← Otto User GuideRecommended Settings

Otto ships with defaults that try to be uncontroversial. This page is something else: the settings Otto’s author actually runs, day to day, on a laptop. They are a starting point rather than a second set of defaults — copy the whole thing, or take the parts you like.

Most of the page is about the keyboard, because a Mac-like layout is the one part of Otto that is genuinely fiddly to reproduce from scratch. If that is what you came for, skip to A Mac-like keyboard.

Everything here goes in ~/.config/otto/config.toml. See Configuration for how that file merges with the system one.

A Mac-like keyboard

The goal is the muscle memory: Cmd+C copies, Cmd+W closes the window, Cmd+Space opens the launcher, Cmd+Shift+4 takes a screenshot — while the real Ctrl key stays free for the terminal, so ^C and ^W still do what a shell expects.

Three separate things have to line up for that, and each one fails quietly on its own.

1. Map Cmd onto Ctrl at the layout level

[input]
xkb_options = ["altwin:ctrl_win"]

This is what makes Cmd+C arrive at applications as the Ctrl+C they understand. It is an XKB option, so it happens below Otto: every client sees Ctrl, and no application needs to know anything.

2. Tell Otto to match shortcuts on Cmd only

[input]
mac_style_modifiers = true

Without this, step 1 has an ugly side effect: Cmd and the real Ctrl key now produce the same event, so a Ctrl+W binding fires from both — and pressing ^W to delete a word in a terminal closes the window instead.

With it, Otto looks at the physical keycode behind the modifier and matches its own shortcuts on Cmd alone, leaving the real Ctrl key to the focused application. Bindings are still written as Ctrl+…; they simply follow the Cmd key. This is covered in more detail under Mac-style modifiers.

The setting defaults to following xkb_options, so step 1 alone usually implies it — set it explicitly anyway, so the config says what it means.

3. Bind the shifted keysym, not the digit

This is the one that wastes an afternoon.

Otto matches shortcuts on the shifted keysym — the character your layout actually produces once Shift is down. On a US layout Shift+3 is numbersign, not 3, so a binding written "Ctrl+Shift+3" never fires. Nothing errors; the binding is simply never reached.

The fix is to bind both forms. It costs a duplicate line and it works on every layout, including ones where the digits sit behind different symbols:

# Cmd+Shift+3 — whole screen
"Ctrl+Shift+3".run          = { cmd = "~/.local/bin/shot", args = ["full"] }
"Ctrl+Shift+numbersign".run = { cmd = "~/.local/bin/shot", args = ["full"] }

# Cmd+Shift+4 — select a region
"Ctrl+Shift+4".run      = { cmd = "~/.local/bin/shot", args = [] }
"Ctrl+Shift+dollar".run = { cmd = "~/.local/bin/shot", args = [] }

# Cmd+Shift+5 — region, to the clipboard
"Ctrl+Shift+5".run       = { cmd = "~/.local/bin/shot", args = ["copy"] }
"Ctrl+Shift+percent".run = { cmd = "~/.local/bin/shot", args = ["copy"] }

If you are on a non-US layout, run scripts/show-keys.sh and press the combination — it prints the keysym Otto will see, which is the name to bind.

The full keyboard block

[input]
xkb_options = ["altwin:ctrl_win"]
mac_style_modifiers = true

[keyboard_shortcuts]
# Windows
"Ctrl+w"           = "CloseWindow"
"Ctrl+ArrowUp"     = "ToggleMaximizeWindow"
"Ctrl+ArrowLeft"   = "TileWindowLeft"
"Ctrl+ArrowRight"  = "TileWindowRight"

# Switching
"Ctrl+Tab"                 = "ApplicationSwitchNext"
"Ctrl+Shift+ISO_Left_Tab"  = "ApplicationSwitchPrev"
"Ctrl+grave"               = "ApplicationSwitchNextWindow"
"Ctrl+Q"                   = "ApplicationSwitchQuit"

# Exposé, on the page keys
Prior = "ExposeShowAll"
Next  = "ExposeShowDesktop"

# Workspaces
"Ctrl+1" = { builtin = "Workspace", index = 0 }
"Ctrl+2" = { builtin = "Workspace", index = 1 }
"Ctrl+3" = { builtin = "Workspace", index = 2 }
"Ctrl+4" = { builtin = "Workspace", index = 3 }

# Launcher
"Ctrl+Space".run   = { cmd = "otto-launcher", args = [] }
"Ctrl+Shift+P".run = { cmd = "otto-launcher", args = ["--windows"] }

# Media and brightness keys, straight through
XF86AudioRaiseVolume = "VolumeUp"
XF86AudioLowerVolume = "VolumeDown"
XF86AudioMute        = "VolumeMute"
XF86AudioPlay        = "MediaPlayPause"
XF86AudioNext        = "MediaNext"
XF86AudioPrev        = "MediaPrev"
XF86MonBrightnessUp   = "BrightnessUp"
XF86MonBrightnessDown = "BrightnessDown"

Read with the two [input] lines above, every Ctrl+… in that table is a Cmd+… under your fingers.

Two things deliberately not bound: Cmd+C, Cmd+V and Cmd+X have no entries, because step 1 already delivers them to applications as copy, paste and cut — binding them in Otto would take them away. And nothing is bound to quit the session: Logo+Q and Ctrl+Alt+Backspace are always on, and neither is easy to press by accident.

Escape hatches

Two keys work regardless of your config, so a broken keyboard section can never lock you out: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (which becomes Cmd+Alt+Backspace here) quits the compositor, and Ctrl+Alt+F1–F12 switch VTs. VT switching is read from raw keycodes, so it works from either Ctrl key.

Key repeat

keyboard_repeat_delay = 395    # ms before repeat starts, default 300
keyboard_repeat_rate  = 30     # repeats per second, default 30

These are top-level keys, not inside [input]. The default 300 ms delay starts repeating while you are still holding a key deliberately — around 400 ms is enough to stop jj in an editor turning into a run of js, without feeling sluggish.

Trackpad and pointer

[input]
scroll_speed = 0.25                        # default 1.0
tap_enabled = true
tap_drag_enabled = true
touchpad_click_method = "clickfinger"
touchpad_dwt_enabled = true
touchpad_natural_scroll_enabled = true
pointer_accel_speed = 0.0                  # -1.0 slowest, 1.0 fastest

scroll_speed is the one worth changing. The default 1.0 passes scroll events through untouched, which on a high-resolution trackpad sends a page flying past on a short two-finger swipe. 0.25 is what makes a Wayland trackpad feel like a Mac one; if you mostly use a mouse wheel, leave it nearer 1.0 — the multiplier applies to both.

The rest are already the shipped defaults, listed so you can see the set that goes together: tap to click, click-by-finger-count, no cursor jump while typing, natural scrolling.

Display and appearance

screen_scale = 2.0
theme_scheme = "Light"
accent_color = "orange"
font_family = "Inter"
cursor_size = 32
background_image = "/path/to/your/wallpaper.jpg"

[audio]
sound_enabled = true
sound_theme = "Pop"

[dock]
position = "left"
size = 0.95
magnification = true
autohide = false

screen_scale = 2.0 suits a HiDPI laptop panel; on a 1080p external screen 1.0 or 1.5 is the sane choice — and if you have both, Display covers per-output scaling, which is what you actually want.

A dock on the left keeps the full width of a laptop screen for windows. magnification is the macOS-style zoom under the cursor.

Where these differ from the shipped defaults

Everything else on this page matches what Otto already ships. These are the real departures:

Setting	Default	Recommended	Why
`scroll_speed`	`1.0`	`0.25`	Untouched scroll events overshoot badly on a trackpad
`keyboard_repeat_delay`	`300`	`395`	300 ms starts repeating during a deliberate hold
`input.xkb_options`	unset	`["altwin:ctrl_win"]`	The Cmd key, and the reason for most of this page
`input.mac_style_modifiers`	follows the layout	`true`	Say it explicitly rather than inferring it
`dock.position`	bottom	`"left"`	Screen height is scarcer than width on a laptop