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getting to know your window manager ~
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navi and wired are your gateway to a minimal, clean, keyboard-first tiling experience.
This page shows you the basics of the interface so you can jump right in and get started!
the interface
When you log into wired, you will be greeted by a minimal homescreen. You'll notice there are no icons on the desktop, just a beautiful wallpaper, a top panel, and an overall clean and retro aesthetic. Welcome to your window manager! Let's go over some of the basics of how to interact with it.
wired is very keyboard-driven, and we are going to go over the keybindings for you in the next page, but there are, of course, plenty of operations you can perform with your mouse as well! Let's look at some of them and how you can interact with the desktop using your mouse, as well as other things you'll notice in the wired environment.
Up top, you'll see your panel. This is our custom waybar, and not only does it look good, but it also contains several ways for you to control stuff on the system and get around the environment. Here is a list of items on the panel and things they can do:
- wired launcher - this is the ∅ logo at the panel's far left. Clicking it will open the launcher, allowing you to open applications. Just start typing the name of an app you want to launch, or scroll through the list!
- workspaces - these are the numbers beside the launcher. By default, you will be placed in workspace 1. Opening new workspaces will show their corresponding numbers in this area, and you can click on their number to go to them, or scroll the numbers to cycle through workspaces.
- window title - beside your workspaces, you will see the name of the currently focused window displayed, if any are open.
- time and date - in the middle of the panel you'll see the day, the time, and the date as three separate modules. Clicking the day launches
calcurse, a calendar, todo list, and appointment management TUI application. Clicking the time launches navi-reminders. Clicking the date launches navi-calendar, one of navi's floating panel apps — a calendar in a tidy TUI window.
- weather - the weather module shows current conditions for your configured city. Clicking it launches navi-weather, a floating TUI with the full forecast.
- update indicator - the download-arrow icon checks for navi updates every 5 minutes and lights up when updates are waiting. Click it to open the updater in a floating window.
- volume control - the volume control shows the volume percentage, and scrolling on the module turns the volume up or down. Left-clicking it mutes/unmutes, middle-clicking it switches the audio output, and right-clicking it launches navi-audio, a floating TUI for controlling audio and recording devices at a granular level.
- bluetooth - the bluetooth module shows bluetooth status. Clicking it launches navi-bluetooth, a floating TUI for pairing devices; right-clicking it opens a menu, and scrolling on it toggles bluetooth power.
- networks - the networks module shows your wifi signal strength (hover it to see the network name). Clicking it launches navi-networking, a floating TUI for connecting to wifi networks, checking DNS, running speedtests, and sharing connections.
- battery - if you are on a laptop, the battery module shows your current battery percentage. Clicking it opens navi-power, with power profiles, battery readouts, and ThinkPad charge thresholds.
- brightness - the brightness module lets you see and control your system's display brightness. Scroll on the module with your mouse wheel to turn the display brightness up or down to your liking.
- idle inhibitor - the little eye icon is the idle inhibitor module. You can activate it to prevent your screen from locking, and deactivate it to return to normal behavior. By default, wired locks the screen after 10 minutes of inactivity, and suspends after 15.
- tailscale - the tailscale module shows your Tailscale VPN status. Clicking it opens navi-tailscale, and right-clicking it toggles the connection.
- agent - the little robot face is the agent module, reporting what your agents are doing. Dim means quiet; cyan means the backend is ready; green means an agent is working; pink means an agent needs you. Left-clicking it opens the agent center, middle-clicking jumps into herdr, and right-clicking opens a quick menu.
- notifications bell - the bell shows how many notifications are waiting. Click it to open the notification viewer in a floating window.
- systray - your system tray module is where app icons go, things like communications apps like Discord or Telegram will show up here when they're open.
- power management - the little power icon on the far right of the panel is the power management module. Clicking it will give you options to Hibernate, Suspend, Shutdown, or Reboot your computer.
Several of those panel items — the calendar, audio, networking, weather, updater, and notifications — are navi mods: small floating TUI apps built for the panel in our own design language. They always open as floating windows, centered and out of your tiling grid's way.
As you can see, your top panel is your center of operations for many functionalities when it comes to interacting with wired.
Other than the top bar, when first logging in to wired, you will also see your wallpaper and our custom conky — less a clock widget, more a small mission-control center for your machine. It keeps a big neon clock and date, a glitching SIGNAL:: readout beside your uptime, live CPU, memory, and disk bars, network speeds with a traffic graph, and your hungriest process at the moment, all in the nightshadeNeon palette with the scrolling "Let's all love lain" ticker running through it. As you can tell from the naming scheme and the overall desktop aesthetic, wired, and navi as a whole is heavily influenced by the Serial Experiments Lain aesthetic.
One more thing worth knowing early: Alt+A pops up navi-Q with an AI agent ready to help, and Alt+Shift+A pops up a quick terminal. And Alt+V wakes Hey Lain, navi's voice assistant — tap it, speak, and she'll handle desktop commands like moving windows and switching workspaces, or just chat. navi is agent-native — the agents are part of the system, available anywhere, anytime.
Now that you know the basic interface to your window manager, let's go over the keybindings so you can begin familiarizing yourself with how to get around with your keyboard! Once you get used to navigating your desktop using keyboard shortcuts, it will be hard for you to go back to more traditional desktop environments! Click the link below to move onto the next section.
Up next: keybindings