Status Bar

Jay includes a built-in bar that displays workspace tabs, status text, tray icons (via wl-tray-bridge), and a clock. The status text is provided by an external program that you configure in the [status] table.

Configuring a Status Program

The [status] table has three fields:

format

Message format: plain, pango, or i3bar. Optional.

exec

How to start the program (string, array, or table). Required.

i3bar-separator

Separator between i3bar components (default " | "). Optional.

Format

plain

Plain text output

pango

Output containing Pango markup

i3bar

JSON output in i3bar protocol format

Exec

The exec field accepts the same forms used elsewhere in the configuration:

• String – the program name: exec = "i3status"
• Array – program and arguments: exec = ["i3status", "-c", "~/.config/i3status/config"]
• Table – full control over program, arguments, and environment (see the spec for details)

Example: i3status

i3status is a popular status line generator.

[status]
format = "i3bar"
exec = "i3status"

Note

i3status defaults to plain-text output. You must explicitly configure it to use i3bar format by adding output_format = "i3bar" to your ~/.config/i3status/config:

general {
    output_format = "i3bar"
}

Example: Custom Script

A simple shell script that prints the date every second:

[status]
format = "plain"
exec = { shell = "while true; do date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'; sleep 1; done" }

Changing the Status Program at Runtime

The set-status action lets you switch the status program from a shortcut. Omit the status field to reset the status text to empty.

[shortcuts]
# Switch to i3status
alt-F10 = {
    type = "set-status",
    status = {
        format = "i3bar",
        exec = "i3status",
    },
}

# Clear the status text
alt-F11 = { type = "set-status" }

Bar Appearance

The bar’s visual appearance (height, background color, text color, position, and font) is configured in the [theme] table. See the Theme & Appearance chapter for details. The bar can be shown or hidden with the show-bar top-level setting or the toggle-bar action.