Configuration

Configuration

Everything lives in ~/.config/mist/, and every file is optional. Most of them are written by the UI (Customise desktop, the wallpaper gallery, the dock); edit by hand only what the UI does not offer. mist-ui re-reads them by itself or after a restart:

pkill -x mist-ui-bin     # the guard mist-ui starts it again

The full key-by-key reference is docs/CONFIG.md. In short:

File	What	Written by
settings.json	language, main monitor	Customise desktop
widgets.json	desktop layout and what each card shows	Customise desktop
location.json	the weather place	Customise desktop → General
wallpaper.json	photo or live scene, tempo, music	wallpaper gallery
apps.json	dock pins, Start groups	dock, Start
idle.json	seconds before lock and screen off (0 = never)	by hand
feeds.json	iCal URLs for the calendar and the island (a secret)	by hand
influx.json	Garmin / running data source (optional)	by hand
usage.json, files.json, player.json	launch counts, Mist Files and Mist Player state	Mist; safe to delete

Examples

// idle.json: lock after 10 min, screens off after 15
{ "lock": 600, "off": 900 }

// feeds.json
["https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/.../basic.ics"]

// location.json
{ "city": "Kraków", "lat": 50.06, "lon": 19.94 }

Environment

Variable
MIST_LANG	UI language, wins over settings.json
MIST_PRIMARY	main monitor, wins over settings.json
MIST_DIR	where the shell files are (default ~/.local/share/mist/shell, then /usr/share/mist)
MIST_WALLPAPERS	the gallery's photo folder
MIST_UI_NO_BAR, _NO_DOCK, _NO_ISLAND, _NO_DESK, _NO_WALL	leave that surface out (e.g. keep your own bar)
MIST_FALLBACK	a command the guard starts when mist-ui keeps crashing

More (development flags, mist-comp) in docs/CONFIG.md.