux/Wayland-only tool, so it does not run on X11 sessions, macOS, or Windows. On the Wayland side, the project lists support for Hyprland, Sway, River, Wayfire, Niri, COSMIC, and KDE Plasma, with GNOME supported only "with limits." If your compositor is in that first group, you can expect the full overlay workflow; if you are on GNOME, expect some functionality to be restricted.

Supported compositors

Compositor Support level
Hyprland Supported
Sway Supported
River Supported
Wayfire Supported
Niri Supported
COSMIC Supported
KDE Plasma Supported
GNOME Supported with limits

The list comes directly from the project's own compatibility line, which pairs the "Free & open source · MIT" note with the named compositors and the GNOME caveat.

What "with limits" means for GNOME

The site states GNOME is supported "with limits" but does not enumerate which features are affected. Practically, that means you should treat GNOME as a try-it-and-verify environment rather than a guaranteed one: install it, bind the toggle key, and confirm that the overlay, drawing tools, and zoom behave as expected on your setup before relying on it for a live presentation. If a specific capability matters to you, test that capability first.

Why the compositor matters at all

wayscriber works by placing a drawing layer over the screen and toggling it with a global shortcut. That design depends on Wayland compositor features for global keybindings and overlay surfaces, which is why the supported list is compositor-specific rather than "any Linux." It also explains the hard boundaries:

  • Wayland only — an X11 session is not a supported target.
  • Linux only — the package channels are Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch (AUR), Nix, plus one-off .deb and .rpm downloads, so there is no macOS or Windows build to fall back on.

Checking your own setup

  1. Confirm you are running a Wayland session, not X11.
  2. Match your compositor against the table above.
  3. If it is listed as supported, install from your distro's channel (native repos for Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora, AUR for Arch, Nix flake, or the .deb/.rpm downloads).
  4. Run the daemon and bind wayscriber --daemon-toggle to a global shortcut — the configurator can do both steps for you.
  5. Press your key and confirm the overlay appears with pen, shapes, text, boards, and zoom; press Esc to hide it.

If step 5 fails on a listed compositor, the likely culprit is the global shortcut binding rather than the overlay itself, since the toggle is what summons the drawing layer in the first place.