What is this?
Hyprland is an independent, dynamic tiling Wayland compositor for Linux that focuses on both usability and visual polish, with gradient borders, blur, animations, shadows and glow built in.
Is this a window manager or a full desktop environment?
It's a standalone Wayland compositor (the layer that replaces X11/your window manager), not a full desktop environment and not built on existing compositor libraries.
How do I install and start using it?
Install it through your Linux distro's package manager (or build from source), then configure it via its config file which reloads instantly on save; the README points to separate Install, Quick Start and Configure guides.
Do I need a specific graphics stack or desktop setup first?
You need a Linux system with Wayland support; Hyprland deliberately avoids depending on wlroots, libweston, kwin or mutter, implementing its own compositor logic instead.
Is this an easy drop-in replacement for my current WM?
No — it's a highly customizable, config-driven tiling compositor aimed at users who want to tweak keybinds, layouts and animations themselves (common in Linux 'ricing'), not a plug-and-play desktop.
What layouts does it support out of the box?
It ships with Dwindle, Scrolling, Master and Monocle layouts, plus support for custom layouts written in Lua or via plugins, and per-workspace layouts.
Can I extend it with plugins?
Yes, Hyprland has powerful plugin support along with a built-in plugin manager for installing and managing them.
Does it help with gaming performance?
Yes, it includes tearing support specifically to improve gaming performance on Wayland.
How do I control it programmatically, like scripting window rules?
It exposes a socket-based IPC, so external scripts and tools can query and control Hyprland at runtime.
What are similar projects?
omarchy, AgentOS, polybar, dots-hyprland, serpantinum, TheSimpsonsGameRecomp, niri, sway
Which topics is it in?
plugin-manager, ricing, window-manager, wayland, lua, gpu-acceleration, gaming, bsd, animation, customization, cpp, c++


