# niri v26.04
- Product: niri (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/niri)
- Vendor: niri
- Date: 2026-04-25
- Version: v26.04
- Original notes: https://github.com/niri-wm/niri/releases/tag/v26.04
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/niri/releases/v26.04
- Labels: Platforms: Linux
What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.
Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.
---
- **added** — Implement blur for windows and layer-shell components through the ext-background-effect Wayland protocol
- **added** — Add window-rule and layer-rule configuration options for background-effect with blur and xray settings
- **added** — Add layer matcher to window and layer rules for filtering by layer type
- **changed** — Move niri repository from personal account to GitHub organization at github.com/niri-wm
- **changed** — Update minimum supported Rust version to 1.85
- **changed** — Remove hardcoded /usr/bin/ path from niri.service binary path
Niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. Windows are arranged in columns on an infinite strip going to the right. Opening a new window never causes existing windows to resize.
As you may have noticed, niri now lives in a [GitHub org](https://github.com/niri-wm) rather than my (@YaLTeR) personal account.
The primary reason was the ability to give out issue triage permissions: I'd like to give a **massive thanks** to @Sempyos for triaging *all* of our issues and pull requests, answering many, many questions, and helping people diagnose their problems with niri.
We've also moved a few niri-adjacent projects to the GitHub org, like the [awesome-niri](https://github.com/niri-wm/awesome-niri) list of related projects maintained by @Vortriz and a new [artwork](https://github.com/niri-wm/artwork) repo by @bluelinden and @HumpityDumpityDumber—two of the creators of our project logo. In the artwork repo, you can find a badge and several [wallpapers](https://github.com/niri-wm/artwork/tree/main/wallpapers), including two stunning 3D works created by @Duncan-Rose in Blender:
| pool | cut |
| --- | --- |
|  |  |
The main niri repo also flew past 20,000 stars in February! 🌟 Thanks everyone for support.
> [!NOTE]
> Packagers:
> - our minimum supported Rust version is now 1.85.
> - `niri.service` no longer hardcodes `/usr/bin/` in the niri binary path (thanks @Axlefublr).
> - @markK24 restructured the dinit service files: https://github.com/niri-wm/niri/commit/3bfa4a71ffb4457ce092454dfad6938f70028c28
Now with introductions out of the way, here are the improvements from the last release.
##### Blur
It's here. The most requested niri feature by far. Our highest upvoted issue on GitHub. After tireless fork maintenance by @visualglitch91 and @Naxdy, blur is in mainline niri for everyone to use!
Windows and layer-shell components can request blur through the [`ext-background-effect`](https://wayland.app/protocols/ext-background-effect-v1) Wayland protocol with no extra niri configuration. Many already do:
- [Dank Material Shell](https://danklinux.com/) v1.4.5: enable background blur [in settings](https://danklinux.com/docs/dankmaterialshell/compositor-blur)
- [Noctalia](https://noctalia.dev/) shell: enable in settings and [see docs](https://docs.noctalia.dev/getting-started/compositor-settings/niri/#blur)
- [Vicinae](https://vicinae.com/) launcher
- [foot](https://codeberg.org/dnkl/foot/) terminal v1.26: set `blur=true` in colors config
- [kitty](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/) terminal v0.46.2: set `background_blur 1`
- [Ghostty](https://ghostty.org/) terminal: will have support in v1.4
Toolkits:
- [Quickshell](https://quickshell.org/): will have support in v0.3
- [winit](https://github.com/rust-windowing/winit): will have support in v0.31
For apps that don't support `ext-background-effect` yet, you can enable blur through the niri config:
```kdl
// Enable blur behind the Alacritty terminal.
window-rule {
match app-id="^Alacritty$"
background-effect {
blur true
}
}
// Enable blur behind the fuzzel launcher.
layer-rule {
match namespace="^launcher$"
background-effect {
blur true
}
}
```
Keep in mind that niri-configured blur needs the right [`geometry-corner-radius`](https://niri-wm.github.io/niri/Configuration%3A-Window-Rules.html#geometry-corner-radius), and it won't work with complex surface shapes. See the [Window Effects](https://niri-wm.github.io/niri/Window-Effects.html) wiki page
_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/niri-wm/niri/releases/tag/v26.04]_