Proposal: hyprdm – a minimal, Hyprland-native display/login manager

[zlib-arch]

Hyprland has built a strong ecosystem of native tools (hyprctl, hypridle, hyprlock, hyprpaper), but the login/display manager experience is still fragmented.
Current solutions (greetd, SDDM, GDM, LightDM) are either generic, heavy, or not designed with Hyprland’s animation-first and Wayland-native philosophy in mind.
I’d like to propose hyprdm:
a minimal, Hyprland-native display manager focused solely on starting Hyprland sessions.
Goals:
Wayland-native, wlroots-based
PAM authentication
Minimal UI, no GTK/Qt dependency
Hyprland-style animations and transitions
Clean handoff into the compositor without flicker
Non-goals:
Multi-DE support
Complex theming engines
Legacy X11 support
This could significantly improve the out-of-box experience and reduce support issues around startup and login.

[zlib-arch]

Implementation Strategy: The "Enhanced hyprlock" Approach
​Since hyprlock has already implemented the UI and authentication layers, adding a --dm mode to handle session launching could be the most efficient path forward, achieving this goal with minimal development overhead.
​This approach allows for massive reuse of the existing hyprlock codebase. Specifically, hyprlock already manages:
​Graphics rendering and shader support.
​Font handling and layout.
​Input processing.
​Basic PAM authentication.
​In essence, hyprdm would function as an "enhanced hyprlock"—one that is initialized at system boot and equipped with the logic necessary to spawn and hand off to a desktop session.

[zlib-arch]

Feature	SDDM / GDM	greetd (tuigreet)	hyprdm (Proposed)
Dependencies	Heavy (Qt/GTK)	Minimal (Rust/C)	Ultra-light (C++/Hypr-utils)
Animation Support	Moderate (QML)	None (TUI)	Native Hyprland Animation Engine
Config Syntax	Complex / Proprietary	Simple but limited	Hyprlang (High Consistency)
Wayland Native	Partial Support	Yes	Pure Wayland