ctOS

A highly-optimized, immersive Watch Dogs-inspired Wayland desktop environment built natively for NixOS.

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// OVERVIEW

ctOS is a complete, declarative NixOS flake that provisions a hyper-lean, visually immersive desktop experience inspired by the Watch Dogs universe.

Instead of relying on bloated desktop environments or a mishmash of uncoordinated shell scripts, ctOS uses a completely bespoke graphical shell written in QML / Quickshell. It features native Wayland integrations, dynamic tiling compositors, and aggressive performance optimizations.

// KEY FEATURES

• [+] Custom Quickshell Desktop — Includes a massive SystemRail for hardware/session controls, an AmbientBar, and an instantaneous CommandDeck runner.
• [+] Immersive Greetd Login — A fully custom graphical login screen featuring a hacker boot sequence and glitch shaders.
• [+] Wayland Compositors — Highly-tuned, modular integrations for both Hyprland and Niri.
• [+] Performance Optimized — The QML shell is heavily optimized: surfaces are kept in RAM, Javascript search models are pre-computed, and aggressive background logging is disabled for a snappy UX.
• [+] GRUB DedSec Theme — Native NixOS GRUB bootloader integration sporting the DedSec theme.
• [+] Modular Flake Architecture — Every component (audio, bluetooth, gaming, AI/ML) is isolated in modules/features/ and can be toggled via ctos.<domain>.<feature>.enable.

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// QUICK START

[INSTALLATION]

Clone the repository and build your host configuration. By default, the Makima host serves as the primary desktop blueprint.

git clone https://github.com/reze-dev/ctOS ~/.config/ctOS
cd ~/.config/ctOS

# Build and apply the configuration
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#Makima

Note: Make sure you have Nix flakes and experimental features enabled on your system.

[DEBUGGING]

The system is configured to run silently to save CPU cycles and I/O. If you are developing or modifying the shell and need to trace errors, you can enable the global debug toggle in your host config (hosts/Makima/default.nix):

ctos.debug.enable = true;

This restores verbose compositor logs, QML debug output, and routes them to /tmp/ctos-desktop-session.log and /tmp/ctos-greeter.log.

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// ARCHITECTURE

ctOS/
├── flake.nix                  # Flake entry point
├── flake/                     # Core flake-parts (hosts, checks, devshell, formatter)
│
├── hosts/                     # Machine-specific configurations
│   ├── common.nix             # Shared system baseline
│   └── Makima/                # Example primary host
│
├── modules/features/          # Isolated, toggle-able system features
│   ├── core/                  # Boot (GRUB), networking, fonts, secrets
│   ├── desktop/               # Hyprland, Niri, Audio, Gaming, Browsers, Greetd
│   ├── development/           # AI/ML, DevTools, Emacs
│   ├── shell/                 # CLI shell config (Fish, Starship)
│   └── terminals/             # Kitty, Ghostty
│
├── shell/                     # The ctOS Quickshell Desktop Environment
│   ├── desktop/               # QML Surfaces (CommandDeck, SystemRail, AmbientBar)
│   ├── greeter/               # Custom Greetd login screen
│   └── common/                # Shared QML singletons, loggers, and services
│
└── assets/                    # GRUB themes, Plymouth splashes, SVG iconography

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// COMPOSABLE PROFILES

Features are grouped into profiles for easy host configuration:

Profile	Description
Base	Minimal system (boot, networking, SSH, neovim, shells, fonts, locales) — always enabled
Desktop	Full Wayland graphical environment (Hyprland, Niri, Audio, ctOS Shell)
Workstation	Developer tools, AI/ML, containers, virtualization
Gaming	Steam, Gamemode, Gamescope, MangoHud, Wine/Proton

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// LICENSE

This project is licensed under the MIT License.