IPC

Because Pinnacle is configured at runtime, IPC is implemented using the already existing APIs.

Lua API REPL

Many compositors expose a CLI that provides access to IPC commands. Pinnacle uses the Lua API for this purpose.

You can start an interactive Lua REPL that loads the Lua API with pinnacle client, allowing you to run most API functions on demand.

$ pinnacle client
Lua 5.4.7  Copyright (C) 1994-2024 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
Available globals: Pinnacle, Input, Libinput, Process, Output, Tag, Window, Layout, Util, Snowcap
pinnacle> Window.get_focused():app_id()
Alacritty
pinnacle>

The REPL loads the API into the following globals:

Pinnacle = require("pinnacle")
Input = require("pinnacle.input")
Libinput = require("pinnacle.input.libinput")
Process = require("pinnacle.process")
Output = require("pinnacle.output")
Tag = require("pinnacle.tag")
Window = require("pinnacle.window")
Layout = require("pinnacle.layout")
Util = require("pinnacle.util")
Snowcap = require("pinnacle.snowcap")

Alternatively, to run a one-off function non-interactively, pipe a Lua string into the client or use the -e flag:

$ echo "print(Output.get_focused().name)" | pinnacle client
DP-1

$ pinnacle client -e "print(Output.get_focused().name)"
DP-1