Bongo Cat

Bongo Cat adds a bar widget that idles, blinks, sleeps, and slaps its paws when you type or when audio beats are detected.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	noctalia/bongocat
Entry	Bar widget: cat

Usage

Add the cat widget to a bar from Noctalia's widget picker. Click the cat to pause or resume it.

Keyboard reactivity is disabled until input_devices is configured. Use stable paths from /dev/input/by-id/ or /dev/input/by-path/ when possible because /dev/input/eventN names can change after device or kernel updates. Some devices, including Bluetooth keyboards, may not expose a stable path; using their /dev/input/eventN path is supported.

Audio reactivity is controlled separately with audio_spectrum. When enabled, the widget can tap to the beat, flash rave colors on beat, and optionally ignore audio unless MPRIS reports media playback.

Requirements

Keyboard reactivity requires evtest and permission to read the selected input devices. On many systems that means adding your user to the input group and logging in again.

Audio reactivity uses Noctalia's PipeWire spectrum callback.

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
input_devices	string_list	[]	Input device paths or globs to read with evtest.
executable_path	file	evtest	Path to the input reader executable.
audio_spectrum	bool	false	Enables PipeWire audio spectrum events.
tappy_mode	bool	false	Makes the cat tap its paws to detected beats.
rave_mode	bool	false	Flashes cat colors on detected beats.
use_mpris_filter	bool	false	Reacts only while an MPRIS player is playing.

IPC

The widget accepts simple runtime controls:

noctalia msg plugin noctalia/bongocat:cat focused pause
noctalia msg plugin noctalia/bongocat:cat focused resume
noctalia msg plugin noctalia/bongocat:cat focused toggle

CREDITS

• @StrayRogue — Creator of the original Bongo Cat artwork used by the bongocat widget