ShojiWM Architecture

In one sentence: ShojiWM is a Wayland compositor with a fast core written in Rust, whose look and behavior you describe in TypeScript/TSX.

The big picture

• Apps talk to ShojiWM through the standard Wayland protocol.
• The Rust core handles input, windows, and rendering — the parts that must be fast and reliable.
• The TypeScript config runtime decides how windows look and behave. It runs inside the shoji_wm process on the Deno/V8 engine embedded through RustyScript. You write this part.
• The core draws the final frame on the GPU.

Two worlds: Rust core and TypeScript config

ShojiWM splits responsibilities into two layers inside one process:

Layer	Runtime	Responsibility
Core	Rust + Smithay	Wayland protocol, input, layout, GPU rendering
Config	TypeScript/TSX on embedded Deno/V8	Window decorations, layout rules, effects, keybindings

The config layer runs in an embedded V8 isolate rather than a separate Node.js process. Rust and TypeScript exchange typed requests, composition trees, and incremental patches through the in-process native bridge. Performance-sensitive updates such as signal-driven shader uniforms avoid the old JSON process boundary.

Node.js is therefore not required to run ShojiWM. It is only used by optional repository tooling such as standalone TypeScript checks and the Docusaurus documentation site.

Server-Side Decoration (SSD) flow

Directory layout

src/        Rust core (compositor, IPC, protocol, portal)
packages/   TypeScript SDK (shoji_wm) and user config