Files

Four kinds of file, in four places. What setup copies from the repository, what the shell writes as you use it, what setup keeps to remember its copies, and what the palette writes into other programs.

Copied from the repository

Each tree in the repository is its destination as it is: home/ is $HOME and system/ is /. home/.config/kitty/kitty.conf lands at ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf.

• Directory~/

  • .zshrc
  • Directory.config/

    • Directoryhypr/ hyprland.lua, and modules/ for the rest

      • …
    • Directoryquickshell/ the shell

      • …
    • Directorykitty/

      • …
    • Directorynvim/

      • …
    • Directoryfastfetch/

      • …
    • Directorybtop/

      • …
    • Directorycava/

      • …
    • Directoryyazi/

      • …
    • Directorygtk-3.0/ settings.ini

      • …
    • Directorygtk-4.0/ settings.ini

      • …
    • starship.toml
  • .local/bin/impasto the impasto command
  • Directory.local/share/

    • zsh/site-functions/_impasto its completion
    • Directoryfonts/ GrapeNuts-Regular.ttf, the script face, and its OFL licence

      • …
    • Directoryicons/hicolor/ impasto-files, the file manager’s tile on the dock

      • …
    • nautilus-python/extensions/impasto.py Nautilus’s right-click menu
    • Directorywallpapers/ the thirty-three wallpapers

      • …
    • Directoryimpasto/

      • palette-board.json
      • palette-board.png
      • Directoryprofiles/ Moon castle, Fuji and Night bay

        • …
      • Directorycamera/ the sample the camera’s effect tiles are drawn on

        • …

• Directory/

  • Directoryetc/

    • default/grub.d/impasto.cfg the splash argument, for GRUB
    • mkinitcpio.conf.d/impasto.conf the boot splash in the initramfs
    • pam.d/impasto-face face unlock for the lock screen, beside the password
    • sddm.conf.d/10-impasto.conf where faces are kept, and the battery ring’s permission
    • systemd/logind.conf.d/10-impasto.conf the power button goes to the shell
  • Directoryusr/share/sddm/themes/impasto/ the login screen

    • …
  • Directoryusr/share/plymouth/themes/impasto/ the boot splash

    • …
  • Directoryvar/lib/impasto/faces/ your picture, created empty

    • …

These copies are yours to edit. See Updating for what happens to an edited one.

The shell’s state

Everything the shell writes lives in ~/.local/state/quickshell/, or under $XDG_STATE_HOME if that is set. None of it comes from the repository, and setup never touches it.

• Directory~/.local/state/quickshell/

  • settings.json every preference of the profile in use
  • profiles.json the other profiles
  • keys.tsv the profile’s keys, handed to Hyprland
  • notes.json
  • tasks.json
  • clipboard.json the clipboard history
  • Directoryclipboard/ long entries and images

    • …
  • pet.json
  • games.json one best score per game
  • launcher-history.json what the launcher ranks by
  • state.json the wallpaper and the palette in use
  • current-wallpaper a link to the wallpaper in use
  • dynamic-colors.json
  • kitty-palette.conf
  • kitty-font.conf
  • kitty-ground.conf the terminal’s ground
  • nvim/colors/impasto.lua
  • greeting the scene fa plays
  • greeting-….gif one per scene
  • greeting.gif
  • claude-usage.json
  • Directorylyrics/ each track’s lyrics, as lrclib.net answered

    • …
  • Directoryscreentime/ one file per day of screen time

    • …
  • workspaces shared or per screen, and the screens’ order, read by the number keys
  • Directorycursor-src/ the cursor’s source, from ./setup cursors

    • …

settings.json is the profile in use; the others wait in profiles.json. Your notes, tasks, clipboard, pet and scores are in no profile, so switching profile never changes them. To keep a profile somewhere else, export it from Settings → System → Profiles. profiles.json alone is not a backup of the one in use.

setup’s own state

• Directory~/.local/state/impasto/

  • home.manifest the hash of every file copied into $HOME
  • system.manifest the same for /
  • version the version, the branch and the checkout they came from, written by every sync; Settings → System shows them and checks for updates against that checkout
  • plugins-pending the checkout, while the Hyprland plugins wait for a session; removed once they build
  • Directoryapplied/ one file per extra install has set up

    • …
  • Directorybackups/

    • Directory20260913-101500/ one directory per run that moved something

      • Directoryhome/ files that were in the way in $HOME

        • …
      • Directorysystem/ files that were in the way in /

        • …

uninstall puts the backups back, deletes the directories it empties, and removes applied/, so an install after it sets the extras up again.

What the palette writes

Every wallpaper or palette change rewrites these. They live where each program reads its theme, so several are in ~/.config beside the copied files.

Program	File
kitty	~/.local/state/quickshell/kitty-palette.conf, included by kitty.conf
neovim	~/.local/state/quickshell/nvim/colors/impasto.lua
The greeting	~/.local/state/quickshell/greeting-….gif
btop	~/.config/btop/themes/impasto.theme
cava	~/.config/cava/themes/impasto
yazi	~/.config/yazi/flavors/impasto.yazi/
imv	~/.config/imv/config, the whole file
GTK	~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css, ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css
Qt	~/.config/qt6ct/qt6ct.conf, ~/.config/qt6ct/colors/impasto.conf
KDE	~/.config/kdeglobals, merged rather than replaced
Folder icons	~/.local/share/icons/impasto/, which inherits Papirus
Vesktop	~/.config/vesktop/themes/impasto.css
Spotify	~/.config/spicetify/Themes/impasto/color.ini, and the stylesheets inside the patched client
VSCodium	~/.vscode-oss/extensions/impasto/, and the extensions’ colours in ~/.config/VSCodium/User/settings.json
Zen	userChrome.css and user.js in the Zen profile under ~/.config/zen/

The extras write settings that are not colours, once: ./setup vscodium merges ~/.config/VSCodium/User/settings.json, ./setup nautilus sets Nautilus’s preferences with gsettings and adds your folders to ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks, ./setup vesktop ticks the theme in ~/.config/vesktop/settings/settings.json, and ./setup defaults names the default applications in ~/.config/mimeapps.list. The vector cursor is built into ~/.local/share/icons/impasto-cursor…. More in Applications.

Elsewhere

What	Where
The face on the lock and login screens	/var/lib/impasto/faces/<username>.face.icon, then ~/.face
Screenshots	XDG_SCREENSHOTS_DIR in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs, else Screenshots in your pictures folder
Recordings	XDG_SCREENCASTS_DIR, else Screencasts in your videos folder
Wallpapers you add	~/.local/share/wallpapers, JPEG, PNG or WebP
Virtual machines	~/.local/share/impasto/machines, one quickemu configuration and folder each
Camera photos	XDG_CAMERA_DIR, else Camera in your pictures folder
The camera’s models	~/.local/share/impasto/camera, downloaded by ./setup camera
The virtual camera’s module options	/etc/modprobe.d/impasto-camera.conf and /etc/modules-load.d/impasto-camera.conf, written by ./setup camera
oh-my-zsh	~/.oh-my-zsh, with its two plugins under custom/plugins
Hyprland plugins	/var/cache/hyprpm/<username>/, built by hyprpm