Integrations

Use rift-cli to query or control Rift from Terminal and scripts. Event subscriptions run a command when something changes, such as the active workspace.

Query and control Rift

Queries return JSON (structured text). The switch command below selects workspace index 2, the third workspace:

rift-cli query workspaces
rift-cli query windows
rift-cli query displays
rift-cli execute workspace switch 2
rift-cli execute window focus left

The CLI reference provides more query and execute examples. For the exact commands accepted by an installed release, run rift-cli --help and the nested --help command for the area you are using.

Subscribe to events

rift-cli subscribe cli runs a command whenever an event occurs. The event JSON is appended as the command’s final argument, and useful values are also available as environment variables.

If your SketchyBar configuration handles an event named rift_workspace_changed, send it workspace updates with:

rift-cli subscribe cli \
  --event workspace_changed \
  --command sh \
  --args -c \
  --args 'sketchybar --trigger rift_workspace_changed RIFT_WORKSPACE_NAME="$RIFT_WORKSPACE_NAME" RIFT_WORKSPACE_ID="$RIFT_WORKSPACE_ID"'

Repeat --args for each command argument.

To keep a subscription across service restarts, merge the command into run_on_start in your existing [settings] table:

[settings]
run_on_start = [
  "rift-cli subscribe cli --event workspace_changed --command sh --args -c --args 'sketchybar --trigger rift_workspace_changed RIFT_WORKSPACE_NAME=\"$RIFT_WORKSPACE_NAME\"'",
]

Use RIFT_EVENT_JSON for the complete payload; other variables depend on the event. For startup behavior and available events, see the Commands and startup reference.

Startup entries run when Rift starts; reloading the config does not launch new entries. Restart the service after changing run_on_start. Rift launches these command lines directly, so use sh -c when you need shell expansion or pipelines. If a helper cannot be found, use its absolute executable path.

Client libraries

• rift-client is the typed Rust client.
• rift.lua is the low-level Lua client.
• riftapi provides higher-level Lua helpers for workspaces, windows, layouts, displays, and events.