# waybar-themes is a folder of Waybar configs, and the install command overwrites your own

> waybar-themes collects personal Waybar status bar configurations for Omarchy and Hyprland users, each installed by copying files over ~/.config/waybar. It is a gallery of looks, not a plugin, and installing one replaces whatever you already had.

**HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes** — A collection of Waybar themes inspired by Omarchy, designed to be compatible with various Linux distributions.

- Repository: https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes
- Stars: 659 · Forks: 18
- Language: CSS
- License: MIT
- Published: 2026-10-21 · Updated: 2026-10-21 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/hancore-linux-waybar-themes

## A gallery of status bar looks, not a plugin or a package

waybar-themes is a collection of Waybar configurations written by one person, described in the repository description as inspired by Omarchy and designed to be compatible with various Linux distributions. The primary language of the repository is CSS, which tells you most of the story: what lives here is styling and layout for the Waybar status bar, not a program.

The repository top level is small. There is LICENSE, README.md, a config/ directory and a showcases/ directory. The config/ directory holds one subdirectory per theme version, and each of those carries the Waybar configuration files plus the stylesheet. The showcases/ directory holds the screenshots that the README embeds next to each theme.

The audience is therefore people running Waybar, which is the status bar used by Hyprland and other Wayland composers, and specifically people who like the Omarchy style of desktop setup. The README topics back this up: hyprland, omarchy, rice, waybar and waybar-config all appear as tags. If you are on a plain GNOME or KDE session without Waybar running, nothing here applies to you.

What you get is a finished appearance. What you do not get is a package, a plugin, or anything that keeps itself updated.

## Each install command overwrites the whole waybar config directory

The mechanism of installation is a one line shell command per theme, and it is worth reading closely before you paste it. The pattern clones the repository into /tmp/repo, copies the files of one theme version over your config directory, removes the temporary clone, and then asks Omarchy to restart Waybar.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes.git /tmp/repo && cp -rf /tmp/repo/config/V1/. ~/.config/waybar && rm -rf /tmp/repo && omarchy-restart-waybar
```

The V1 command is the shortest version of that pattern. Each later theme swaps the directory name, so V1.7 copies from config/V1.7/. and V1.5 copies from config/V1.5/.

Two things follow. First, this is an install, not a layering: the copy puts the theme's files into ~/.config/waybar and your previous contents are replaced. There is no merge step in the command. Second, the last part, omarchy-restart-waybar, is an Omarchy command, so the documented path assumes you are on Omarchy. On another distribution you would still copy the files, but you would have to restart Waybar yourself.

The temporary clone and its immediate removal are a reasonable way to fetch a single directory without leaving a repository behind, and it also means the theme folder is self contained.

## The configs lean on Omarchy modules that have to be removed elsewhere

The README is candid about portability. It says the configs are Omarchy based, including optional Omarchy specific modules such as the logo, the screen recorder and the update module, and that aside from those they use standard modules such as pacman updates and wttrbar. The consequence, stated in the same paragraph, is that they can be used on any distro by removing the Omarchy modules and defining the colours.

That is a fair description of the work involved, but it is more than a one line edit. The themes are CSS, so the colours are declared somewhere in the stylesheet and the Omarchy specific modules are declared in the Waybar JSON configuration. Removing a module means editing the config so Waybar does not try to load something that is not installed, and defining colours means knowing which variables the stylesheet expects.

So the portability claim is real but conditional. A theme will not just work on Fedora or Arch with a plain Waybar setup. It will work after you strip the Omarchy pieces and set the palette yourself.

The module list also explains why these configs are not simply a CSS file. The bar pulls in data from several sources, and the theme is only the surface.

## Two helper packages have to be installed first

The README states that the configurations use additional packages, naming wttrbar for the weather module and waybar-module-pacman-updates-git for the pacman AUR updates module. Both are installed with yay, which is the Arch User Repository helper.

```bash
yay -S waybar-module-pacman-updates-git
```
```bash
yay -S wttrbar
```

This narrows the real audience further than the Omarchy point alone does. yay is an Arch family tool, so a theme that shows pacman updates assumes an Arch based system, and the repository tags mention Hyprland and Omarchy, which point at the same desktop ecosystem. The themes are not portable to a Debian workstation without rework of the modules as well as the colours.

A module that is missing is a visible failure rather than a silent one, because the bar will show an error or an empty segment where the module should be. Installing the two packages before the theme avoids that.

For what it is worth, the weather module is the part that most visibly depends on an external tool, since wttrbar is a separate program that fetches and formats the forecast.

## The Omarchy Menu is the escape hatch back to a stock bar

Because installation replaces your configuration, a reset path is necessary, and the README documents one. You open the Omarchy Menu by pressing Super + Alt + Space, then select Update, then Config, then Waybar.

The README describes what that action does. It resets ~/.config/waybar to the stock Omarchy version, it usually backs up your current custom config, for example to config.bak and style.css.bak, and it reloads Waybar automatically in most cases.

Two details deserve your attention. The backup is described as what usually happens rather than what always happens, so you should not rely on it as the only copy of a configuration you care about. And the reset only makes sense on Omarchy, since the Omarchy Menu is part of that distribution's tooling.

For anyone not on Omarchy, the equivalent is simply that ~/.config/waybar is a plain directory that you own. Copy it somewhere before you install a theme, and restore it by hand if the theme does not suit you. That advice is not in the README, and it is the part most first-time users miss.

## The theme ladder from V1 to V1.8 and what each one changes

The README lists the themes in version order with a one line description each, and the descriptions read as a changelog of the author's taste rather than as a product roadmap.

V1 is described as the first creation of the author's own Waybar config, including weather, mpris, hyprland and window modules, a pacman update module and a screen record button. V1.1 is an island version with a dynamic circle status. V1.2 splits the left and right modules into separate groups with fully rounded corners on both ends, and V1.3 doubles that split. V1.4 introduces a workspace style with static dark colours, and V1.4b is the long version of that with dynamic theme colour support. V1.5 is the V1 base evolved, with numbered workspaces and an ultra minimal full width bar whose modules are integrated into the background. V1.6 is described as a long bar with dynamic rounded circle indicators for RAM and CPU. V1.7 is a short bar with text modules on the right side.

Two directions are visible across that list. One is the bar shape, moving between long and short and between split groups and single bars. The other is colour handling, moving from static dark colours towards dynamic theme colour support.

The naming is also worth flagging. V1.1 is described as the island version of V1.6, so the numbering is not strictly chronological in the sense of features, and you should read the description line rather than assume a higher number means more.

## V1.7 needs a Python script you must make executable by hand

One theme carries an extra manual step. V1.7 includes a custom window script by Astraeya, and the README instructs you to make the script executable with chmod +x on ~/.config/waybar/window_pill.py.

The install command for V1.7 does not do this for you. It copies the files, deletes the temporary clone and restarts Waybar, and the copied script arrives with ordinary file permissions. If you skip the chmod step, Waybar will try to run a file it is not allowed to execute and the window module will show nothing, with no obvious cause.

The same applies to any theme that ships a helper script rather than a pure configuration. The install command is a copy, and a copy does not carry executable intent.

The author also links a second project, Quickshell Dots, described as Quickshell Bars. That is the closest alternative to this repository in spirit, and the difference is the shell rather than the styling: these are Waybar configurations for a Wayland status bar, while the other project builds its bars with Quickshell.

## MIT licence, tagged releases, and commits between tags

The licence is MIT, with the text in the LICENSE file. For configuration files that people copy into their own home directory, that is about as permissive as it gets, and the README also links a Buy Me A Coffee badge, so the project is supported partly through donations rather than a commercial licence.

On maintenance, the repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-06-19. Recent tags are v2.6.4 on 2026-06-15, v2.6.3 on 2026-05-18 and v2.6.2 on 2026-05-13, so releases land often, with several within a single month. The version numbering of the release tags and the version numbering of the theme folders are separate schemes, and the README lists theme versions such as V1 and V1.7 rather than the 2.6.x tag names, which makes it easy to be unsure which state of the themes a given tag holds.

The upgrade path is manual in the way you would expect from a copy based project. There is no package to update and no changelog in the repository top level, so the only record of what changed is the README itself and the commit history. If you installed a theme with the clone and copy command, you repeat that command with a newer directory name and get the new version over the old.

## Conclusion

Adopt waybar-themes if you run Waybar on Omarchy or Hyprland and want a finished status bar without writing the JSON and CSS yourself, and copy one theme at a time. Do not adopt it on a plain desktop where you already maintain ~/.config/waybar, because the documented install overwrites that directory and the themes assume Omarchy specific modules. Before you run any install command, copy your existing ~/.config/waybar aside, remove the Omarchy modules and set the colours yourself if you are not on Omarchy, and check whether the theme you want needs wttrbar or waybar-module-pacman-updates-git installed first.

## FAQ

### How do I install a waybar-themes config?

Each theme has a one line command that clones the repository into /tmp/repo, copies the theme folder over ~/.config/waybar, removes the temporary clone and runs omarchy-restart-waybar. The copy replaces your existing files rather than merging with them.

### Can I use waybar-themes on a distribution other than Omarchy?

The README says the configs can be used on any distro by removing the Omarchy specific modules and defining the colours. The modules they rely on, such as wttrbar and waybar-module-pacman-updates-git, are installed with yay and assume an Arch based system.

### How do I restore the default Waybar setup after installing a theme?

On Omarchy, open the Omarchy Menu with Super + Alt + Space, then choose Update, Config and Waybar. That resets ~/.config/waybar to the stock version and usually backs up your custom config to files such as config.bak.

### Why does the V1.7 theme not show window information?

V1.7 includes a custom window script by Astraeya that has to be made executable yourself with chmod +x on ~/.config/waybar/window_pill.py. The install command only copies the files, so that step is left to you.

### Do waybar-themes need any extra packages installed?

The README says the configurations use additional packages, naming wttrbar for the weather module and waybar-module-pacman-updates-git for pacman AUR updates, both installed with yay.

## Sources

- [HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes on GitHub](https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes)
- [Issues](https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes/issues)
- [License: MIT](https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes/blob/main/LICENSE)
- [README](https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes/blob/main/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/HANCORE-linux/waybar-themes/releases)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/hancore-linux-waybar-themes