Ship a default keybind for keyboard passthrough to VM/remote-desktop windows (RDP, VNC, Citrix, Looking Glass)

[CJHarmath]

Running any remote-desktop or VM client under Hyprland hits the same problem: Hyprland's own global shortcuts (SUPER+1...SUPER+0 workspace switching, ALT+TAB window cycling, SUPER+<key> app launches, etc.) are captured by the compositor before the focused client window — the VM, the RDP session, the Citrix session — ever sees the keypress. So Alt+Tab inside a remote session switches local Hyprland windows instead of doing anything remote-side.

There's already real demand for VM-adjacent workflows in Omarchy — see #3455 (GPU Passthrough + Windows VM w/ Looking Glass) — and this same passthrough need applies equally to RDP clients (Remmina, FreeRDP), VNC, and Citrix Workspace, not just Looking Glass.

Fix that worked, built entirely from stock Hyprland Lua config, no plugin needed — a keybind submap that suspends Hyprland's normal shortcuts while active, so unbound keys (nearly everything, since the submap defines almost none) pass straight through to the focused window:

o.bind("SUPER + GRAVE", "Enter keyboard passthrough (Citrix/VMs)", function()
  hl.dispatch(hl.dsp.submap("passthrough"))
  hl.dispatch(hl.dsp.exec_cmd("notify-send 'Keyboard passthrough ON' 'Press SUPER+SHIFT+GRAVE to exit'"))
end)

hl.define_submap("passthrough", function()
  hl.bind("SUPER + SHIFT + GRAVE", function()
    hl.dispatch(hl.dsp.submap("reset"))
    hl.dispatch(hl.dsp.exec_cmd("notify-send 'Keyboard passthrough OFF'"))
  end)
end)

Deliberately different entry/exit keys (backtick to enter, shift+backtick to exit) since submaps don't reliably toggle off on the same combo that toggled them on. Manual recovery via hyprctl dispatch 'hl.dsp.submap("reset")' if input ever feels stuck — goes through the compositor socket, not keyboard input. Full write-up: https://gist.github.com/CJHarmath/53ee5cdc6c02e4467ec051cfac9b1bb9

Suggestion: Omarchy already ships plenty of opinionated defaults for niche-but-common workflows (nvidia detection, sleep/hibernate GPU handling, gaming installers, etc.) — this fits the same mold. Ship a keybind like this on by default rather than leaving it as a doc footnote, so RDP/VNC/Citrix/VM users get working passthrough out of the box instead of each independently rediscovering the same three-line submap.