swayidle

swayidle [options] [events]

swayidle is an idle management daemon compatible with any Wayland compositor implementing the ext-idle-notify protocol. It triggers commands based on user inactivity, supporting multiple timeout events that execute commands after specified periods of idle time, enabling staged power management such as dimming the screen, locking, and eventually suspending.
Resume actions execute when user activity is detected after a timeout, allowing reversal of timeout effects like turning displays back on. The before-sleep and after-resume events integrate with systemd sleep/wake cycles, commonly used to ensure the screen is locked before the system suspends.
Lock and unlock events respond to session lock signals from logind, enabling coordination with external lock requests such as those from the system settings or other applications.

timeout SECONDS COMMAND

Run after idle time.

Run on activity.

Run before suspend.

Run after wake.

Run on lock event.

Run on unlock.

Wait for command to finish before continuing

Enable debug output

Path to config file (default: $XDGCONFIGHOME/swayidle/config)

Specify seat name to use

Requires a Wayland compositor with ext-idle-notify support. Commands run as shell. Audio playback may prevent idle detection on some compositors.

swayidle is the idle manager for Sway compositor. It handles power management and screen locking triggers.

sway(1), swaylock(1), swaymsg(1)