HypeDE Русский

GNOME, reshaped into a Chrome OS–style desktop.

A shelf, a bubble launcher and a status tray, running on an unmodified GNOME Shell. Settings built from real KDE modules, a file manager of its own, desktop widgets, focus modes and a theme store on GitHub.

$ git clone https://github.com/hypede/hypede && cd hypede/packaging && makepkg -si
Source on GitHub Other ways to install Wiki
HypeDE desktop with the launcher open above the shelf: search field, recent files and a grid of apps
What's inside

Three parts, each built on something that already works.

HypeDE is a separate session next to your regular GNOME. Your login screen gets a new “HypeDE” entry; nothing in GNOME is patched or replaced.

Shell and launcher

GNOME Shell 48–50 · session mode · extension
  • The shelf holds GNOME's own indicators and sits at any screen edge, so every system indicator keeps working.
  • Pinned and running apps with a running dot; click to open, focus, minimise or cycle windows.
  • The launcher searches apps, settings and recent files, calculates 12*(3+4) and searches the web.
  • Quick settings and the calendar open upwards; notifications land in the bottom-right corner.
Dark theme: quick settings open above the status tray on the shelf

Settings with KDE inside

Qt 6 · QML · KCMUtils · GSettings
  • Chrome OS layout: search in the title bar, menu on the left, cards on the right.
  • Real KDE modules for network, Bluetooth, sound, printers, users, default apps and Flatpak, embedded in the page.
  • GNOME-side pages for mouse, keyboard, night light, power, wallpaper, theme and the shelf.
  • One theme: the KDE modules follow GNOME's light or dark style.
HypeDE Settings showing KDE's Default Applications module inside a Chrome OS–style window

Files

Python · GTK 4 · libadwaita
  • From GNOME Files: sidebar, path bar, search and the selection bar.
  • From COSMIC Files: tabs and a details pane with previews.
  • Grid with thumbnails or list, rubber-band selection, drag and drop.
  • Background copy and move with progress, undo and trash restore.
HypeDE Files showing a Pictures folder with thumbnails and the details pane
Everyday

Small things you use fifty times a day.

None of these need setting up. The wiki has the full list of commands and shortcuts.

Commands in the launcher

Type dark, volume 40, timer 5, coffee 30, lock or empty trash and press Enter. Works in English and Russian.

Focus modes

Work, Game and Study switch on Do Not Disturb, a power profile, a theme and the apps you need. Turning the mode off puts everything back.

Windows come back

After a restart HypeDE offers to reopen your windows on the same desks, in the same places. Super+Shift+T reopens the window you just closed.

Desktop widgets

Clock, calendar, weather, system load, the song that is playing and a note. Drag them anywhere; right-click to add or remove.

Windows that feel physical

Windows open with a little spring, minimise into their shelf icon like a genie and wobble slightly while you drag them. Both effects have a switch.

Touchpad gestures

Four fingers up opens the launcher, down shows the desktop. The motion follows your fingers and goes back if you change your mind. Three fingers stay GNOME's.

AI assistant

Claude, Gemini, Mistral, ChatGPT, Grok or DeepSeek, signed in with your own account. It only chats and sees only what you send it. Off until you turn it on.

Icons and live wallpapers

Files from your Desktop folder, draggable into apps. Animated wallpapers, or a video or GIF of your own that pauses under maximised windows.

Desktop with widgets: calendar, clock, system load and a note
Widgets: calendar, clock, system load and a note.
A window halfway through minimising, flowing into its shelf icon
Minimising: the window flows into its icon.
Themes

One click to a new look, from a store anyone can publish to.

A theme sets colours, wallpaper, shelf, launcher, windows, lock screen, fonts and icons. Save your current look as a theme, send it as a file, or install one from the theme store in Settings. To publish yours, put theme.json in a public GitHub repository and paste its link into Settings: a bot checks it and adds it to the store.

What a theme cannot do

JSON · allow-list · media checks · pinned commits
  • Run anything. A theme is data: only appearance settings from an allow-list, each checked by type and range.
  • Smuggle a file. Pictures must match their format and are decoded and re-encoded in a separate, limited process; SVG without scripts or links; videos are probed; ClamAV runs if you have it.
  • Read your disk. A downloaded theme may only use wallpapers from system folders and its own folder.
  • Change behind your back. Store entries are pinned to a commit; an update goes through the bot again and loses its “Reviewed” mark until checked.

How to make and publish a theme →

Theme store in Settings: Aurora Glass, Sunset Paper and Deep Forest with Install and Apply buttons
Make it yours

Move the shelf, restyle the launcher, change almost everything.

Every part of the desktop has a setting in HypeDE Settings, and HypeDE keeps its settings apart from your regular GNOME session, so experimenting there never changes GNOME.

Dark theme: the shelf on the left edge with the launcher open next to it
The shelf on the left edge, launcher next to it.
The full-screen launcher: a centred search field and a wide grid of apps
The full-screen launcher.
Settings, Shelf and launcher page: position, style, size, opacity and blur of the shelf
Settings → Shelf and launcher.
Lock screen

Colour waves, a big clock and a password field that pops up.

When you lock the screen, waves in your accent colour roll over it and reveal the blurred wallpaper and the clock. Press a key: the clock moves up, the password field springs in and cards with battery and system load unfold beside it. Unlocking folds everything away.

Lock screen: a large clock and the date over the blurred wallpaper
Locked: clock and date.
Lock screen with the password field, and cards for the date and system load on both sides
After a key press: password, battery and system cards.
How it works

Next to GNOME, not instead of it.

Its own session

A GNOME Shell session mode and gnome-session units start the shell as gnome-shell --mode=hypede. Defaults use :HypeDE sections, so they never touch your regular GNOME session.

KDE modules, embedded

Settings loads modules with KCModuleLoader, the same function kcmshell6 uses, so both QML and widget-based modules fit inside the page.

Its own configuration

The session runs with a separate dconf database, ~/.config/dconf/hypede. Layouts and accessibility come over from GNOME on first login; GNOME extensions stay out unless you allow them, and optional GNOME services start only if you switch them on.

Honest limits

KDE modules that configure KWin or PowerDevil would do nothing under GNOME, so those pages talk to GSettings instead. Monitor arrangement still opens GNOME Settings.

shell/modes/hypede.json      top bar → shelf, enabled extensions
shell/extension/…            shelf, launcher, overview, notifications
session/                     login-screen session, gnome-session units
apps/settings/               Settings: C++/QML, KCMUtils, GSettings, D-Bus
apps/files/                  Files: Python, GTK 4, libadwaita
Install

Arch Linux and CachyOS

Needs GNOME Shell 48–50. The build limits compile jobs to your free memory; force a value with JOBS=2 makepkg -si.

Build and install the package

git clone https://github.com/hypede/hypede
cd hypede/packaging
makepkg -si

Add the KDE modules you want

All optional. Without one, its row in Settings names the package to install.

sudo pacman -S plasma-nm bluedevil plasma-pa print-manager plasma-workspace \
               plasma-desktop kde-cli-tools flatpak-kcm kinfocenter power-profiles-daemon

Log out and pick “HypeDE”

The session appears on GDM, SDDM and other login screens that read /usr/share/wayland-sessions.

Other distributions: make && sudo make install, see the README for dependencies. Only want the shelf in regular GNOME? make install-user.