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Hypr Input Switcher 0.6.0: Multi-Engine Support, Per-App Memory, and Configuration v3

· 5 min read
icyleaf
icyleaf
Maintainer of Hypr Input Switcher

We are excited to announce the release of Hypr Input Switcher v0.6.0! 🚀

This release marks our largest architectural update to date. It introduces native multi-engine fcitx5 support, per-application input method memory, first-class Wayland layer-shell overlay rules, and Configuration Specification v3.

Highlights in v0.6.0​

1. Multi-Engine Input Method Switching​

Prior to v0.6.0, hypr-input-switcher was tightly coupled to Rime: non-English input methods were assumed to be Rime schemas, and switching to English deactivated the fcitx5 controller globally.

In environments running multiple fcitx5 engines—such as msime for Chinese alongside rime (for Japanese or dialect schemas) and keyboard-us for English—this caused state mismatch issues:

  • Other engines were incorrectly classified as English.
  • Attempting to switch to non-Rime input methods failed because the switcher attempted to set non-existent Rime schemas.
  • Deactivating the controller for English caused disruptive state teardowns across window focus changes.

In v0.6.0, the switching architecture is completely decoupled:

  • Direct Engine Switching: Input method labels now map directly to fcitx5 input engines (e.g. keyboard-us, msime, rime, mozc). The switcher communicates directly via SetCurrentIM.
  • Non-Disruptive English: Switching to english selects the configured English layout (keyboard-us) directly without deactivating the fcitx5 controller.

2. Per-App Input Method Memory​

A long-standing pain point was the "English infection" problem: when navigating between windows using the keep rule, the switcher passively inherited whichever input method the previous window had left active. If you switched from a chat application (Chinese) to an IDE (English) and back to the chat application, your chat window was forced into English.

Starting in v0.6.0:

  • The switcher maintains an internal appHistory cache keyed by window class (clientInfo.Class).
  • When switching to a window governed by a keep rule (or falling back to a keep default), the switcher restores the last-used input method for that specific application.
  • Explicit target rules (e.g. input_method: chinese) continue to take immediate precedence and update the application's remembered state.

3. Configuration Specification v3 & profile Abstraction​

To support multi-engine setups cleanly, v0.6.0 introduces Configuration Specification v3.

Instead of fragmenting configuration across separate top-level input_methods, rime_schemas, display_names, and icons sections, v3 unifies them into cohesive input_methods entities with a generic profile abstraction:

version: 3
description: Hyprland Input Method Switcher Configuration

input_methods:
  english:
    engine: keyboard-us
    display_name: English
    icon: 🇺🇸

  chinese:
    engine: msime
    display_name: 中文
    icon: 🇨🇳

  japanese:
    engine: rime
    profile: jaroomaji
    display_name: 日本語
    icon: 🇯🇵

Flexible Shorthand Syntax​

For rapid configuration, shorthand strings are fully supported:

  • engine:profile: japanese: rime:jaroomaji
  • Plain engine: english: keyboard-us or chinese: msime

100% Backward Compatibility​

If you have an existing version: 2 configuration (used across releases v0.1.0 through v0.5.1), no manual file edits are required. The switcher transparently normalizes older configurations in memory upon loading.

4. Desktop Overlay Support (layer_rules)​

Desktop overlays—such as app launchers (e.g. Omarchy Menu, Rofi, Walker) or floating widgets (calculators, emoji pickers)—run as Wayland layer surfaces (zwlr_layer_shell_v1). They never appear in hyprctl clients and cannot be matched by standard window rules.

v0.6.0 introduces layer_rules matched by layer namespace:

layer_rules:
  - namespace: omarchy-menu
    input_method: english
  - namespace: icyleaf-qalculator
    input_method: english

When an overlay opens, the switcher activates the corresponding input method. Once closed, input method focus cleanly returns to the underlying active window.

5. Multi-Backend Notifications & Embedded Icons​

  • 17 Embedded SVG Icons: Flag and layout icons are now bundled directly within the binary and automatically unpacked to ~/.local/share/hypr-input-switcher/icons/.
  • Fallback Notification Daemon Support: Notification delivery automatically selects available backends with automatic failover across notify-send, hyprctl, dunstify, swaync-client, and mako.

Upgrading to v0.6.0​

Arch Linux / Omarchy​

# Update via AUR or pacman
yay -Syu hypr-input-switcher

From Source​

git clone https://github.com/icyleaf/hypr-input-switcher.git
cd hypr-input-switcher
go build -o ~/.local/bin/hypr-input-switcher ./cmd/hypr-input-switcher

Migrating Your Configuration​

Existing configurations continue to work seamlessly. If you wish to migrate your configuration file to the modern v3 format, use the built-in migration utility:

# Migrate config file to v3
hypr-input-switcher migrate ~/.config/hypr-input-switcher/config.yaml

Check out the Configuration v3 Guide for complete documentation and examples.

Detailed Changelog​

Features​

  • Engine: Support arbitrary fcitx5 input method engines (msime, rime, keyboard-us, mozc) via D-Bus SetCurrentIM.
  • Memory: Implement per-application input method memory for keep and unvisited windows.
  • Config: Introduce Configuration Specification v3 with cohesive input_methods entities and generic profile abstraction.
  • Config: Add support for shorthand formats (engine:profile and string engine names).
  • Migration: Provide bidirectional normalization and automated migration from v1/v2 to v3.
  • Layer Shell: Support layer_rules targeting Wayland desktop overlays by namespace.
  • Assets: Embed 17 SVG icons with automatic runtime extraction.

Bug Fixes​

  • Engine: Fix bug where non-Rime input methods (e.g. msime) were misidentified as English.
  • Engine: Fix bug where switching to non-Rime engines attempted to set invalid Rime schemas.
  • State: Fix "English infection" where navigating through code editors reset subsequent keep windows to English.
  • Daemon: Fix controller teardown when switching to English layout.

Documentation​

  • Docs: Restructure configuration documentation into versioned guides (v3, v2, v1).
  • ADR: Add ADR-0001 covering multi-engine switching and per-app memory design.
  • Blog: Launch official blog and release announcement series.