Skip to content

Desktop basics

PAI uses Sway, a keyboard-driven tiling window manager, as its desktop environment. Instead of dragging overlapping windows around, Sway automatically arranges open apps side by side and gives you instant keyboard access to every action. The waybar status bar at the bottom puts app launchers, AI status, system stats, and settings one click away.

Navigating the PAI workspace: Sway, Waybar, pai-settings

In this guide: - Every keyboard shortcut organized by category - How tiling and workspaces work, with diagrams - Waybar anatomy: every module, what it shows, what clicking does - PAI settings menu and app launcher - Tutorial: master the PAI desktop in 10 minutes - Equivalents for Windows, macOS, and traditional Linux users

Prerequisites: PAI booted and running. No prior Linux experience needed.

What is a tiling window manager?

Most operating systems use a stacking model: windows float and overlap, and you drag them around manually. Sway uses a tiling model: every window automatically takes up a defined slice of your screen with no overlap.

When you open a second app, Sway splits the current window and places the new one beside it. A third app splits again. You navigate between them with Alt+Arrow instead of clicking a taskbar. This approach keeps every pixel visible and every action reachable from the keyboard.

The modifier key for all Sway shortcuts is Alt (the left Alt key on most keyboards). Every shortcut in this guide starts with Alt.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Workspace 1                            │
│                                                           │
│  ┌───────────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────────────┐ │
│  │                       │  │                          │ │
│  │    Firefox /          │  │   Terminal (foot)        │ │
│  │    Open WebUI         │  │                          │ │
│  │                       │  │   $ ollama list          │ │
│  │                       │  │   llama3.2:1b  1.3 GB    │ │
│  │                       │  │                          │ │
│  └───────────────────────┘  └──────────────────────────┘ │
│                                                           │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  PAI 🌐 💻 📁 📝 [🟢 llama3.2]  ··· ⚡85% 🧠42% 14:32 ⚙ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The waybar lives at the bottom. Everything above it is your tiling workspace.

Essential keyboard shortcuts

The complete set of shortcuts from the Sway config and active profile.

App launch shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Alt+Return Open terminal (foot)
Alt+D App launcher (wofi — search all installed apps)
Alt+S PAI settings menu
Alt+B Firefox → Open WebUI (localhost:8080)
Alt+E Thunar file manager
Alt+P Drawing (image editor)
Alt+Shift+B Electrum Bitcoin wallet
Alt+Shift+P Firefox → Phantom wallet
Alt+Shift+F Firefox → pump.fun
Alt+Shift+T Tor Browser
Alt+Shift+G Aisleriot (solitaire)

Note

App shortcuts marked with Shift are profile-specific. They come from /etc/sway/profile.d/active.conf and change depending on which PAI profile is loaded. The shortcuts above reflect the default full profile.

Window management shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Alt+F4 Close the focused window
Alt+Left / Right / Up / Down Move focus to the window in that direction
Alt+Shift+Left / Right / Up / Down Move the focused window in that direction
Alt+R Enter resize mode (then use Arrow keys, Esc or Enter to exit)
Alt+F Toggle fullscreen for the focused window
Alt+Shift+Space Toggle floating mode for the focused window

Workspace shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Alt+1 Switch to workspace 1
Alt+2 Switch to workspace 2
Alt+3 Switch to workspace 3
Alt+Shift+1 Move focused window to workspace 1
Alt+Shift+2 Move focused window to workspace 2
Alt+Shift+3 Move focused window to workspace 3

System shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Alt+L Lock screen (black screen, requires no password in default config)
Alt+Shift+E Shutdown menu (pai-shutdown)
Print Full-screen screenshot saved to ~/Pictures/
Shift+Print Region screenshot — drag to select area
XF86AudioPlay Play/pause media
XF86AudioNext Next track
XF86AudioPrev Previous track
XF86AudioRaiseVolume Volume up 5%
XF86AudioLowerVolume Volume down 5%
XF86AudioMute Mute/unmute
XF86MonBrightnessUp Screen brightness up 5% (laptops)
XF86MonBrightnessDown Screen brightness down 5% (laptops)

Tip

Screenshots are saved automatically as screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png in ~/Pictures/. Use Alt+P to open Drawing and annotate them immediately after capture.

If you're coming from Windows, macOS, or another Linux

Windows action PAI equivalent
Click taskbar icon Click the icon in waybar, or use Alt+D and type the app name
Win+D (show desktop) Alt+1 / Alt+2 / Alt+3 to switch workspace
Alt+F4 (close app) Alt+F4 — same shortcut
Win+Arrow (snap window) Windows tile automatically; use Alt+Arrow to move focus
Task Manager Alt+S → Processes (lxtask)
Right-click desktop Not available in Sway — use Alt+D to launch apps
PrintScreen Print key — saves to ~/Pictures/ automatically
Win+L (lock) Alt+L
Start → Shutdown Alt+Shift+E
macOS action PAI equivalent
Spotlight (Cmd+Space) Alt+D — wofi app launcher
Dock click Click icon in waybar, or Alt+D and type
Cmd+W (close window) Alt+F4
Mission Control / Spaces Workspaces 1–3, switch with Alt+1/2/3
Cmd+Tab (app switch) Alt+Arrow to move focus between tiled windows
System Preferences Alt+S — PAI settings menu
Cmd+Shift+3 (screenshot) Print key
Cmd+Shift+4 (region shot) Shift+Print
Ctrl+Cmd+Q (lock) Alt+L
Apple menu → Shut Down Alt+Shift+E
GNOME/KDE action PAI equivalent
Activities / Launcher Alt+D — wofi drun
Super+Arrow (tile snap) Tiling is automatic; Alt+Arrow moves focus
Super+H/V (split) Windows split automatically as you open them
Alt+F4 (close) Alt+F4 — same
Virtual desktops Workspaces 1–3 (Alt+1/2/3)
Settings panel Alt+S — PAI settings menu
PrintScreen Print key
Super+L (lock) Alt+L
Session menu Alt+Shift+E

How workspaces and tiling work

flowchart TD
    A[PAI Desktop] --> W1[Workspace 1\nAlt+1]
    A --> W2[Workspace 2\nAlt+2]
    A --> W3[Workspace 3\nAlt+3]

    W1 --> T1[Tiling layout]
    T1 --> App1[First app\nfull width]
    T1 --> App2[Second app opens\nhorizontal split]
    T1 --> App3[Third app opens\nfurther split]

    W2 --> T2[Independent layout]
    W3 --> T3[Independent layout]

    App1 -- Alt+Shift+2 --> W2
    style W1 fill:#1a3a5c
    style W2 fill:#1a3a5c
    style W3 fill:#1a3a5c

Each workspace is a completely independent tiling container. Apps you open on workspace 1 stay on workspace 1 until you move them. Use workspaces to organize your session: workspace 1 for Open WebUI, workspace 2 for the terminal, workspace 3 for files or notes.

To move a window from one workspace to another, focus it with Alt+Arrow and then press Alt+Shift+<number>.

Tip

A suggested workflow: keep Open WebUI in workspace 1 (Alt+B to open), a terminal in workspace 2 (Alt+Return), and Thunar or a text editor in workspace 3. Switch between them instantly with Alt+1, Alt+2, Alt+3.

Waybar: the bottom status bar

The waybar sits at the bottom of the screen and is divided into a left group (launchers and status) and a right group (system info and settings).

Left side modules

Module Icon What it shows Click action
custom/logo PAI Always visible — the PAI logo Opens wofi app launcher
custom/browser 🌐 Firefox shortcut Opens Firefox
custom/terminal 💻 Terminal shortcut Opens foot terminal
custom/files 📁 File manager shortcut Opens Thunar
custom/editor 📝 Text editor shortcut Opens Mousepad
custom/ollama dynamic 🟡 when Ollama idle; 🟢 + model name when a model is generating —

Right side modules

Module Icon What it shows Click / hover
custom/media ♪ Currently playing artist and title (30 char max) Click to play/pause
custom/crypto — BTC and ETH prices from CoinGecko Hover for details
network 📶 / ETH Wifi signal strength % or "ETH" for wired; "Off" if disconnected —
cpu ⚡ Live CPU usage % —
memory 🧠 Live RAM usage % —
clock — Current time in HH:MM format —
custom/settings ⚙ Settings launcher Opens PAI settings menu

Note

The crypto module (custom/crypto) polls CoinGecko every 60 seconds and requires an internet connection. In offline or privacy mode sessions, it will show no data or an error state.

Warning

If you activate privacy mode (Tor routing), a 🧅 indicator appears in the waybar. This module (pai-waybar-privacy) is separate from the standard waybar config and confirms that traffic is routed through Tor. See the privacy mode guide for details.

The PAI settings menu

Press Alt+S or click the ⚙ gear in waybar. A wofi dmenu appears with quick access to system tools:

Entry App launched Purpose
⌨️ Terminal foot Command-line access
🔊 Audio pavucontrol Volume levels, output device routing
🖥️ Display wdisplays Resolution, refresh rate, scaling
📶 Network nm-connection-editor WiFi networks, VPN connections
🔵 Bluetooth blueman-manager Pair and manage Bluetooth devices
💾 Disks gnome-disks View drives, format, mount USB devices
🎨 Appearance lxappearance GTK theme and icon set
⚙️ Processes lxtask Running processes, CPU/RAM per process
🔒 Passwords KeePassXC Password manager
🗂️ Files Thunar Graphical file manager

Type the first few letters of a menu item to filter. Press Enter to launch, Escape to close without opening anything.

The app launcher (wofi)

Press Alt+D or click the PAI logo in waybar to open the wofi app launcher.

  • Start typing to filter all installed applications
  • Use ↑ / ↓ arrows to highlight an entry
  • Press Enter to launch
  • Press Escape to close

PAI wofi app launcher showing filtered search results for "fire" The wofi launcher. Type to filter installed apps instantly.

Tip

wofi searches by both app name and description. If you know what a tool does but not its name, try typing a keyword like "password" or "bluetooth" to find the right app.

Tiling tips and window control

How new windows are placed

Sway splits the current workspace horizontally by default when you open a new window. The active window shrinks to make room. As you open more windows, Sway keeps splitting:

One window:          Two windows:         Three windows:
┌────────────┐       ┌──────┬──────┐      ┌──────┬──┬──┐
│            │       │      │      │      │      │  │  │
│    app1    │  →    │ app1 │ app2 │  →   │ app1 │2 │3 │
│            │       │      │      │      │      │  │  │
└────────────┘       └──────┴──────┘      └──────┴──┴──┘

Resizing windows

Press Alt+R to enter resize mode. The focused window can now be resized with the arrow keys. Press Escape or Enter to exit resize mode.

Floating windows

Some apps (dialogs, image viewers) open in floating mode automatically. To toggle any window between tiling and floating: Alt+Shift+Space.

A floating window sits above the tiling layout and can be moved and resized freely with the mouse.

Fullscreen

Press Alt+F to make the focused window fill the entire screen, hiding the waybar. Press Alt+F again to return to the tiled layout.

Terminal and preinstalled CLI tools

PAI's default terminal is foot, a lightweight Wayland-native terminal. Open it with Alt+Return or click 💻 in waybar.

The default shell is bash. Useful preinstalled CLI tools:

Tool Command What it does
htop htop Interactive process viewer, better than top
tree tree Visual directory tree
bat bat cat with syntax highlighting and line numbers
ripgrep rg Fast recursive search (better than grep)
fd-find fdfind Fast file finder (better than find)
fzf fzf Fuzzy finder for files, history, and more
tmux tmux Terminal multiplexer — multiple sessions in one window

Tip

foot supports OSC 52 clipboard integration, true-color output, and font ligatures. If you paste text from the clipboard, use Ctrl+Shift+V inside foot.

File management

Open Thunar with Alt+E or click 📁 in waybar. User directories (Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos) are created automatically on first boot by xdg-user-dirs-update.

Warning

PAI runs entirely in RAM by default. Files you save to ~/Documents or ~/Downloads exist only until shutdown. They are not written to any disk and will be gone when you power off. Set up the optional persistence layer if you need files to survive across sessions.

Taking and managing screenshots

Action Shortcut Result
Full-screen screenshot Print Saved to ~/Pictures/screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png
Region screenshot Shift+Print Click and drag to select area, then saved
Annotate screenshot Alt+P Opens Drawing image editor
View screenshot — Open Thunar → ~/Pictures/, double-click to open in imv

Screenshot showing ~/Pictures/ folder in Thunar with timestamped screenshot files Screenshots land in ~/Pictures/ with automatic timestamps. Open Drawing with Alt+P to annotate.

Tutorial: Master the PAI desktop in 10 minutes

Goal: get comfortable with tiling, workspaces, the launcher, and the settings menu through a structured practice session.

What you need: PAI booted and running. No other setup required.

  1. Open the terminal

Press Alt+Return. A foot terminal fills the screen.

# Verify you're in a terminal
echo "PAI desktop ready"

Expected output: 

PAI desktop ready

  1. Open a second app and see tiling

Press Alt+B to open Firefox with Open WebUI. The terminal and Firefox now share the screen side by side.

Your layout now looks like: 

┌──────────────────┬───────────────────┐
│   foot terminal  │  Firefox/Open WebUI│
│                  │                   │
└──────────────────┴───────────────────┘

  1. Navigate between windows

Press Alt+Left to focus the terminal. Press Alt+Right to focus Firefox. Notice the colored border moves to show which window is active.

  1. Move a window to workspace 2

Focus the terminal with Alt+Left. Press Alt+Shift+2 to move it to workspace 2. The terminal disappears and Firefox expands to fill the screen.

Press Alt+2 to switch to workspace 2 and see the terminal there. Press Alt+1 to return to workspace 1 with Firefox.

  1. Use the app launcher

Press Alt+D. The wofi launcher appears. Type thunar and press Enter. Thunar opens as a third window in workspace 1.

  1. Resize a window

Focus any window with Alt+Arrow. Press Alt+R to enter resize mode. Press the left or right arrow key several times to resize. Press Escape to exit resize mode.

  1. Open the settings menu

Press Alt+S. The PAI settings menu appears. Use the arrow keys or type audio and press Enter to open pavucontrol. Close it with Alt+F4.

  1. Take a screenshot

Press Print. Check ~/Pictures/ in Thunar — your screenshot is there with a timestamp filename.

  1. Try fullscreen

Focus Firefox with Alt+Right. Press Alt+F. Firefox fills the entire screen including over the waybar. Press Alt+F again to return to the tiled layout.

  1. Lock and return

    Press Alt+L to lock the screen. The screen goes black. Click anywhere or press any key to return to your session.

What you just did: opened multiple apps, navigated between them without a mouse, moved windows between workspaces, resized, took a screenshot, and used the settings menu. These patterns cover 90% of daily PAI desktop use.

Next steps: open Open WebUI and run your first AI model, or explore the terminal tools for working with Ollama directly.

Frequently asked questions

How do I resize windows in Sway?

Press Alt+R to enter resize mode. While in resize mode, use the arrow keys to grow or shrink the focused window. Press Escape or Enter to exit resize mode and return to normal navigation.

How do I move a window to another monitor?

PAI supports multiple monitors. With two displays connected, Sway treats them as separate outputs. Press Alt+Shift+Arrow (left or right) to move the focused window to the adjacent monitor. You can configure display arrangement in the Display settings: Alt+S → Display (wdisplays).

Can I use a mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts?

Yes. You can click on windows to focus them, drag tiled windows to rearrange them (hold and drag the title bar area), and click waybar icons to launch apps. The keyboard shortcuts are faster but not required. Floating windows (Alt+Shift+Space) can be dragged and resized with the mouse freely.

How do I change the wallpaper?

The current wallpaper is set in the Sway config at /etc/skel/.config/sway/config on the output * bg line. To change it for your session, open a terminal and run:

swaymsg output \* bg /path/to/your/image.jpg fill

This change lasts until you reboot. To make it permanent across sessions, you need the persistence layer set up, then edit ~/.config/sway/config.

Can I run apps in floating mode?

Yes. Press Alt+Shift+Space to toggle any window between tiling and floating. Floating windows sit above the tiled layout and can be moved by dragging their title bar and resized by dragging their edges. Press Alt+Shift+Space again to return the window to the tiled layout.

Why are my windows arranged in tiles instead of overlapping?

PAI uses Sway, a tiling window manager. This design means every open window is always fully visible — no app gets buried behind another. It's especially useful when running Open WebUI alongside a terminal, because both stay visible and accessible without constant alt-tabbing. If you prefer overlapping windows, toggle individual windows to floating mode with Alt+Shift+Space.

How do I take a screenshot?

Press Print for a full-screen screenshot. Press Shift+Print to select a region by clicking and dragging. Both save automatically to ~/Pictures/screenshot-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.png. Open Drawing with Alt+P to annotate the screenshot immediately after taking it.

How do I close an app?

Press Alt+F4 to close the focused window. This is the same shortcut as on Windows. Alternatively, click the close button in the window's title bar if it has one.

What does the 🟢 indicator in waybar mean?

The green dot with a model name in the waybar's left section is the Ollama status indicator. It turns green and shows the active model name when Ollama is generating a response. It shows 🟡 yellow when Ollama is running but idle. If it shows nothing, Ollama may not be running — open a terminal and check with ollama list.

How do I switch between open apps?

Focus windows directly with Alt+Left, Alt+Right, Alt+Up, Alt+Down. Sway does not have a traditional alt-tab switcher, but because all windows are tiled and visible, you can always see what's open and navigate to it by direction. Use workspaces (Alt+1/2/3) to organize apps into logical groups.

How do I open apps that aren't in the waybar?

Press Alt+D to open the wofi launcher and search for any installed app by name or keyword. The PAI settings menu (Alt+S) also lists common system tools. For command-line apps, open a terminal with Alt+Return and run them directly.

Is there a way to have more than three workspaces?

By default PAI configures three workspaces, which covers most use cases. You can switch to any workspace number — Alt+4, Alt+5, and so on — and Sway creates them on demand. To make these persistent or add keybindings, edit ~/.config/sway/config (requires the persistence layer).