ARGEN(1) General Commands Manual ARGEN(1)

argen - Task-oriented tiling window manager.

argen [options]

river -c argen

argen is a task-oriented tiling window manager designed for keyboard + IPC workflows. It is based on the river(1) wayland compositor.

Usually, argen is run within river, either by adding it to river's init file or directly with river -c argen.

Contexts are task environments that replace traditional workspaces. They are identified by name so they can be fuzzy-searched rather than remembered by position. Each context spans all connected outputs and holds a set of windows, which are each assigned to one output.

Windows can be attached to multiple contexts, allowing shared windows to appear in any context without switching.

Windows are arranged in list-based layouts. Every output on each context has its own layout.

-h, --help

Print a help message and exit.

--version

Print the version number and exit.

All configuration and control happens at runtime through a custom IPC protocol and the argenctl(1) CLI utility.

On startup, argen runs an executable file, checking the following locations in order:

  • $ARGEN_INIT_PATH
  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/argen/init
  • $HOME/.config/argen/init

Usually this executable is a shell script invoking argenctl(1) to configure argen, create bindings, start programs such as a status bar, or perform other configuration.

The following key binding is set in normal mode by default. It can be overridden or disabled by the user.

Control+Alt+Delete

Exit the river compositor and end the Wayland session.

ARGEN_INIT_PATH

Path to init executable. See the CONFIGURATION section above.

ARGEN_LOG_LEVEL

Set the log level to error, warning, info, or debug.

WAYLAND_DISPLAY

Used to connect to the Wayland socket. It is set automatically by river. If argen is started outside of river, it must be set explicitly by the user.

river(1), argenctl(1)

v0.1.2 2026-07-19 ARGEN(1)