Edge overlay

The edge overlay is a drop-down-style scratchpad built into instantWM. It works with any application on both X11 and Wayland.

To turn the focused window into the default edge overlay, press super+ctrl+t. Press super+t to show or hide it. You can also create one with Super + left-click on the layout indicator, or by dragging a window to the configured screen-edge drop zone. Super + left-click on the desktop or window bar also toggles it.

Only one default edge overlay exists at a time. Creating another returns the old one to normal window management. The window is locked by default to prevent accidental closing. Its title-bar and close-button mouse actions can resize, reset, or unlock it.

Advanced customization

The exported actions are edge_scratchpad_create, edge_scratchpad_toggle, edge_scratchpad_show, and edge_scratchpad_hide. Its edge can be changed with the edge_scratchpad_direction_left, _right, _up, and _down actions, which are useful in custom bindings or modes.

This feature used to be bound to Super+W and was usually called simply “overlay”. Super+W now toggles tiled/maximized presentation; Super+T owns the edge overlay controls.

See Scratchpad for named, non-edge scratchpads.