Slate-DE

Slate-DE is a CLI-first, pane-based, Wayland-native Desktop Environment. It is architected for power users who demand high scriptability, modularity, and a unified command interface for all system interactions.

Core Philosophy

1. Everything is a Command: Every system action, from window management to vision analysis, is exposed via a unified command registry.
2. Everything is a Pane: The layout engine treats all surfaces (terminals, applications, vision overlays) as first-class panes within a hierarchical node tree.
3. Everything is Searchable: A global search and action overlay allows for fuzzy-finding commands, panes, and vision-indexed text.
4. Everything is Scriptable: Deep integration with WASM-based plugins allows for low-latency, cross-language extensibility.

Architecture

Slate-DE is built as a Rust workspace with clear domain boundaries:

• core: Reactive state management, layout engine, and trait definitions.
• compositor: Smithay-based Wayland compositor logic, handling seats, surfaces, and outputs.
• renderer: High-performance TUI-to-SHM rendering pipeline using Ratatui.
• vision: Modular framework for real-time OCR and computer vision on the desktop.
• plugins: WASM runtime (Wasmtime) for sandboxed extensions.
• cli: The primary entry point and command-line interface.

System Requirements

• OS: Linux (Wayland-native).
• Toolchain: Rust 1.75+ (Stable).
• Dependencies:
  • libwayland-dev
  • libxkbcommon-dev
  • libgbm-dev
  • libinput-dev
  • libudev-dev
  • clang/llvm (for Smithay/Bindgen)

Installation

One-Click Installation (Recommended)

Slate-DE provides a complete one-click installer that automatically handles dependencies, builds the project, and sets up your environment:

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/flessan/slate-de/main/install.sh | bash

That's it! The installer will:

• Detect your Linux distribution (Ubuntu/Debian/Arch/Fedora)
• Install all required system dependencies
• Install Rust if not present
• Clone the repository to ~/.local/share/slate-de
• Build Slate-DE in release mode
• Create symlinks in ~/.local/bin
• Generate default configuration at ~/.config/slate/slate.toml
• Set up a session launcher (slate-session)

After installation, restart your terminal and run:

slate-session  # Launch from TTY for full Wayland session
# or
slate-de       # Run the CLI directly

Manual Installation

If you prefer to install manually:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/flessan/slate-de.git
   cd slate-de

2. Install system dependencies: Refer to your distribution's package manager for wayland, libinput, and mesa.

3. Build the workspace:

   cargo build --release

4. Run Slate-DE:

   ./target/release/cli

Configuration

Configuration is managed via TOML located at ~/.config/slate/slate.toml.

[server]
socket_name = "slate-0"

[theme]
primary_color = "#88C0D0"
background_color = "#2E3440"

[[workspaces.list]]
name = "Development"
layout = "tiled"
default_panes = [
    { type = "terminal", command = "nvim" },
    { type = "terminal", command = "cargo watch" }
]

Development

Running Tests

cargo test --workspace

Building WASM Plugins

./scripts/build-wasm-plugins.sh

License

This project is licensed under either the MIT License or the Apache License (Version 2.0) IDK WHAT TO CHOOSE PLZ.