kde-tags — KDE Plasma widget

Panel plasmoid for reaching your coworkers: a chat icon in the panel that opens a popup with a coworker grid (styled like Plasma's virtual desktops pager, with translucent "glass" cells). Select someone and either request their presence ("X is requesting your presence at their desk") or send them a written message. Sending is an HTTP POST to that person's ntfy topic; on their machine a small service (receiver/) shows the desktop notification with sound. Coworkers on the same local network are discovered automatically via mDNS.

Requires Plasma 5 (developed and tested on 5.27 / Qt 5.15).

Repository: https://github.com/Wolflags/kde-tags

Install (one command)

Run this on any Plasma 5 machine and you are done — it installs the widget, sets up the receiver, installs the LAN-discovery dependency, and drops the widget onto your panel next to the system tray:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Wolflags/kde-tags/main/install.sh)

It will ask for your display name (for the notification and LAN discovery) and for your sudo password once (to install avahi-utils). Everything else is automatic; the topic is generated for you and printed at the end. Re-running the command updates an existing install without losing your topic.

Prefer to read the script first? It lives at install.sh — download and inspect it, then run bash install.sh.

Unattended / custom values (flags are forwarded to the receiver installer):

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Wolflags/kde-tags/main/install.sh) \
    --name "Ana" --topic my-secret-topic-x7k2 --server https://ntfy.sh
# or --no-announce to skip the mDNS LAN announcement

Uninstall

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Wolflags/kde-tags/main/uninstall.sh)

Removes the widget from the panel, uninstalls the plasmoid, stops and deletes the receiver/announce services, and deletes ~/.config/kde-tags and the notification helper. It keeps the ntfy binary (in case something else uses it) and the source checkout; the command at the end tells you how to remove those too. Also runnable from a clone as bash uninstall.sh.

Layout

• install.sh — the one-command installer (widget + receiver + panel placement).
• uninstall.sh — the uninstaller.
• package/ — the plasmoid (com.josej.kdetags): QML + config.
• receiver/ — what each coworker installs to receive notifications (ntfy + notify-send + systemd user service). See receiver/README.md.

Manual installation (advanced)

If you would rather do it step by step:

git clone https://github.com/Wolflags/kde-tags.git
cd kde-tags

# widget (whoever sends notifications)
kpackagetool5 -t Plasma/Applet -i package      # -u to update
systemctl --user restart plasma-plasmashell.service
# then: right-click the panel → Add Widgets → kde-tags,
# and in edit mode drag it next to the system tray.

# receiver (whoever receives notifications), on each machine
cd receiver
./install-receiver.sh

The receiver installer downloads ntfy if needed, asks for the server (Enter = https://ntfy.sh) and your personal topic, leaves the kde-tags-receiver.service running and sends a test notification. At the end it prints the topic: that is the value to share with anyone who should be able to reach you (it goes in the widget's settings next to your name).

Custom topic

If you leave the topic empty, the installer generates a random one like kde-tags-ana-x7k2m9q4pz. To pick your own:

# with a flag (--server also works, for a self-hosted ntfy server)
./install-receiver.sh --topic my-secret-topic-x7k2

# or with environment variables (non-interactive mode, useful for rollouts)
KDE_TAGS_TOPIC=my-secret-topic-x7k2 KDE_TAGS_SERVER=https://ntfy.sh ./install-receiver.sh

The topic works like a password: pick something hard to guess and share it only with your team. Full details in receiver/README.md.

Automatic discovery on the local network (mDNS)

If everyone is on the same LAN, there is no need to exchange topics by hand: the receiver installer asks for your display name and announces an mDNS service _kdetags._tcp (with your name and topic); everyone else's widget detects it when the popup opens and shows you automatically with your initials.

Requirement on both sides (announcing and discovering):

sudo apt install avahi-utils    # avahi-daemon is usually already running

Notes:

• It can be disabled per machine (./install-receiver.sh --no-announce) or in the widget (Settings → "Discover coworkers automatically").
• Manual entries take precedence: add someone with their same topic to rename them; they also cover people outside the LAN (mDNS discovery does not cross routers/VPNs).
• If a machine shuts down abruptly, its announcement may take a while to expire from the mDNS cache (cosmetic).

Usage

1. Click the chat icon in the panel → the popup opens.
2. With many people, type in the search field (it has focus on open; it filters by name, case- and accent-insensitive). Enter with a single match selects it and jumps to the message field. With large teams the grid caps at 4 columns and scrolls vertically.
3. Click a coworker to select them (highlighted; click again to deselect).
4. Request presence button (fixed high-priority notification) or type a text and Send message (Enter in the field also sends).
5. The cell shows the result: spinner → ✓ (accepted by the server) or red + error (no network, bad server, 10 s timeout). The draft is only cleared if the send succeeded.

The coworker sees your name in the notification title (e.g. "👋 Pedro" for a presence request, "💬 Pedro" for a message). Your name is taken from the one you chose at install time; change it anytime under Settings → Your name.

Settings

Gear button in the popup (or right-click → Configure kde-tags):

• Language — English or Español; translates the whole interface (and the notifications you send) for this user. Default: English.
• ntfy server — https://ntfy.sh or your own server.
• Your name — shown as the title of the coworker's notification; pre-filled from the name you chose during installation.
• Local network — toggle for automatic mDNS discovery.
• Coworkers — name + ntfy topic for each one (the topic comes from their install-receiver.sh). Topics from older versions (teamcall-*) keep working: the prefix is cosmetic.

Debugging

journalctl --user -u plasma-plasmashell.service -b -f | grep -iE 'kde-tags|qml'

If you change defaults in contents/config/main.xml after the widget was added, remove and re-add the instance (old values are kept in ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc).

Privacy

On ntfy.sh the topic is effectively a password: use random suffixes (kde-tags-jose-8f3k2q9x) and share them only within your team. For more privacy, self-host an ntfy server with tokens (future extension: an Authorization: Bearer header in the widget).

With the mDNS announcement enabled, your topic is broadcast to the whole local network: anyone connected to that LAN can see it (and therefore send you notifications or subscribe to it). On a trusted office network that is usually acceptable; otherwise install with --no-announce and exchange topics by hand.