This Python script listens i3 ipc messages and
dynamically changes the names of the workspaces
to the lowercase variant of one window in the workspace prefixed by
workspace index.
For example by moving Gnome terminal to the workspace 7 the workspace
will be renamed to 7:gnome-terminal
This functionality can then be used e.g. in Polybar to display custom icons for workspaces based on opened apps with following sample config for Polybar i3 module:
[module/i3]
< rest of i3 module the config here >
fuzzy-match = true
ws-icon-0 = 1;
ws-icon-1 = 2;
ws-icon-2 = 3;
ws-icon-3 = 4;
ws-icon-4 = 5;
ws-icon-5 = 6;
ws-icon-6 = jetbrains;
ws-icon-7 = firefox;
ws-icon-8 = terminal;
ws-icon-9 = telegram;
ws-icon-10 = spotify;
ws-icon-11 = nautilus;
ws-icon-12 = vim;
ws-icon-13 = sublime;
ws-icon-14 = chrome;
ws-icon-15 = chromium;
ws-icon-16 = slack;
ws-icon-17 = 10;
ws-icon-default =
pip3 install .
cd dist/
makepkg
sudo pacman -U *.tar.zst
The script can be run manually by
i3-dynamic-workspace-names
but preferably you should add the following to your i3 config:
exec_always --no-startup-id i3-dynamic-workspace-names -c <path to config file>
You can define settings by configuring them to the config file and starting the application by:
i3-dynamic-workspace-names -c <path to config file>
Supported configuration options:
[Behavior]
; Indexes of workspaces which should be named dynamically
DynamicWorkspaceIndexes = [1, 2, 3]