Quick calibration first: I don't want to overclaim what's specific to the Quattro release, but the relevant shift is that the shell layer (bar, OSDs, notifications, menus) is QuickShell/QML now, so a "plugin" is essentially a QML module that drops into the config, reads a shared theme singleton, and optionally registers an IpcHandler so you can drive it from keybinds. Everything below assumes that shape.
# QuickShell modules you'll lean on
- Quickshell.Hyprland — workspaces, active window, submaps, Hyprland.dispatch(), event stream
- Quickshell.Services.Pipewire / Mpris / UPower / Notifications / SystemTray / Pam
- Quickshell.Io — Process, FileView, Socket, IpcHandler (external control), stream parsers
- ScreencopyView — live window/monitor thumbnails
- PanelWindow (layer-shell), PopupWindow, Variants, LazyLoader, Singleton, PersistentProperties, GlobalShortcut
- NetworkManager / Bluetooth / Tailscale: shell out to nmcli / bluetoothctl / tailscale via Process (or the newer Quickshell.Bluetooth)
# Glanceable bar widgets
- Resource HUD — hold a key for a full overlay: per-core CPU, mem, net, disk I/O, temps, GPU (/proc, sensors, nvidia-smi/amdgpu). Directly useful for the "I launched something and the machine bogged down" case.
- Rich MPRIS widget — now-playing with album art, scrubber, multi-player switch; compact in bar, expanded popup. Mpris gives you all of it.
- Weather — bar glyph + popup forecast from open-meteo or wttr.in (no API key), painted in theme colors.
- Update notifier — badge from checkupdates + paru -Qua + omarchy updates; popup list; one click opens an update in a terminal.
- Mic/cam privacy dot — lights up when something holds the mic or camera (Pipewire streams / /dev/video*), click to see and kill the offender.
- Tailscale/VPN indicator — connection state + exit node, toggle from a click.
# Interactive panels / overlays
- Clipboard manager UI — cliphist history as a searchable grid with image thumbnails, pinning, and delete. A real upgrade over the TUI.
- Calendar / agenda popover — click the clock for month view + today's events. Pull an ICS URL (you're on hey.com calendar) or khal.
- Bluetooth + Wi-Fi quick panels — actual device lists with signal strength and connect/forget, not just an OSD.
- Audio mixer — per-app volume sliders + input/output device switcher (Pipewire), beyond the volume OSD.
- Keybind cheatsheet — auto-generated from ~/.config/hypr/bindings.conf using the bindd description field, categorized and fuzzy-searchable. Always accurate because it's derived from the live config.
- Workspace / window switcher — alt-tab replacement with live ScreencopyView thumbnails and keyboard nav.
- Color picker — hyprpicker wrapper that keeps a history, shows hex/rgb/hsl, and checks contrast against the current Omarchy theme.
# Workflow / automation
- Meeting mode — one toggle: enable notification DND, mute mic, set Slack status via API, optionally push a Hyprland submap. Reverses cleanly.
- Pomodoro / focus — bar countdown, break reminders; focus sessions flip on DND and enter a restricted submap; logs sessions to a file.
- Caffeine with a timer — you already run hyprcaffeine; a widget for "keep awake for 1h / until I toggle off" with a visible indicator.
- Quake-style scratchpad — drop-down markdown note that persists and can flush into your Obsidian vault.
- External monitor brightness — ddcutil sliders per display, combined with hyprsunset scheduling in one panel.
# Dev-focused
- Container dashboard — running Docker/Podman containers with start/stop/logs.
- Multi-repo git status — watch a set of project dirs, show dirty/ahead/behind counts, click through to a terminal.
- Port/process inspector — what's listening where (ties right into the dsh-on-3080 debugging you just did); kill from the panel.
# Theming
- Visual theme switcher — thumbnail grid of ~/.config/omarchy/themes/* with wallpaper previews and swatches, instead of the text menu.
- Wallpaper picker — thumbnail grid of the current theme's backgrounds with instant apply.
If you want, I can turn this into a browsable artifact you can keep open while building, or sketch the skeleton of one plugin (theme singleton + bar widget + IpcHandler) to use as a template.