Getting started on Arch Linux

Prebuilt (fastest path)

lumen-bin from the AUR ships both binaries prebuilt. If you take this route, skip the build step below and jump straight to Run.

yay -S lumen-bin

Install dependencies

Install Rust via rustup, then the system libraries:

sudo pacman -S --needed git gtk4 gtk4-layer-shell gtksourceview5 \
  libpulse fftw libpipewire systemd-libs clang base-devel

If you want the battery, bluetooth, network, power, or audio modules, install their daemons (skip any you don't need):

sudo pacman -S --needed bluez bluez-utils networkmanager upower \
  power-profiles-daemon pipewire wireplumber pipewire-pulse
sudo systemctl enable --now bluetooth NetworkManager upower power-profiles-daemon

Build

git clone https://github.com/DigitalPals/Lumen lumen
cd lumen
cargo install --path lumen
cargo install --path crates/lumen-settings

Icon assets

Lumen ships icons as source files that get copied into your user data directory on first setup. Run this from the cloned repo, before deleting it:

lumen icons setup

Run

Start the panel in the background:

lumen panel start

Other lifecycle commands: lumen panel status, lumen panel restart, lumen panel stop.

For debugging, run the shell in the foreground so logs print to the terminal:

lumen shell

Settings GUI

lumen panel settings

This launches lumen-settings, which edits the same config the shell reads. Changes apply live. Anything the GUI doesn't cover can still be edited by hand in config.toml.

Configuration

Lumen reads $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/lumen/config.toml, falling back to ~/.config/lumen/config.toml. On first run, if no config exists, Lumen writes a default one. A JSON schema is written to ~/.config/lumen/schema.json at startup, which editors with a TOML LSP can use for validation and completion.