omarchycn/docs/file-layout.md

File layout

How omarchy/ is organized and where everything ends up on an installed system.

Mental model

Two Arch packages are built from this one repo (PKGBUILDs live in the separate omarchy-pkgs repository, under pkgbuilds/):

• omarchy — runtime binaries (bin/, including bin/omarchy-dev-*), install/finalize scripts (install/), migrations, themes, and the Quickshell desktop (shell/). Depends on omarchy-settings.
• omarchy-settings — everything that has to be on the target before the omarchy package installs (specifically before useradd -m and the limine bootloader install): all /etc/skel/**, /etc/ drop-ins, package-owned system files under /usr/share and /usr/lib, fonts, plymouth theme, sddm theme, branding, plus the limine/snapper configs (mkinitcpio hooks, limine-entry-tool drop-ins, snapper template, the default/limine/ and default/snapper/ trees, and the boot/snapshot story end-to-end). Also ships the three debug binaries (omarchy-debug, omarchy-debug-idle, omarchy-upload-log) needed by the live ISO env.

Two other packages live in omarchy-pkgs but stand alone: omarchy-keyring (GPG keys for pacman) and omarchy-nvim (the Neovim setup; independently seeds /etc/skel).

Some trees ship in neither package and exist only in the repo: manual/ (user manual chapters), agents/skills/ (contributor task guides), docs/, test/, and plans/.

Three layers populate $HOME:

1. Seed — omarchy-settings ships static defaults to /etc/skel/. Arch's useradd -m copies that tree into a new user's $HOME at user creation. This is the only mechanism that touches a brand-new user's home for these files.
2. Finalize — omarchy-provision-user (routed as omarchy finalize user) runs once per user and handles the things /etc/skel can't do because they need $HOME expansion, the live $OMARCHY_PATH, or runtime detection of system state.
3. Resync — omarchy-reinstall-configs is the explicit, destructive command for an existing user to clobber their configs back to shipped defaults.

/etc/skel only fires at user creation. Existing users picking up new defaults must use the resync command.

Deferred-provisioning installs (omarchy-apply-system --defer-provisioning) create no user at all: the ISO leaves /var/lib/omarchy/provisioning/pending behind, which arms omarchy-provision-owner.service (shipped from install/provisioning/, alongside the factory-reset finish unit and setup-form.sh). On first boot bin/omarchy-provision-owner creates the user on tty1 and runs the finalize step itself.

Current generated theme state lives under ~/.local/state/omarchy/current/. Keep ~/.config/omarchy/ for files a user may intentionally version in a dotfile manager, such as user themes, hooks, shell layout, plugins, and themed template overrides.

Build-time map (repo → installed paths)

omarchy/                            built into          installed at
─────────────────────────           ──────────────      ────────────────────────────────────

bin/omarchy-*                  ──►  omarchy             /usr/bin/omarchy-*
                                                        (and symlinks in /usr/share/omarchy/bin/)
bin/omarchy-debug,
bin/omarchy-debug-idle,
bin/omarchy-upload-log         ──►  omarchy-settings    /usr/bin/  (needed before omarchy is installed)

default/libalpm/hooks/*.hook
                                ──►  omarchy             /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/*.hook

install/**                     ──►  omarchy             /usr/share/omarchy/install/
migrations/**                  ──►  omarchy             /usr/share/omarchy/migrations/
themes/**                      ──►  omarchy             /usr/share/omarchy/themes/
shell/**                       ──►  omarchy             /usr/share/omarchy/shell/
version                        ──►  omarchy             /usr/share/omarchy/version
                                                        + /etc/skel/.local/state/omarchy/migrations/*

config/**                      ──►  omarchy-settings    /etc/skel/.config/**         (seeds new users)
                                                        /usr/share/omarchy/config/** (resync source)
etc/fastfetch/config.jsonc     ──►  omarchy-settings    /etc/fastfetch/config.jsonc

applications/*.desktop         ──►  omarchy-settings    /etc/skel/.local/share/applications/
                                                        /usr/share/omarchy/applications/
default/applications/battlenet.desktop
                                ──►  omarchy-settings    /usr/share/omarchy/default/applications/
                                                        (installer-only launcher template)
applications/icons/*           ──►  omarchy-settings    /usr/share/icons/hicolor/{48,256,scalable}/apps/

etc/**                         ──►  omarchy-settings    /etc/**           (drop-ins we own outright)
  ├─ mkinitcpio.conf.d/{omarchy_hooks,thunderbolt_module}.conf
  ├─ limine-entry-tool.d/{omarchy-defaults,omarchy-uki}.conf
  ├─ NetworkManager/, sudoers.d/, sysctl.d/, tmpfiles.d/,
  │  profile.d/omarchy.sh, …                            (a summary — `ls etc/` for the full ~17-entry tree)
  └─ security/faillock.conf, nsswitch.conf,
     cups/cups-browsed.conf, plymouth/plymouthd.conf    /usr/share/omarchy/etc-overrides/
                                                          → /etc/* (post_install cp -f, see below)

default/limine/limine.conf     ──►  omarchy-settings    /usr/share/omarchy/default/limine/limine.conf
default/limine/default.conf    ──►  omarchy-settings    /usr/share/omarchy/default/limine/default.conf
                                                        (template; ISO substitutes @@CMDLINE@@ → /etc/default/limine)
default/snapper/root           ──►  omarchy-settings    /etc/snapper/config-templates/omarchy
                                                        (+ /usr/share/omarchy/default/snapper/root)

default/**                     ──►  omarchy-settings    /usr/share/omarchy/default/
  ├─ bash/env-bootstrap                                 /usr/share/omarchy/default/bash/env-bootstrap
  │                                                       (sourced by every shell/session entry point; see "Env bootstrap")
  ├─ bashrc                                             /usr/share/omarchy/etc-overrides/dot.bashrc
  │                                                       → /etc/skel/.bashrc (post_install cp -f)
  ├─ hypr/toggles/*.lua (flags,
  │    single-window-aspect-ratio, window-no-gaps)      /etc/skel/.local/state/omarchy/toggles/hypr/
  ├─ nautilus-python/extensions/*.py                    /etc/skel/.local/share/nautilus-python/extensions/
  ├─ tensaku/state.toml                                 /etc/skel/.local/state/tensaku/state.toml
  ├─ uwsm/env.d/10-omarchy                              /usr/share/uwsm/env.d/
  ├─ environment.d/*.conf                               /usr/lib/environment.d/
  ├─ fontconfig/conf.avail/50-omarchy.conf              /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/
  │                                                       + symlink /etc/fonts/conf.d/50-omarchy.conf
  ├─ xdg-terminal-exec/*.list                           /usr/share/xdg-terminal-exec/
  ├─ applications/mimeapps.list                         /usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list
  ├─ systemd/user/*.service                             /usr/lib/systemd/user/
  ├─ systemd/user/app.slice.d/10-oomd.conf              /usr/lib/systemd/user/app.slice.d/
  ├─ systemd/system-sleep/{force-igpu,
  │    keyboard-backlight,unmount-fuse}                 /usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep/
  ├─ systemd/zram-generator.conf.d/90-omarchy.conf      /usr/lib/systemd/zram-generator.conf.d/
  ├─ fonts/omarchy/omarchy.ttf                          /usr/share/fonts/omarchy/
  ├─ sddm/omarchy/                                      /usr/share/sddm/themes/omarchy/
  ├─ sddm/hyprland.lua                                  /usr/share/sddm/hyprland.lua
  ├─ wayland-sessions/omarchy.desktop                   /usr/local/share/wayland-sessions/
  └─ plymouth/                                          /usr/share/plymouth/themes/omarchy/

logo.{txt,svg}, icon.{txt,png}  ──► omarchy-settings    /usr/share/omarchy/  (resync source)
                                                        /usr/share/pixmaps/omarchy.png
                                                        /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/omarchy.png
                                                        /etc/skel/.config/omarchy/branding/{about,screensaver}.txt

Why etc-overrides/ exists

Some files under /etc/ (.bashrc in /etc/skel, nsswitch.conf, security/faillock.conf, cups/cups-browsed.conf, plymouth/plymouthd.conf) are owned by upstream Arch packages, so we can't install over them via pacman without a file conflict. Instead their sources (under etc/ in the repo; .bashrc from default/bashrc) ship at /usr/share/omarchy/etc-overrides/ and the omarchy-settings post_install / post_upgrade scriptlet cp -f's them into place.

Tradeoff: user edits to those files get clobbered on every omarchy-settings upgrade. This is documented in the PKGBUILD.

Env bootstrap (default/bash/env-bootstrap)

Single source of truth for OMARCHY_PATH and dev-link-aware PATH. It:

• Sources /etc/omarchy.conf (written by omarchy-dev-link, reset to the package path by omarchy-dev-unlink) if present; otherwise forces OMARCHY_PATH=/usr/share/omarchy so a stale inherited value can't survive an omarchy-dev-unlink.
• Prepends $OMARCHY_PATH/bin to PATH only when OMARCHY_PATH is not /usr/share/omarchy. On a production install the binaries are already on PATH as /usr/bin/omarchy-* via the omarchy package.
• Appends ~/.local/share/mise/shims and ~/.local/bin so login shells and the uwsm session find mise-managed tools — kept in sync with the PAM PATH line written by install/config/ssh-command-path.sh, which covers SSH commands that run no shell setup at all.

Sourced by every entry point that needs the env set:

/etc/profile.d/omarchy.sh                      (system login shells)
/etc/skel/.bashrc                              (interactive shells)
/usr/share/uwsm/env.d/10-omarchy               (Hyprland session via uwsm)
/usr/share/omarchy/default/bash/envs           (SSH / non-login bash)

Idempotent — safe to source more than once in the same shell.

PATH covers everything the user runs, but not sudo, which resolves command names against secure_path from /etc/sudoers. So omarchy-dev-link also writes /etc/sudoers.d/omarchy-dev-path:

Defaults secure_path="<checkout>/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin"

Without it, sudo omarchy-* fails for a command the package has not shipped yet and silently runs the packaged copy of one it has. The drop-in is validated with visudo -c before install and removed by omarchy-dev-unlink; unlike /etc/omarchy.conf, it takes effect without a reboot.

Runtime finalization (omarchy-provision-user)

Runs once per user. It does not copy ~/.config/**, ~/.bashrc, flags.lua, or the nautilus extensions — /etc/skel already seeded those. It only does the things /etc/skel can't:

• Skill symlinks ~/.{agents,claude,codex,pi/agent}/skills/<name> → $OMARCHY_PATH/default/agents/skills/<name>, looping over every skill directory there (currently omarchy and diagnose-crash) so new skills need no edit. Symlinks (not copies) so omarchy dev link against a dev checkout repoints them correctly.
• xdg-user-dirs-update (Templates/Public/Desktop folded back into $HOME) and ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks (needs $HOME expansion).
• Hyprland's package-owned default input reads XKBLAYOUT / XKBVARIANT from /etc/vconsole.conf; no per-user Hyprland config rewrite is needed.
• xdg-settings set default-web-browser chromium.desktop (XDG-aware path).
• omarchy-refresh-applications (composes generated .desktop launchers).
• Sources install/user/all.sh — theme, chromium, git, xcompose, mise, keyring, per-user hardware quirks (asus mic/mixer, framework f13 audio, …).
• On --first-install, marks every shipped user migration as already applied for the freshly-created user.

Idempotency marker: ~/.local/state/omarchy/done/finalize-user, managed by omarchy-done.

The ISO calls it as omarchy-provision-user --force --first-install in the target chroot as the install user, after omarchy-apply-system has finished the root-side work. omarchy-provision-owner makes the same call (with OMARCHY_SETUP_CONTEXT=provision-owner) when it creates the user during deferred first-boot provisioning.

Migrations (omarchy-migrate)

See migrations.md for the full migration model, authoring guidelines, and troubleshooting notes.

Omarchy migrations live in migrations/*.sh and run per-user through omarchy-migrate. Completion state lives in ~/.local/state/omarchy/migrations/, so every user gets a chance to run every migration. Migrations run as the user; privileged work should invoke the appropriate helper or privilege prompt. Migrations must be idempotent; machine-wide repairs should no-op when another user already applied them.

Each graphical user has omarchy-migrate-notify.service, started once per login through WantedBy=graphical-session.target and ordered after that target so notification actions can safely launch through UWSM. The omarchy-pkgs PKGBUILD has shipped omarchy-update-user-notify.service as a symlink onto it, so users enabled under the old unit name keep working before they reach migration 1785095882. It runs omarchy-migrate-notify as that user, which checks omarchy-migrate --pending. If this user has missing migration state, it shows a notification that opens a terminal for omarchy-migrate. The notifier never runs migrations in the background.

Login is the only trigger. Nothing watches the packaged migration directory: a watcher cannot tell a bypassed pacman -Syu from the package transaction inside a normal omarchy update, so it notified about migrations that omarchy-migrate was already applying in the visible update terminal.

omarchy-migrate waits for any active pacman transaction to finish, then runs pending migrations. It does not need --force; migrations happen when state files are missing. omarchy update runs omarchy-migrate after the package transaction in the already-visible update terminal, then runs omarchy-hook post-update.

First-run (omarchy-provision-first-run)

Runs once on first interactive login, after the user manager is live. It first runs omarchy-provision-user || true so finalize catches up if it never ran, then handles the steps that need a running graphical session and/or a working user systemd instance:

• omarchy-hook-install post-update for the three shipped hooks (install-voxtype.hook, setup-fingerprint.hook, setup-agent.hook).
• install/user/first-run/enable-user-units.sh — daemon-reload, then systemctl --user enable --now the shipped user units (bt-agent, omarchy-sleep-lock, omarchy-recover-internal-monitor, omarchy-migrate-notify.service, omarchy-fcitx5.service, omarchy-crash-watch.service) so they run in the first session too. Done here, not at finalize, because the user manager isn't reachable from the ISO chroot; ConditionPath* in the unit files keeps services inert when they don't apply.
• install/user/first-run/gnome-theme.sh, install/user/first-run/gtk-primary-paste.sh — GNOME/GTK settings that need the dconf daemon.
• install/user/first-run/audio-tuning.sh — apply speaker tuning.
• install/user/first-run/welcome.sh — keybindings toast that greets the first login and opens the cheatsheet when clicked. The caller runs omarchy-notification-wait once before this and the Wi-Fi step, so both toasts land on a live notification server.
• install/user/first-run/wifi.sh — Wi-Fi/update toasts (waits detached on nm-online so the update prompt only lands once there is a connection).

The entire sequence has one idempotency marker: ~/.local/state/omarchy/done/first-run-user, managed by omarchy-done. Completed users exit before any first-run step. On failure the marker is not written and the sequence retries next login.

Completion markers live under ~/.local/state/omarchy/done/. Use omarchy-done check <name> to check one and omarchy-done mark <name> to record it. Use omarchy-done ensure <name> as a conditional when the guarded work should run only once; it records completion before returning success. The Quattro upgrade completes graphical first-run for upgraded users and moves the legacy finalization marker from ~/.local/state/omarchy/ into done/.

Root-side install orchestration

omarchy-apply-system (root, in chroot) runs target-side setup at ISO finalization. It sources:

• install/config/all.sh — theme links, lockout limits, lockscreen PAM, powerprofilesctl shebang fix, SSH command path and keepalive, docker setup, Snapper retention, locate index tuning, service enablement, firewall.
• install/hardware/all.sh via omarchy-apply-hardware — vendor- and device-specific kernel modules, udev rules, microcode, wireless regdom, ASUS / Framework / Intel / Apple / Lenovo quirks.
• install/login/all.sh — SDDM theme/session config.
• install/post-install/all.sh — final pacman/udev/localdb passes.

Logging goes to /var/log/omarchy-install.log via install/helpers/logging.sh.

The package lists the ISO pacstraps live at install/omarchy-base.packages and install/omarchy-other.packages; the ISO builder also reads them when constructing its offline mirror.

Explicit resync (omarchy-reinstall-configs)

When an existing user wants to reset to shipped defaults:

~/  ←  cp -af /etc/skel/.

Replaying /etc/skel over $HOME is exactly what useradd -m does for a brand-new user, so this one copy resyncs .bashrc, .config/**, .local/share/applications/, the nautilus-python extensions, hypr toggles, branding files, and the shipped migration markers in a single pass.

Then it runs omarchy-refresh-limine, omarchy-refresh-plymouth, and the nvim refresh. Destructive: existing user files copied from /etc/skel are clobbered without backup. Fastfetch is package-owned at /etc/fastfetch/config.jsonc; delete ~/.config/fastfetch/config.jsonc to return to the packaged default.

Quick reference: where does X live?

Goal	Touch
Default file at ~/.config/foo/	config/foo/
/etc/ drop-in we own outright	etc/
/etc/ file owned by an upstream package	etc/ (see etc/security/faillock.conf), then add to etc-overrides in omarchy-settings PKGBUILD + scriptlet
Package-owned system file (e.g. systemd user service in /usr/lib)	default/, then add the install -Dm644 line in omarchy-settings PKGBUILD
Per-user file that's static but lives outside ~/.config	default/, then add install -Dm644 ... $pkgdir/etc/skel/... in omarchy-settings PKGBUILD
Runtime tweak that needs $HOME or live system state	extend omarchy-provision-user, or add a per-user leaf under install/user/ and wire into install/user/all.sh
One-time root-side setup step	install/config/*.sh or install/hardware/*.sh, wire into install/config/all.sh or install/hardware/all.sh
One-time fix for existing installs	migrations/<unix-timestamp>.sh
Package-owned path something else may already write	Prefer a path nothing else writes, such as a vendor drop-in under /usr/lib. Otherwise the --overwrite entry in bin/omarchy-update-system-pkgs has to ship a release before the file
User-facing omarchy-* command	bin/omarchy-<group>-<verb> — see GROUP_DESCRIPTIONS in bin/omarchy
New stock theme	themes/<name>/ (+ matching templates under default/themed/ if they need theme colors)
User-installed theme	~/.config/omarchy/themes/<name>/
Generated current theme/background state	~/.local/state/omarchy/current/