default-column-width/default-window-height applies to all windows with same app-id, including dialogs/popups

[savager2k03]

default-column-width/default-window-height applies to all windows with same app-id, including dialogs/popups

Problem

When using default-column-width and default-window-height in window rules, these settings apply to all windows matching the app-id, including dialogs, file pickers, preferences windows, and other popups. This makes the feature unusable for floating windows because:

1. Main application windows need reasonable default sizes (e.g., 1600x900)
2. Dialogs/popups should use their preferred sizes (often much smaller)
3. There's no way to distinguish between them in window rules
4. Even if i were to use title based matching, it would require individual rules for each window

Current Behavior

window-rule {
  match app-id="nemo|KeePassXC|imv"
  open-floating true
  default-column-width { fixed 1600; }
  default-window-height { fixed 900; }
}

Result: Main window AND all dialogs (Open/Save dialogs, Preferences, Properties, etc.) open at 1600x900, making most dialogs unusable.

Workarounds Attempted

1. Using max-width/max-height instead: Doesn't work - some windows spawn too small, some too large, inconsistent geometry
2. Using min-width/min-height: Forces ALL windows (including tiny dialogs) to minimum size
3. Excluding by title patterns: Unmaintainable - would need to list every possible dialog title for every app

Expected Behavior

Window managers like AwesomeWM handled this automatically by:

• Distinguishing between root/main windows and transient windows (dialogs, popups)
• Only applying default sizes to root windows
• Letting dialogs use their preferred sizes

Proposed Solutions

Option 1: Add window-type matching (like AwesomeWM, i3, Sway)

window-rule {
  match app-id="nemo"
  match window-type="normal"  // Excludes dialog, popup, utility, etc.
  default-column-width { fixed 1600; }
}

Option 2: Add parent/transient matching

window-rule {
  match app-id="nemo"
  match is-transient=false  // Only root windows
  default-column-width { fixed 1600; }
}

Option 3: Make default-column-width/default-window-height only apply to root windows by default, with opt-in for dialogs

Environment

• Niri version: niri 25.11 (b35bcae)
• Tested apps: Nemo, KeePassXC, imv, foot, pavucontrol, firefox and many others
• All apps exhibit this behavior
• OS: Arch Linux x86_64
• Kernel: Linux 6.19.12-arch1-1

Additional Context

This is a blocker for using floating windows effectively in Niri. The alternative is manually resizing every floating window on every launch, which defeats the purpose of window rules.

[Sempyos]

Can you use xorg-xeyes and see if the eyes follow your mouse around when on those apps..?

Can you provide the way you are getting a pop-up with imv, nemo, and keepassxc and any others..? As I am unsure as to what you mean with imv, which last I checked doesn't have any

[savager2k03]

Can you use xorg-xeyes and see if the eyes follow your mouse around when on those apps..?

Can you provide the way you are getting a pop-up with imv, nemo, and keepassxc and any others..? As I am unsure as to what you mean with imv, which last I checked doesn't have any

Sorry for the confusion in my original post. Let me clarify with test results:

The thing is,
When I set default-column-width/default-window-height for floating apps, it applies to both the main window AND any dialogs/popups that app spawns with the same app-id.

Ran the xeyes test as requested:

eyes follow cursor for KeePassXC, Dillo
eyes wont follow for Nemo, pavucontrol, Zathura, imv

Nemo

• Main window spawns small by default, I want ~1600x900
• so i set a fixed size by app-id
• Right-click → Properties dialog also becomes 1600x900 (much cooler if it was ~400x500)
• File → Preferences also becomes 1600x900 (too large)

Dillo

• Main window needs to be large (~1600x900)
• Search box popup also becomes 1600x900 (it needs to be very small)

Same with apps like keepassxc,Gnome disks, etc...

My current rule:

//apps which i want to float + large main window
window-rule {
  match app-id="imv|nemo|KeePassXC|Dillo|font-manager"
  open-floating true
  default-column-width { fixed 1600; }
  default-window-height { fixed 900; }
}
//apps which i want to float + small main window
window-rule {
  match app-id="foot|zathura|arandr|org.gnome.DiskUtility|qt6ct|org.pulseaudio.pavucontrol"
  open-floating true
  default-column-width { fixed 1000; }
  default-window-height { fixed 800; }
}
//popups inherits this rule coz same app-id. but shouldnt it be applied to the main window only??

Result: Main windows get the right size, but every dialog in those apps becomes the same size as well, very gigantic. config gonna bloat if i hardcode a separate rule for every popup from each app.

What I suggest

Window type rules would be the best solution
A way to apply default-column-width/height (or other geometry properties) only to main/root windows, not their child dialogs. Something like:

• match window-type="normal" (to exclude dialogs)
• some option to exclude child windows / popups / dialogues / whatever spawned aside
• Or any other mechanism to distinguish main windows from dialogs

sorry for putting imv in my post. imv was a bad example since it doesn't really have dialogs. The main issue is with apps which i want to float (with a fixed size for their normal windows as they kinda looks small) like nemo,dillo,keepassxc,gnome disks, which spawns popups or secondary windows.

[Sempyos]

Thanky, I'll get around to testing with this today

[fsrzen]

The 'open-maximized-to-edges' setting has the same issue.

[Sempyos]

Apologies for not getting back to this, but could @fsrzen or @savager2k03 provide a video of this happening..? On imv for example

[AminurAlam]

i believe they are talking about this issue

in the video you can see the correct behaviour before rule is applied and the popup behaviour after the rule is applied

2026-06-08_1128_10.mp4

ive seen this happen in anki, qbittorrent, and keepassxc floating windows

even putting a is-floating=false doesnt help

[fsrzen]

I set up a VM to repro this.

Click to expand video

2026-06-08.17-37-48.mp4

Here's my rule config:

// Window rules let you adjust behavior for individual windows.
// Find more information on the wiki:
// https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/wiki/Configuration:-Window-Rules

window-rule {
//    open-maximized-to-edges true
    open-maximized true
}

window-rule {
    match is-focused=true is-floating=true
    focus-ring {
        on
        width 5
        active-color "#7fc8ff"
    }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="com.gabm.satty"
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 1920; }
    default-window-height { fixed 1200; }
    focus-ring {
        on
        width 5
        active-color "#f38ba8"
    }
    shadow {
        color "#7d0d2d70"
    }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="imv"
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="blueman-manager"
    match app-id="blueman-services"
    match app-id="com.github.FontManager.FontViewer"
    match app-id="com.github.wwmm.easyeffects"
    match app-id="font-manager"
    match app-id="hardinfo2"
    match app-id="lstopo"
    match app-id="nekobox"
    match app-id="nwg-look"
    match app-id="octopi"
    match app-id="org.bleachbit.BleachBit"
    match app-id="org.gnome.seahorse.Application"
    match app-id="org.manjaro.pamac.manager"
    match app-id="(?i)org.pipewire.Helvum|helvum"
    match app-id="org.pulseaudio.pavucontrol"
    match app-id="org.qbittorrent.qBittorrent"
    match app-id="qt5ct|qt6ct"
    match app-id="xarchiver"
    match app-id=r#"xyz\.chatboxapp\.app$"#
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 1440; }
    default-window-height { fixed 900; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="galculator"
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 640; }
    default-window-height { fixed 400; }
    default-floating-position x=5 y=5 relative-to="bottom-right";
}

/-window-rule {
    match app-id="gcr-prompter"
    open-floating true
    default-column-width { fixed 700; }
    default-window-height { fixed 180; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="Alacritty" title="htop"
    match app-id="firewall-config"
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 1920; }
    default-window-height { fixed 1200; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="xdg-desktop-portal-gtk"
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 1280; }
    default-window-height { fixed 800; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id=r#"org\.fcitx\.fcitx5-config-qt$"#
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 640; }
    default-window-height { fixed 400; }
}

window-rule {
    match app-id=r#"com.freerdp.client.sdl3"#
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 1920; }
    default-window-height { fixed 1080; }
}


window-rule {
    match app-id="kbd-layout-viewer"
    open-floating true
    open-maximized-to-edges false
    default-column-width { fixed 1680; }
    default-window-height { fixed 600; }
}

// Work around WezTerm's initial configure bug
// by setting an empty default-column-width.
window-rule {
    // This regular expression is intentionally made as specific as possible,
    // since this is the default config, and we want no false positives.
    // You can get away with just app-id="wezterm" if you want.
    match app-id=r#"^org\.wezfurlong\.wezterm$"#
    default-column-width {}
}

// Open the Firefox picture-in-picture player as floating by default.
window-rule {
    // This app-id regular expression will work for both:
    // - host Firefox (app-id is "firefox")
    // - Flatpak Firefox (app-id is "org.mozilla.firefox")
    match app-id=r#"firefox$"# title="^Picture-in-Picture$"
    open-floating true
}

// Example: block out two password managers from screen capture.
// (This example rule is commented out with a "/-" in front.)
/-window-rule {
    match app-id=r#"^org\.keepassxc\.KeePassXC$"#
    match app-id=r#"^org\.gnome\.World\.Secrets$"#

    block-out-from "screen-capture"

    // Use this instead if you want them visible on third-party screenshot tools.
    // block-out-from "screencast"
}

// Example: enable rounded corners for all windows.
// (This example rule is commented out with a "/-" in front.)
/-window-rule {
    geometry-corner-radius 12
    clip-to-geometry true
}

[Sempyos]

Oki, sorry for not responding for ages, but after looking at all the examples here now and doing some of my own testing. I have feel that this is just apps not parenting their dialogs correctly, after testing with nautilus, and not really a niri issue