PlasmaZones

Zone-based window tiling for KDE Plasma.

Define named regions on your screen, drag windows into them, and get a layout that actually fits the way you work. Built on the Phosphor library suite; scriptable, themeable, Wayland-native.

Source → Install

Hero screenshot src/assets/plasmazones/editor.png

The layout editor. Named zones designed visually, with normalized coordinates so the same layout works at any screen size.

Features

Drag-to-snap tiling

Hold a modifier while dragging any window. Zones light up, drop to fill. The modifier is configurable (Alt, Meta, Ctrl+Alt, Alt+Shift, Alt+Meta, Ctrl+Alt+Meta), and Ctrl+Alt over two adjacent zones snaps across both.

26 built-in layouts, custom editor

Grids, BSP and fibonacci, master+stack, portrait / ultrawide / super-ultrawide variants, priority grids. The visual editor draws custom zones freehand with grid snapping, undo/redo, and per-zone colors. Coordinates are normalized, so one layout works at any screen size.

Per-monitor, per-desktop, per-activity

Assign different layouts to each monitor, virtual desktop, and Plasma activity. Quick-layout slots bind Meta+Alt+1..9 for fast layout switches.

Virtual screens

Subdivide a physical monitor into 2–10 virtual screens with drag-to-resize boundaries. Each gets its own layout, autotile state, and settings. Swap with Meta+Ctrl+Shift+arrows.

25 autotile algorithms

BSP, spiral, master+stack, Krohnkite-style deck stacking, plus 21 more. Runs in a sandboxed QJSEngine. Per-side inner and outer gaps, smart-gaps when only one window is tiled, hot-reload for custom JS in ~/.local/share/plasmazones/algorithms/.

Zone overlays and GLSL shaders

Zone highlights, snap previews, and drag ghosts render through a multipass ShaderEffect. 26 bundled shaders (audio-reactive, procedural, distro-themed) plus your own in ~/.local/share/plasmazones/shaders/.

Snap assist

After you drop a window into a zone, empty zones show thumbnails of other windows for one-click follow-up placement.

Global shortcuts

Snap, switch zones, move windows, cycle layouts — bound through KGlobalAccel, with an XDG Portal fallback in the portable build.

See it in action

Tiles auto-swap placeholder → real image as soon as the PNG lands under src/assets/plasmazones/ with the listed filename. No code edit needed.

Snap preview src/assets/plasmazones/snap-preview.png

Snap preview A shader-driven drop target while dragging that reads at a glance without flashing.

Active zones src/assets/plasmazones/zone-highlights.png

Active zones Zone outlines fade in on modifier and fade out on release, so nothing sits on screen when you don't need it.

Per-screen, per-desktop src/assets/plasmazones/multi-desktop.png

Per-screen, per-desktop Assign a different layout to each monitor and virtual desktop; quick-layouts bind 1–9.

Shader presets src/assets/plasmazones/shaders.png

Shader presets Multipass ShaderEffect with presets you can swap, tweak, or replace with your own GLSL.

Tiling algorithms src/assets/plasmazones/tiling-algos.png

Tiling algorithms Binary-split, columns, and master-stack ship built in, with a JS sandbox for anything custom.

Global shortcuts src/assets/plasmazones/shortcuts.png

Global shortcuts Snap, switch zones, and cycle layouts via global keyboard shortcuts.

Install

Arch Linux (AUR) → Prebuilt binary, or plasmazones for the source package.

yay -S plasmazones-bin

Fedora (COPR) → Official COPR repo.

sudo dnf copr enable fuddlesworth/PlasmaZones
sudo dnf install plasmazones

openSUSE Tumbleweed (OBS) → Community-maintained by ilFrance.

sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:ilFrance/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:ilFrance.repo
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install plasmazones

Nix → Or wire the flake into your inputs.

nix profile install github:fuddlesworth/PlasmaZones

Portable tarball → Lands in ~/.local. Best for Fedora Atomic or no-root environments.

curl -L -o plasmazones.tar.gz \
  https://github.com/fuddlesworth/PlasmaZones/releases/latest/download/plasmazones-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzf plasmazones.tar.gz
cd plasmazones-linux-x86_64 && ./install.sh

Build from source → Needs Qt 6.6+, KF6, CMake 3.16+, a C++20 compiler, wayland-scanner.

git clone https://github.com/fuddlesworth/PlasmaZones.git
cd PlasmaZones
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
sudo cmake --install build

Galleries

Every built-in, rendered from the same metadata the daemon reads at runtime.

Autotile algorithms → 25 tiling algorithms grouped by family, with supported parameters and stateful flags.
Layouts → 26 built-in layouts with live-rendered SVG thumbnails, grouped by aspect ratio.
Shaders → 26 GLSL overlays across 6 categories, with tags and parameter counts.

Learn

Getting started → A first-run tour from verifying the install to snapping your first window.
Keyboard shortcuts → Default bindings and how to rebind each one.
Coming from FancyZones → Feature-by-feature map for the PowerToys → Plasma jump.

Extend it

PlasmaZones has two first-class extension points. Custom content goes in ~/.local/share/plasmazones/ and hot-reloads.

Shader authoring guide → GLSL 450 uniform contract, metadata schema, audio reactivity, multipass.
Tiling algorithm guide → JavaScript sandbox contract, metadata tags, built-in helpers, hot-reload.

Advanced

D-Bus scripting → 13 interfaces on org.plasmazones, with recipes and signal watching.
Troubleshooting → Daemon won't start, zones not appearing, support reports.