POLYBAR-MSG(1)

NAME
polybar-msg - Send IPC messages to polybar

SYNOPSIS
polybar-msg [OPTIONS] action action-string
polybar-msg [OPTIONS] action module action [data]
polybar-msg [OPTIONS] cmd command

DESCRIPTION

Polybar allows external control through actions and commands. Actions control individual modules and commands control the bar itself.

The full IPC documentation is linked at the end of this document.

The available actions depend on the target module. For actions, the payload is either a single action string or the module name, the action name, and the optional data string specified separately.

In order for polybar-msg being able to send a message to a running polybar process, the bar must have IPC enabled and both polybar-msg and polybar must run under the same user.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    Display help text and exit

-p PID
    Send message only to polybar process running under the given process ID. If not specified, the message is sent to all running polybar processes.

EXAMPLES

polybar-msg cmd quit
    Terminate all running polybar instances.

    polybar-msg action mymodule module_hide

polybar-msg action "#mymodule.module_hide"
    Hide the module named mymodule. The first variant specifies the module and action names separately, the second uses an action string.

AUTHORS
Polybar was created by Michael Carlberg and is currently maintained by Patrick Ziegler.
Contributors can be listed on GitHub.

REPORTING BUGS

Report issues on GitHub <<https://github.com/polybar/polybar>>

SEE ALSO

polybar(1), polybar(5)
IPC documentation: <<https://polybar.rtfd.org/en/stable/user/ipc.html>>

Copyright
2016-2025, Michael Carlberg & contributors