GitHub - conxlgtm/WaylandClientKit: Swift-native Wayland client substrate for Linux: windows, input, data transfer, text input, protocol facts, and preview graphics APIs.

WaylandClientKit is a Swift 6 package for building native Wayland clients and GUI framework infrastructure on Linux.

It exposes typed Swift APIs over Wayland client protocols for display lifecycle, windows, input, text input, data transfer, cursors, desktop integration, output facts, presentation feedback, and preview graphics submission.

Toolkit Boundary

WaylandClientKit does not wrap Qt, GTK, Electron, SDL, or another application toolkit.

It uses Linux and Wayland system libraries directly, then keeps raw protocol handles, queues, file descriptors, unsafe lifetimes, and C interop behind Swift APIs.

This package is intentionally below a GUI toolkit. Layout, widgets, styling, accessibility semantics, scene management, application architecture, and renderer selection belong in higher layers.

Status

WaylandClientKit is pre-foundation. It is useful for experiments, GUI framework development, compositor testing, and protocol validation, but source-breaking changes are still possible.

WaylandClient is the main public product. Its public API is baseline/audit tracked under the compatibility policy.

WaylandGraphicsPreview is a source-breaking preview product for graphics submission experiments. It may change while the graphics path is validated across real compositors.

Versioning is documented in Versioning.

What It Supports

Current public coverage includes:

display connection and owner-thread lifecycle
xdg-shell windows, popups, dialogs, and subsurfaces
software frame drawing, damage, regions, scale, and presentation feedback
pointer, keyboard, touch, tablet, gestures, pointer capture, and pointer warp
xkbcommon-backed key interpretation, compose, and dead-key text
regular clipboard, primary selection, drag-and-drop, and drag icons
text input through zwp_text_input_v3
cursor themes, cursor-shape requests, custom cursors, and cursor animation
desktop integration hooks for icons, idle inhibition, activation, system bell, shortcut inhibition, and toplevel drag
output topology facts and wlroots output-management preview snapshots
preview graphics APIs with software fallback reporting

The full protocol/status table lives in Support Matrix.

What It Does Not Provide

WaylandClientKit does not provide a widget set, declarative view tree, layout engine, styling system, accessibility model, scene model, retained renderer, or public raw Wayland binding layer.

Raw Wayland, GBM, EGL, DRM, dmabuf, syncobj, and graphics file descriptor handles are not public API.

Quick Start

WaylandClientKit requires Swift 6.3.2 or newer.

nix develop
swift run wck tools toolchain-smoke
swift run wck bootstrap check
swift build --disable-index-store
swift run wayland-client-kit-smoke

If you are not using Nix, install the packages in Linux Dependencies, then run the same wck checks.

Tiny Window

import WaylandClient

@main
struct TinyWaylandClient {
    static func main() async throws {
        try await WaylandDisplay.withConnection { display in
            let window = try await display.createTopLevelWindow()

            try await window.show { frame in
                frame.withXRGB8888Rows { _, pixels in
                    for index in 0..<pixels.count {
                        unsafe pixels[unchecked: index] = 0x0020_4060
                    }
                }
            }

            for await event in display.inputEvents.prefix(4) {
                print(event)
            }

            await window.close()
        }
    }
}

For the full walkthrough, see Getting Started.

Products

`WaylandClient`

The main public product for windowing, input, data transfer, text input, cursors, output facts, presentation feedback, and desktop integration.

`WaylandGraphicsPreview`

A source-breaking preview product for renderer-facing experiments. Use it when testing managed GPU paths, software fallback behavior, synchronization, pacing, or graphics metadata.

Repository Checks

The wck executable contains project checks and maintainer tooling.

Common commands:

swift run wck ci cheap
swift run wck ci check
swift run wck examples build
swift run wck protocols verify-generated

Checks cover protocol generation, shim verification, public API baselines, DocC, import boundaries, unsafe-token allowlists, examples, unit tests, integration tests, sanitizer runs, and live/headless smoke paths.

See Tooling and Protocol Generation for details.

Documentation

Examples

Useful first examples:

Build every example with:

swift run wck examples build

Compositor Evidence

Wayland behavior varies by compositor and advertised protocol support. WaylandClientKit tracks live compositor evidence separately from unit tests.

See Compositor Matrix for current evidence and collection commands.

Contributing

Read Contributing, Support, and the Code of Conduct.

Keep changes protocol-shaped, small, documented, and verified. Public API changes should update the relevant baseline, audit, docs, tests, and examples.

Security

Do not open public issues for vulnerabilities. Follow SECURITY.md.

License

WaylandClientKit is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Vendored protocol XML keeps upstream license and provenance notices intact. Generated protocol artifacts should retain those upstream comments when they are regenerated.

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