BlackNode · bn-menu

        

Hello. This document explains the rofi menu system in BlackNode — what it is, how it is structured, and how to use it.

It covers two separate but complementary interfaces: bn-menu (the main hub with icon + text items) and rofi sidebars (icon-only panels on the right edge of the screen). Both pull colors from the same Material You palette generated automatically from your wallpaper via matugen.

Table of Contents

• The Two Interfaces
• Theme Architecture
• Sidebar Scripts
• Quick Config HUD
• bn-menu Submenus
• Development Rules

The Two Interfaces

Interface	Access	Style	Lines / Items
bn-menu	SUPER + SPACE	Centered 440×640 window, icon + text, search bar	15 items
Sidebars	Keybinds (WiFi, BT, audio, etc.)	100px-wide right panel, icon-only, no search	3–6 items

Both use the same color tokens and the same shared theme files — the only difference is layout and content.

Theme Architecture

Everything is modular. No standalone themes.

~/.config/rofi/
├── colors.rasi          ← M3 palette from matugen (47 tokens)
├── menu.rasi            ← bn-menu theme (440×640, centered, search)
├── submenu.rasi         ← bn-menu submenu theme (380px, 6 lines)
├── shared/
│   ├── config.rasi      ← Base config (font, scrollbar, sidebar-mode)
│   ├── menu.rasi        ← Sidebar bundle (imports colors + config + sidebar)
│   ├── sidebar.rasi     ← Sidebar layout (100px east, icon-only, feather font)
│   ├── list.rasi        ← Centered list dialog (440px, 28px radius, search)
│   ├── input-dialog.rasi← Input dialog (420px, 24px radius)
│   ├── dialog.rasi      ← Generic dialog
│   └── grid.rasi        ← Grid layout
└── styles/              ← Per-feature themes importing from shared/
    ├── wifi-list.rasi       (6  lines, imports list.rasi)
    ├── bluetooth-list.rasi  (6  lines, imports list.rasi)
    ├── notes-list.rasi      (20 lines, imports list.rasi)
    ├── search-list.rasi     (20 lines, imports list.rasi)
    ├── audio-list.rasi      (46 lines, imports list.rasi)
    ├── notes-input.rasi     (10 lines, imports input-dialog.rasi)
    ├── search-input.rasi    (10 lines, imports input-dialog.rasi)
    ├── config-list.rasi     (wrapper for shared/list.rasi)
    └── ... legacy refactored themes

The rule: every -list.rasi imports shared/list.rasi with no width, font, padding, or lines overrides. Every -input.rasi imports shared/input-dialog.rasi the same way. Consistency is enforced.

Sidebar Scripts

All sidebars live in ~/.config/rofi/scripts/ and use the same pattern:

• Icon-only menu in a 100px-wide right panel
• Fat icons rendered in feather font (20px via element-text)
• Items are single icons with a trailing space: "󰅴 " (no leading space)
• Uses shared/menu.rasi with -theme-str "listview { lines: N; }"

Script	Trigger	Icons	Description
wifi.sh	SUPER + A	󰀂 󰇚 󰤪/󰤨 󰋵	Scan, saved, toggle, exit
bluetooth.sh	SUPER + B	󰂯 󰂰 󰁪 󰋵	Power, scan, devices, exit
audio.sh	SUPER + SHIFT + A	󰋲 󰝚	Recently played (album art), audio apps
notes.sh	SUPER + SHIFT + N	󰅴 󰋼 󰋁	New note, view notes, open folder
search.sh	SUPER + SHIFT + F	󰈞 󰛳 󰏫 󰅶	File, web, text, recent
kb-layout.sh	SUPER + SHIFT + K	󰌌	Keyboard layout toggle
config-hud.sh	SUPER + SHIFT + I	󰐥 󰡟 󰏘 	Animations, visuals, layout, rounding

Each sidebar opens centered shared/list.rasi dialogs for sub-actions (selecting networks, picking notes, etc.).

Quick Config HUD

scripts/config-hud.sh is a live Hyprland settings panel that writes to settings/overrides.lua and reloads the compositor — no manual config file editing, no hyprctl keyword.

Category	What It Toggles / Sets
󰐥 Animations	On / Off
󰡟 Visuals	Blur (on/off), Shadow (on/off), Dim (0.3 / 0.0)
󰏘 Layout	Gaps In (0–8px), Gaps Out (0–16px), Border (1–4px)
 Rounding	Window rounding (0–20px)

State is cached in ~/.cache/blacknode/hud-state so changes persist across sessions. The overrides.lua file is loaded at the end of hyprland.lua via pcall(require, "settings/overrides").

bn-menu Submenus

bn-menu (~/.local/bin/bn-menu) launches 15 submenus from ~/.local/bin/scripts/*/menu.sh. Each submenu shows 6–8 items with icon + text in a centered 380px window using submenu.rasi.

Menu	Script	Items
 System	system/menu.sh	System settings
󰓃 Audio	audio/menu.sh	Audio controls
󰍹 Display	display/menu.sh	Display settings
󰖰 Window	window/menu.sh	Window management
󰹑 Screenshot	screenshot/menu.sh	Screenshot tools
󰥰 Processes	process/menu.sh	Process management
󰏗 Packages	package/menu.sh	Package management
 Applications	apps/menu.sh	App launcher
󰸉 Wallpapers	wallpaper/menu.sh	Wallpaper selection
󰄉 Waybar	waybar/menu.sh	Bar styles
󰑐 Reload	reload/menu.sh	Config reload
󱖫 Services	services/menu.sh	Service management
󰌌 Theme	theme/menu.sh	Theme settings
󰋼 About	info/menu.sh	Project info, stats, keybinds, README, dotfile browser
󰍃 Session	session/menu.sh	Session control
󰂯 Bluetooth	bluetooth/menu.sh	Bluetooth management

Development Rules

When adding new features to this system, follow these rules:

1. Sidebars use shared/menu.rasi with -theme-str "listview { lines: N; }". Do not create per-menu .rasi files.
2. List menus use shared/list.rasi. No width/font/padding/lines overrides.
3. Input dialogs use shared/input-dialog.rasi. No overrides.
4. Icons in sidebar data strings follow "󰅴 " — icon immediately followed by a single trailing space, no leading space.
5. bn-menu items use the same pattern: " System" — icon, double space, text label.
6. If something repeats more than once, modularize it into shared/.
7. No standalone themes. Every .rasi imports from shared/ and colors.rasi.
8. Hyprland runtime changes go through settings/overrides.lua + hyprctl reload, never hyprctl keyword (Hyprland 0.55+ Lua).

— HollowSec