polychromatic-helper(1)

📦 version 0.9.8, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💅 polychromatic-helper(1) — the group-chat guide

okay so real talk, what you're looking at is the manual page for polychromatic-helper, which lives in section 1 of the General Commands Manual. it's the little helper buddy that hums along in the background. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

Polychromatic — RGB lighting management software for GNU/Linux. yes, that Polychromatic. your keyboard is gonna look so good, no cap 💜

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

polychromatic-helper [OPTIONS]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. options go here, nothing else 👑

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so this is the "helper" runtime, and its whole personality is handling background tasks — think autostart behaviours and running of custom effects. it's the behind-the-scenes bestie, main character energy but in a supporting-role way, yk?

important thing though, and I need you to hear me on this: this software does not contain driver code to directly control hardware by itself. it's not out here talking to your LEDs raw. and in this version, only OpenRazer is supported — that's the one driver in the group chat rn.

and like… the user is not expected to interact with this executable. fr fr. it's not for you, bestie, it just runs. if you're poking at it manually you're lowkey doing side quests nobody asked for (which, honestly, valid, but still).

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -v, --verbose — prints more details about the application's operation. it's giving "tell me everything", and honestly? we love a chatty icon 🔥
  • --version — prints version information, and it's a whole little trio:
    • Software version
    • Commit hash (when run from the repository directory)
    • Python version
  • --autostart — the one to be run when the user logs into the desktop environment. and listen: if enabled, start the tray applet. that's the whole assignment ✨
  • --monitor-triggers — unused in this version 🙈 iconic of it honestly, it's just standing there
  • --run-fx <PATH> — runs a Polychromatic effect stored in JSON format. ⚠️ it requires the -n or -s parameters below to specify the device — don't skip that part, it literally cannot pick a device on its own
  • -n <DEVICE_NAME> — select the desired device name (full string). for example, "Razer BlackWidow Chroma" 💅 full string, not a nickname
  • -s <DEVICE_SERIAL> — select the desired device by its serial string. the government-name approach 🧚
heads up: --run-fx needs -n or -s to know which device you mean. it's not psychic.

and that's the whole page, bestie. 🌈

okay cute sign-off time: this little beauty comes from the polychromatic-helper(1) page, dated 2022-12-03. go forth and make your RGB immaculate 💖🎀🌸

📦 where this page comes from