waybar-unixtime

Live unix timestamps in your Waybar. Themed by omarchy.
Website · Install · Theming

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The current unix timestamp, ticking every second, right in your bar. Left-click opens a dropdown of every format — seconds, millis, micros, nanos, ISO 8601, European, US, British, Japanese, RFC 2822 — and clicking one copies it. The colors come from whatever omarchy theme you're running — switch themes and the module follows.

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Features

• Live epoch — ticking every second in the bar

• Format dropdown — left-click opens a menu of 15 formats; each entry copies its current value to the clipboard:

  Timestamp	Date formats
  Seconds	ISO 8601 UTC / local / date
  Milliseconds	European (+ short)
  Microseconds	US (+ short), British
  Nanoseconds	Japanese, RFC 2822, Unix readable

• Panel tooltip — hover shows every format with live values, grouped like the UnixTime panel

• Converter — waybar-unixtime convert 1786098721 (auto-detects s/ms/µs/ns) or convert "30.07.2026 12:34" or convert "now +2h30m" prints every format for that instant

• Interactive picker — right-click opens a walker/fuzzel/wofi dmenu with all formats, a free-text converter, and history

• History — every copy is remembered (capped, configurable); re-copy from the picker or waybar-unixtime history

• Custom formats — name your own strftime patterns in ~/.config/waybar-unixtime/config.toml; they join the dropdown, tooltip, and picker

• Switchable display — scroll on the module (two-finger swipe on touchpads) to cycle through every format; middle-click, if you have one, toggles seconds ⇄ millis; waybar-unixtime set iso-utc jumps straight to any key

• omarchy-native theming — waybar-unixtime css reads the active theme's colors.toml and emits namespaced CSS

• Single static-ish binary — Rust, no runtime deps

Install

Arch (AUR-style)

git clone https://github.com/z19r/waybar-unixtime
cd waybar-unixtime/packaging/aur && makepkg -si

Cargo

cargo install waybar-unixtime

Prebuilt binaries

Grab a tarball for x86_64 or aarch64 Linux from the releases page, verify against SHA256SUMS.txt, drop the binary in your $PATH.

From source

just install   # cargo install + generates themed CSS

Waybar setup

Print a ready-to-paste module block (with dropdown menu wired up) and add it to your waybar config:

waybar-unixtime snippet

Full example in examples/waybar-config.jsonc. Note: use polling (once + "interval": 1) — waybar 0.15.0 does not render bars whose custom modules stream continuously.

Put "custom/unixtime" in modules-right (or wherever), then:

waybar-unixtime css --install    # themed unixtime.css
waybar-unixtime menu --install   # dropdown unixtime-menu.xml

and add to the top of your waybar style.css:

@import "unixtime.css";

Theming

Themes inherit from omarchy. The css subcommand resolves ~/.config/omarchy/current/theme/colors.toml and generates:

@define-color unixtime-accent #c9a554;  /* theme accent   */
@define-color unixtime-fg     #c2c2b0;  /* foreground     */
@define-color unixtime-bg     #222222;  /* background     */

Everything is namespaced unixtime-*, so it can't collide with your existing waybar styles. Override any rule after the @import to customize. To re-theme automatically on omarchy theme switches, add this line to ~/.config/omarchy/hooks/theme-set (or any theme-change hook you use):

waybar-unixtime css --install && pkill -SIGUSR2 waybar

Not on omarchy? Point the generator anywhere:

OMARCHY_THEME_DIR=~/my/theme waybar-unixtime css

Missing or unreadable themes fall back to a built-in palette, so the module always renders.

CLI

waybar-unixtime once          # one waybar JSON line (default)
waybar-unixtime copy [FMT]    # print a timestamp in any format
waybar-unixtime convert IN    # epoch/date/-> every format
waybar-unixtime picker        # interactive dmenu panel
waybar-unixtime history       # recently copied values
waybar-unixtime formats       # list all keys with live examples
waybar-unixtime set FMT       # change the bar display format
waybar-unixtime toggle        # flip seconds <-> milliseconds
waybar-unixtime cycle [--back]# step through all formats (scroll)
waybar-unixtime menu          # dropdown XML (--install to write)
waybar-unixtime css           # themed CSS   (--install to write)
waybar-unixtime snippet       # ready-to-paste waybar config
waybar-unixtime run           # streaming mode (waybar != 0.15.0)

FMT is any key from formats, or custom:<strftime> — e.g. waybar-unixtime copy "custom:%d.%m.%y %H:%M". IN accepts an epoch in any precision, now, date strings (ISO / European / US), and an optional trailing offset: convert "1786098721 -1d".

Settings

~/.config/waybar-unixtime/config.toml:

default_format = "seconds"   # bar text before any set/toggle
history_size = 50            # copied-value history (0 = off)

[[custom]]                   # named custom formats
name = "Deploy tag"
format = "%Y%m%d-%H%M"

After adding custom formats, re-run waybar-unixtime menu --install and refresh the menu-actions block from waybar-unixtime snippet so the dropdown picks them up.

Development

just check   # fmt-check + clippy -D warnings + tests
just test
just site    # serve the marketing site locally

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Released under the MIT license.