xmenu - dmenu without x11

A look at xmenu, a dmenu alternative that works without X11.

xmenu is a lightweight menu utility inspired by dmenu. Unlike dmenu, it does not depend on X11, so it runs on Wayland and other non-X environments.

MDX lets you use JSX and exported values inline. This post is about xmenu v0.5.0 and was published on Tue Sep 08 2026.

What is xmenu

xmenu renders a menu of items to standard output. You pipe a list of entries in, it shows a menu, and prints the selected line back — classic dmenu behaviour, but without the X11 dependency. The exported version above renders inline here too: 0.5.0.

How it differs from dmenu

  • No X11 or XWayland dependency.
  • Pairs well with Wayland compositors such as sway or hyprland.
  • Keeps the same keyboard-driven workflow.

A note on writing posts

Note

Headings in the body start at ##. The page title is already an <h1> from frontmatter, so leaf sections below should use ### (h3), never #.

Warning (Check the config)

Callouts like this one, $...$ / $$...$$ math, and expressive code frames are all wired up in astro.config.ts.

Installation

Build it from source and put the binary on your PATH:

install-xmenu.sh
git clone https://github.com/example/xmenu
cd xmenu
make && sudo make install

A small TypeScript example, with line numbers enabled:

examples/launcher.ts
import { pick, run } from "./xmenu";


const items = ["firefox", "kitty", "code"];
const choice = await pick(items, { prompt: "run:" });


if (choice) {
  await run(choice.split(/\s+/)[0]);
}

Math

Inline math renders with Temml: E=mc2. Display math uses a block:

∫0∞e−x2dx=π2

Current status

Field Value
Input line-based menu entries
Output selected entry to stdout
Deps none (no X11)
License MIT

Stay tuned for the full write-up.