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swaymsg — Send messages to a running instance of Sway using IPC. See <https://github.com/swaywm/sway/blob/mast

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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commandsendclirunningmessagesinstanceswaymsgsway

Problem

How to use the swaymsg command: Send messages to a running instance of Sway using IPC. See <https://github.com/swaywm/sway/blob/master/sway/sway.5.scd> for available commands. More information: <https://github.com/swaywm/sway/blob/master/swaymsg/swaymsg.1.scd>.

Solution

swaymsg — Send messages to a running instance of Sway using IPC. See <https://github.com/swaywm/sway/blob/master/sway/sway.5.scd> for available commands. More information: <https://github.com/swaywm/sway/blob/master/swaymsg/swaymsg.1.scd>.

Run a Sway command:

swaymsg {{command}}

Display a list of workspaces:

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_workspaces

Display a list of input devices:

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_inputs

Display a list of output devices:

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_outputs

Display a layout tree of all open windows, containers, outputs, and workspaces:

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_tree

Code Snippets

Run a Sway command

swaymsg {{command}}

Display a list of workspaces

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_workspaces

Display a list of input devices

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_inputs

Display a list of output devices

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_outputs

Display a layout tree of all open windows, containers, outputs, and workspaces

swaymsg {{[-t|--type]}} get_tree

Context

tldr-pages: common/swaymsg

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