Hyprland Keybinds for a Macropad
EM Mini Pad is a five-key aluminium input block with a knurled knob. Hyprland can connect its spare key events to workspace, focus and command dispatchers without putting those actions into pad firmware.
How do Hyprland binds work with extra keys?
Hyprland's current documentation uses Lua configuration beginning with release 0.55, while earlier releases use the older comma-based syntax. Check hyprctl version and read the matching version of the wiki before copying a bind. Mixing formats creates a configuration failure, not a backward-compatible shortcut.
For current Lua configuration, a bind connects a key description to a dispatcher. Use wev to find an unfamiliar keysym or keycode. Configure the pad to emit spare keys where possible, and verify each raw event before adding it to Hyprland.
How do you jump to an agent workspace?
The focus dispatcher accepts a workspace target, including a numbered or named workspace selector. Define one pad input to focus the workspace where the agent terminal or editor already lives. This is clearer than an exec rule that starts another copy of the application every time.
Keep launching and focusing as separate decisions. A focus action is reversible and visible. An exec dispatcher runs a shell command, so quoting, environment and duplicate-process behavior become additional failure points. Use it only when opening a known program is actually the desired result.
How do you keep the bind device-specific?
Current Hyprland binds accept a device filter containing an inclusive choice and a list of device names or tags. Find the exact name with hyprctl devices. An inclusive list makes only the chosen device capable of triggering that bind, preventing the same spare key on the main keyboard from taking over the workspace.
Device configuration changed with the move to Lua, so older per-device snippets should stay with their matching release documentation. Retest names after reconnecting through another transport. A Bluetooth record may not match the wired name you first captured.
What should stay in keyd instead of Hyprland?
Use keyd for low-level substitutions that should work at a text console or outside Hyprland. Use Hyprland for compositor concepts such as workspace focus, window focus and program launching. This boundary keeps a plain Escape remap available even if the compositor configuration fails.
The EM Mini Pad offers only five keys, which encourages a short map: agent workspace, editor workspace, terminal workspace, previous workspace and one focus action. Document the release syntax beside the map and reload only after preserving a working configuration. Test each workspace target with an ordinary keyboard path available, since a mistyped selector can make the result look like a device failure.