sway-input(5)

💖 sway-input(5) — File Formats Manual 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

sway-input — input configuration file and commands. bestie, this is literally the input config page and command list, periodt. ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so Sway lets you configure devices inside the sway configuration file. To get a list of available device identifiers, run swaymsg -t get_inputs. Settings can also be applied to all input devices by using the wildcard, *, in place of <identifier> in the commands below. In addition, settings can be applied to a type of device by using type:<input_type> in place of <identifier>.

In the configuration file, settings with a more specific selector take precedence over more general ones: <identifier> > type:<input_type> > *. When executing input commands, however, the settings are applied to all matching input devices! This means type:<input_type> can override previously set <identifier> settings, even though in a configuration file they would take precedence. Similarly * can override both <identifier> and type:<input_type> settings, if applied later. lowkey wild, but that's the rule. 💅

Tip: If the configuration settings do not appear to be taking effect, you could try using * instead of <identifier>. If it works with the wildcard, try using a different identifier from swaymsg -t get_inputs until you find the correct input device. iykyk 🫶

Current available input types are:

• touchpad
• pointer
• keyboard
• touch
• tablet_tool
• tablet_pad
• switch

Note: The type configurations are applied as the devices appear and get applied on top of the existing device configurations. vibe check: they stack. 😌

🔥 INPUT COMMANDS 🔥

⌨️ KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION ⌨️

• input <identifier> repeat_delay <milliseconds> — Sets the amount of time a key must be held before it starts repeating.
• input <identifier> repeat_rate <characters per second> — Sets the frequency of key repeats once the repeat_delay has passed.

For more information on these xkb configuration options, see xkeyboard-config(7). 📚

• input <identifier> xkb_file <file_name> — Sets all xkb configurations from a complete .xkb file. This file can be dumped from xkbcomp $DISPLAY keymap.xkb. This setting overrides xkb_layout, xkb_model, xkb_options, xkb_rules, and xkb_variant settings. it's giving full override energy.
• input <identifier> xkb_layout <layout_name> — Sets the layout of the keyboard like us or de. Multiple layouts can be specified by separating them with commas.
• input <identifier> xkb_model <model_name> — Sets the model of the keyboard. This has an influence for some extra keys your keyboard might have.
• input <identifier> xkb_options <options> — Sets extra xkb configuration options for the keyboard. Multiple options can be specified by separating them with commas.
• input <identifier> xkb_rules <rules> — Sets files of rules to be used for keyboard mapping composition.
• input <identifier> xkb_switch_layout <index>|next|prev — Changes the active keyboard layout to <index> counting from zero or to next or previous layout on the list. If there is no next or previous layout, this command hops to the other end of the list. This can be used when multiple layouts are configured with xkb_layout. A list of layouts you can switch between can be obtained with swaymsg -t get_inputs. 🎀
• input <identifier> xkb_variant <variant> — Sets the variant of the keyboard like dvorak or colemak.

The following commands may only be used in the configuration file. 📝

• input <identifier> xkb_capslock enabled|disabled — Initially enables or disables CapsLock on startup, the default is disabled.
• input <identifier> xkb_numlock enabled|disabled — Initially enables or disables NumLock on startup, the default is disabled.

✨ TABLET CONFIGURATION ✨

• input <identifier> tool_mode <tool> <absolute|relative> — Sets whether movement of a tablet tool should be treated as absolute or relative; the default is absolute. Valid values for <tool> are currently "pen", "eraser", "brush", "pencil", "airbrush", and the wildcard *, which matches all tools. Mouse and lens tools ignore this setting and are always treated as relative. 🖊️

🗺️ MAPPING CONFIGURATION 🗺️

• input <identifier> map_to_output <identifier> — Maps inputs from this device to the specified output. Only meaningful if the device is a pointer, touch, or drawing tablet device. The wildcard * can be used to map the input device to the whole desktop layout.
• input <identifier> map_to_region <X> <Y> <width> <height> — Maps inputs from this device to the specified region of the global output layout. Only meaningful if the device is a pointer, touch, or drawing tablet device.
• input <identifier> map_from_region <X1xY1> <X2xY2> — Ignores inputs from this device that do not occur within the specified region. Can be in millimeters (e.g. 10x20mm 20x40mm) or the fraction of the full available space in terms of 0..1 (e.g. 0.5x0.5 0.7x0.7). Not all devices support millimeters. Only meaningful if the device is not a keyboard and provides events in absolute terms (such as a drawing tablet or touch screen - most pointers provide events relative to the previous frame). Commonly used to maintain the aspect ratio of the input device and screen. Cropping a 16:10 input region to match a 16:9 display can use 0x0 1x0.9 as the argument. 🦋

🖱️ LIBINPUT CONFIGURATION 🖱️

• input <identifier> accel_profile adaptive|flat — Sets the pointer acceleration profile for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> calibration_matrix <6 space-separated floating point values> — Sets the calibration matrix.
• input <identifier> click_method none|button_areas|clickfinger — Changes the click method for the specified device.
• input <identifier> clickfinger_button_map lrm|lmr — Specifies which button mapping to use for clickfinger. lrm treats 1 finger as left click, 2 fingers as right click, and 3 fingers as middle click. lmr treats 1 finger as left click, 2 fingers as middle click, and 3 fingers as right click.
• input <identifier> drag enabled|disabled — Enables or disables tap-and-drag for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> drag_lock enabled|disabled|enabled_sticky — Enables or disables drag lock for the specified input device. The default is enabled_sticky.
• input <identifier> dwt enabled|disabled — Enables or disables disable-while-typing for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> dwtp enabled|disabled — Enables or disables disable-while-trackpointing for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> events enabled|disabled|disabled_on_external_mouse|toggle [<toggle-modes>] — Enables or disables send_events for the specified input device. Disabling send_events disables the input device. The toggle option cannot be used in the config. If no toggle modes are listed, all supported modes for the device will be toggled through in the order: enabled, disabled_on_external_mouse, disabled, (loop back). If toggle modes are listed, they will be cycled through, defaulting to the first mode listed if the current mode is not in the list. They will also not be checked to see if they are supported for the device and may fail. ⚠️
• input <identifier> left_handed enabled|disabled — Enables or disables left handed mode for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> middle_emulation enabled|disabled — Enables or disables middle click emulation.
• input <identifier> natural_scroll enabled|disabled — Enables or disables natural (inverted) scrolling for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> pointer_accel [<-1|1>] — Changes the pointer acceleration for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> rotation_angle <angle> — Sets the rotation angle of the device to the given clockwise angle in degrees. The angle must be between 0.0 (inclusive) and 360.0 (exclusive).
• input <identifier> scroll_button disable|button[1-3,8,9]|<event-code-or-name> — Sets the button used for scroll_method on_button_down. The button can be given as an event name or code, which can be obtained from libinput debug-events, or as a x11 mouse button (button[1-3,8,9]). If set to disable, it disables the scroll_method on_button_down.
• input <identifier> scroll_button_lock enabled|disabled — Enables or disables scroll button lock for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> scroll_factor <floating point value> — Changes the scroll factor for the specified input device. Scroll speed will be scaled by the given value, which must be non-negative.
• input <identifier> scroll_method none|two_finger|edge|on_button_down — Changes the scroll method for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> tap enabled|disabled — Enables or disables tap for the specified input device.
• input <identifier> tap_button_map lrm|lmr — Specifies which button mapping to use for tapping. lrm treats 1 finger as left click, 2 fingers as right click, and 3 fingers as middle click. lmr treats 1 finger as left click, 2 fingers as middle click, and 3 fingers as right click.

🪑 SEAT CONFIGURATION 🪑

Configure options for multiseat mode.

A seat is a collection of input devices that act independently of each other. Seats are identified by name and the default seat is seat0 if no seats are configured. While sway is running, - (hyphen) can be used as an alias for the current seat. Each seat has an independent keyboard focus and a separate cursor that is controlled by the pointer devices of the seat. This is useful for multiple people using the desktop at the same time with their own devices (each sitting in their own "seat"). The wildcard character, *, can also be used in place of <identifier> to change settings for all seats. 👑

Tip: If the configuration settings do not appear to be taking effect, you could try using * instead of <identifier>. If it works with the wildcard, try using a different identifier from swaymsg -t get_seats until you find the correct seat. 🫶

• seat <name> attach <input_identifier> — Attach an input device to this seat by its input identifier. A special value of "*" will attach all devices to the seat.
• seat <seat> cursor move|set <x> <y> — Move specified seat's cursor relative to current position or wrap to absolute coordinates (with respect to the global coordinate space). Specifying either value as 0 will not update that coordinate. Deprecated: use the virtual-pointer Wayland protocol instead. 💀
• seat <seat> cursor press|release button[1-9]|<event-name-or-code> — okay so this one simulates pressing (or releasing) the specified mouse button on the specified seat. The button can either be provided as a button event name or event code, which you can get from libinput debug-events, or as an x11 mouse button (button[1-9]). If you’re using button[4-7], which map to axes, an axis event will be simulated, however press and release will be ignored and both will occur.

⚠️ Deprecated: use the virtual-pointer Wayland protocol instead.

• seat <name> fallback true|false — set this seat as the fallback seat. A fallback seat will attach any device not explicitly attached to another seat (similar to a "default" seat). It’s giving default-seat energy, iykyk 💅
• seat <name> hide_cursor <timeout>|when-typing [enable|disable] — hides the cursor image after the specified event occurred. If timeout is specified, then the cursor will be hidden after timeout (in milliseconds) has elapsed with no activity on the cursor. A timeout of 0 (default) disables hiding the cursor. The minimal timeout is 100, and any value less than that (aside from 0) will be increased to 100. If when-typing is enabled, then the cursor will be hidden whenever a key is pressed.

⚠️ Be aware that this setting can interfere with input handling in games and certain types of software (Gimp, Blender etc) that rely on simultaneous input from mouse and keyboard. So maybe don’t enable it and then act surprised, bestie 🙈

• seat <name> idle_inhibit <sources...> — sets the set of input event sources which can prevent the seat from becoming idle, as a space separated list of source names. Valid names are "keyboard", "pointer", "touchpad", "touch", "tablet_pad", "tablet_tool", and "switch". The default behavior is to prevent idle on any event. Default vibe: literally any event keeps the seat awake ✨
• seat <name> keyboard_grouping none|smart — set how the keyboards in the seat are grouped together. Currently, there are two options. none will disable all keyboard grouping. This will make it so each keyboard device has its own isolated state. smart will group the keyboards in the seat by their keymap and repeat info. This is useful for when the keyboard appears as multiple separate input devices. In this mode, the effective layout is synced between the keyboards in the group. The default is smart. To restore the behavior of older versions of sway, use none. Main-character default: smart, no cap 👑
• seat <name> pointer_constraint enable|disable|escape — enables or disables the ability for clients to capture the cursor (enabled by default) for the seat. This is primarily useful for video games. The escape command can be used at runtime to escape from a captured client. Escape hatch at runtime? Obsessed 🦋
• seat <name> shortcuts_inhibitor enable|disable|activate|deactivate|toggle — enables or disables the ability of clients to inhibit keyboard shortcuts for the seat. This is primarily useful for virtualization and remote desktop software. Subcommands enable and disable affect whether future inhibitors are honoured by default, i.e. activated automatically, the default being enable. When used at runtime, disable also disables any currently active inhibitors. activate, deactivate, and toggle are only usable at runtime and change the state of a potentially existing inhibitor on the currently focused window. This can be used with the current seat alias (-) to affect only the currently focused window of the current seat. Subcommand deactivate is particularly useful in an --inhibited bindsym to escape a state where shortcuts are inhibited and the client becomes uncooperative. It is worth noting that whether disabled or deactivated inhibitors are removed is entirely up to the client. Depending on the client it may therefore be possible to (re-)activate them later. Any visual indication that an inhibitor is present is currently left to the client as well. fr fr, this one’s a whole saga — runtime plot twists included 😭
• seat <name> xcursor_theme <theme> [<size>] — override the system default XCursor theme. The default seat’s (seat0) theme is also used as the default cursor theme in XWayland, and exported through the XCURSOR_THEME and XCURSOR_SIZE environment variables. Cursor glow-up unlocked ✨🎀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• sway(5)
• sway-output(5)
• xkeyboard-config(7)

✨ That’s the sway-input(5) manual page — source/version sway-input(5), dated 2026-04-26. Go make your input setup iconic, bestie. Periodt 💅🦋