whydotool

A Wayland-native command-line automation tool.

Inspired by ydotool, it simulates keyboard and mouse input using native Wayland protocols.

Features

• click - simulate mouse button presses
• mousemove - Move the pointer (relative or absolute)
• type - type strings of text
• key- press and release individual keys
• stdin - stream key events from standard input in real time
• no root required
• no daemon required

Requirements

whydotool works on most major Wayland compositors via either:

• Native Wayland protocols

• xdg-desktop-portal RemoteDesktop interface

Protocol Support

Keyboard input (key, type, stdin):

• wp_virtual_keyboard

Pointer input (click, mousemove):

• wlr_virtual_pointer

Universal alternative: If your compositor doesn’t support the above protocols, whydotool can use the xdg-desktop-portal RemoteDesktop interface. See the list of supported backends

If your compositor doesn't support the specific protocols above, it will likely work through the portal interface. Check the linked compatibility tables to verify support for your compositor.

Build

Clone the repository and enter it:

git clone https://forgejo.r0chd.pl/r0chd/whydotool
cd whydotool

To build with the default configuration:

cargo build --release

To explicitly disable portal support:

cargo build --no-default-features --release

Disabling portal support reduces dependencies and binary size, but limits compatibility to compositors that implement the native virtual input protocols.

After building binary can be found at ./target/release/whydotool

Examples

Type text:

whydotool type "Hello Wayland"

Press a key:

whydotool key 56:1 62:1 62:0 56:0

Relatively move mouse pointer by -100,100:

whydotool mousemove -x -100 -y 100

Move mouse pointer to 100,100:

whydotool mousemove --absolute -x 100 -y 100

Mouse right click:

whydotool click 0xC1

Mouse repeating left click:

whydotool click --repeat 5 --next-delay 25 0xC0

whydotool vs. ydotool

Feature	whydotool	ydotool
Compatibility	Wayland only	Runs everywhere
Security Model	Uses compositor-granted Wayland protocols or xdg-desktop-portal	Writes directly to uinput
Privileges	Does not require root	Requires root privileges
Daemon	Daemonless	Requires a running daemon