Desktop Customizer
A slash-command console that changes GNOME settings (clock, taskbar, theme, shortcuts, startup apps) and keeps git-backed snapshots to roll back.
Desktop Customizer is a command box for the GNOME desktop that RobOS runs on. You type a slash command, and the app calls gsettings, dconf or edits ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css. Type /help for the full list.
Input that does not start with / only returns a message that natural-language support is “coming soon”. Use slash commands.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/move-clock left, center, right, hide, show, format 24h, show-seconds, show-date | Clock position and format. Position uses the dash-to-panel extension’s clock-position key. |
/taskbar height <px>, autohide on, autohide off, add-favorite <app-id>, remove-favorite <app-id> | Panel height (dash-to-panel), auto-hide (dash-to-dock) and pinned apps. |
/theme dark, light, accent <color>, font-size <px>, window-buttons left, right, css "<rules>" | Color scheme, accent color (written to gtk.css), text scaling, window button side and custom GTK CSS. Re-open apps to see CSS changes. |
/shortcut <keys> open <app>, list, remove <keys> | Custom GNOME keyboard shortcuts that launch a RobOS app. |
/startup list, add <app>, remove <app> | Autostart entries in ~/.config/autostart. |
/snapshot save <name>, list, diff | Manual snapshots and a diff against the previous one. |
/restore last or /restore <hash> | Roll back to a snapshot. |
/gsettings get <schema> <key>, /gsettings set <schema> <key> <value>, /exec <command> | Direct access. /exec runs any shell command as you. |
Snapshots
Before /move-clock, /taskbar, /theme, /shortcut, /startup, /exec and /gsettings, the app commits a snapshot to a git repository in ~/.config/robos/desktop-snapshots. A snapshot holds a dconf dump /, ~/.config/robos/settings.json, the GTK 3 and 4 gtk.css files and ~/.config/autostart/*.desktop. Restoring loads the dconf dump with dconf load / and copies the CSS back; some changes need a log out. /snapshot list shows the 20 most recent.
Command history is saved to ~/.config/robos/desktop-customizer/history.json.
Requirements
A GNOME session with gsettings, dconf and git on the PATH. Clock position needs the dash-to-panel extension. The commands act on your real desktop, so try /snapshot save before-experiments first. Source: packages/desktop-customizer.