Wayland Protocol Surface — margo vs niri vs Hyprland vs mango

Last refreshed: 2026-05-21 Sources walked (all at that day's HEAD): - margo — this repo (smithay delegate_*! macros + hand-rolled GlobalDispatch). - niri 26.4.0 (4294948) — same smithay method. - Hyprland 0.55.0 (v0.55.0-55-g95d9ae2) — src/protocols/*.cpp + src/protocols/core/. - mango 0.13.1 (0.13.1-19-gda1e1ca) — wlroots wlr_*_create() call sites + protocols/*.xml.

This document is the source-of-truth audit of which Wayland protocols each daily-driver compositor advertises. mango — the C/wlroots (dwl-derived) compositor that margo is the Rust rewrite of — is included so the comparison shows what margo gained, kept, and dropped relative to its own origin. Maintained alongside road_map.md §15.10; this file is the read-side reference for "what does each compositor actually advertise."

Legend

Mark	Meaning
✅	shipped / advertised
⚠️	partial (e.g. read-only, no write-side; or reached via a different mechanism)
❌	not advertised

Headline score

Counted with each project's native method (delegate macros / protocol files / wlr_*_create globals), core protocols included so the numbers are comparable.

Compositor	Protocols (approx.)	Stack	Note
Hyprland 0.55.0	~67	C++ (hand-rolled)	Widest surface — 61 protocol modules + 6 core, plus Hyprland-only extensions
margo	~57	Rust / smithay	Modern surface; passed niri and mango; pursuing Hyprland
mango 0.13.1	~53	C / wlroots	Broad-but-legacy: wlroots hands it everything for free
niri 26.4.0	~41	Rust / smithay	Tightest surface; deliberately minimal

The headline story shifted this refresh: margo (~57) has overtaken its own C ancestor mango (~53) after hand-rolling three protocols mango got from wlroots — zwlr_foreign_toplevel_manager_v1 (write-side, P2), ext_workspace_v1 (P5) and zwlr_virtual_pointer_manager_v1 (P7). margo already led on the modern surface (HDR colour-management, content-type, fifo/commit-timing, security-context, pointer-warp, xdg-dialog, system-bell, toplevel-icon, toplevel-tag, xwayland-keyboard-grab) that mango's wlroots base doesn't expose; closing the workspace / toplevel / virtual-pointer gap puts it ahead outright. The three protocols still unadvertised (output_power, tearing_control, drm_lease) are blocked, not just deferred — see "remaining three gaps" below.

Core baseline — present in all four

All four advertise these. No comparison table — assume ✅ everywhere.

• wl_compositor / wl_subcompositor / wl_shm / wl_seat / wl_output
• wp_viewporter, wp_presentation_time, wp_cursor_shape_v1, wp_fractional_scale_v1
• zwlr_layer_shell_v1
• xdg_shell, xdg_activation_v1, xdg_decoration_unstable_v1, xdg_foreign_v2
• linux_dmabuf_v1
• ext_session_lock_v1, ext_idle_notifier_v1, zwp_idle_inhibit_manager_v1
• wl_data_device, zwlr_data_control_manager_v1, ext_data_control_manager_v1, zwp_primary_selection_device_manager_v1
• zwp_pointer_constraints_v1, zwp_relative_pointer_manager_v1, zwp_pointer_gestures_v1
• zwp_text_input_manager_v3, zwp_input_method_manager_v2, zwp_virtual_keyboard_manager_v1
• zwp_tablet_manager_v2
• zwlr_gamma_control_manager_v1, zwlr_screencopy_manager_v1
• org_kde_kwin_server_decoration, wp_single_pixel_buffer_v1
• zwp_keyboard_shortcuts_inhibit_v1
• zwlr_output_manager_v1 (output-management — read topology + apply scale/transform/position; all four ship it, was previously missing from this audit)

Modern protocol surface — where margo leads the pack

These are the protocols that separate a current compositor from a legacy wlroots one. margo and Hyprland carry almost the full set; niri and mango each miss large chunks.

Protocol	margo	niri	Hyprland	mango	Use case
wp_color_management_v1 (HDR)	✅	❌	✅	❌	HDR / wide-gamut output
linux_drm_syncobj_v1 (explicit sync)	✅	❌	✅	✅	Tear-free GPU sync, NVIDIA
ext_image_copy_capture_v1 + capture-source	✅	❌	✅	✅	Modern screencast (replaces screencopy)
xwayland_shell_v1	✅	⚠️ diff path	✅	❌	HiDPI XWayland scaling
wp_content_type_v1	✅	❌	✅	❌	Game / video / photo hint
wp_fifo_v1	✅	❌	✅	❌	FIFO commit ordering
wp_commit_timing_v1	✅	❌	✅	❌	Explicit commit-time targets
wp_alpha_modifier_v1	✅	❌	✅	✅	Per-surface alpha hint
xdg_wm_dialog_v1	✅	❌	✅	❌	Modal dialog hint
xdg_system_bell_v1	✅	❌	✅	❌	System bell
wp_pointer_warp_v1	✅	❌	✅	❌	Programmatic cursor warp
wp_security_context_v1	✅	✅	✅	❌	Flatpak / sandboxed clients

margo's unique / near-unique protocols

Protocol	margo	niri	Hyprland	mango	Note
zwp_xwayland_keyboard_grab_v1	✅	❌	❌	❌	margo unique — X11-side kb grab for VNC/VM/remote
xdg_toplevel_icon_v1	✅	❌	❌	❌	margo unique — inline app icons on toplevels
xdg_toplevel_tag_v1	✅	❌	✅	❌	Semantic toplevel tags (Hyprland ships XDGTag too)

Correction this refresh: xdg_toplevel_tag_v1 is no longer margo-unique — Hyprland 0.55 ships it as XDGTag.cpp. The previous "margo unique vs both niri and Hyprland" claim was stale. Only xwayland_keyboard_grab and xdg_toplevel_icon remain unique to margo across all four.

Recently shipped — the wlroots-freebie catch-up (P2 / P5 / P7)

Three protocols mango/Hyprland get for free from wlroots, hand-rolled in margo (ported from niri) so it no longer trails on them:

Protocol	margo	niri	Hyprland	mango	What it unlocks
zwlr_foreign_toplevel_manager_v1 (write-side)	✅	✅	✅	✅	Taskbar click-to-activate / close / (un)fullscreen (mshell active-window pill)
ext_workspace_v1	✅	✅	✅	✅	Workspace state for shells that don't speak dwl-ipc (sfwbar, ironbar)
zwlr_virtual_pointer_manager_v1	✅	✅	✅	✅	Synthetic pointer — wtype --click, remote desktop, accessibility

margo's foreign-toplevel write-side runs alongside the existing smithay ext-foreign-toplevel-list-v1 (read side stays untouched). ext_workspace_v1 maps each output to a workspace group with 9 fixed tag-workspaces (active = bitmask membership); dwl-ipc still runs in parallel. virtual_pointer feeds margo's normal input path.

The remaining three gaps — blocked, not just deferred

These three are not a matter of effort — each hits a concrete upstream or architectural wall (confirmed by source audit 2026-05-21):

Protocol	margo	niri	Hyprland	mango	Why margo can't ship it cleanly today
zwlr_output_power_management_v1	❌	❌	✅	✅	Doable via margo's deferred-queue pattern, but DPMS off/on is an untested DRM-path change with a black-screen failure mode — needs on-hardware iteration
wp_tearing_control_v1	❌	❌	✅	✅	Upstream-blocked: smithay's DrmCompositor exposes no tearing / async page-flip (FrameFlags has no tearing variant) and the wp_tearing_control bindings aren't in the pinned wayland-protocols. Advertising it would be a no-op lie to clients
wp_drm_lease_device_v1	❌	✅	✅	✅	Architecture-blocked: lease_request must synchronously build a DrmLeaseBuilder from the live DrmDevice, which lives in the udev BackendData that MargoState deliberately cannot reach (the deferred-queue pattern can't help — the return is synchronous)

Both niri and margo lack output_power + tearing; only drm_lease is something niri has that margo doesn't. None blocks daily-driver use.

Compositor-specific protocols (informational, not gaps)

Tied to each project's own ecosystem; not counted as margo gaps.

Protocol	Who	What it does
focus_grab	Hyprland	Internal grab semantics
global_shortcuts	Hyprland	xdg-desktop-portal global-shortcuts helper
toplevel_export / toplevel_mapping	Hyprland	Hyprland-flavored toplevel export
hyprland_surface	Hyprland	Rounding / opacity surface hints
CTM_control	Hyprland	Color-transform-matrix (pre-wp_color_management)
mesa_drm	Hyprland	Compat shim for older mesa
background_effect	niri and Hyprland	Surface blur / effect extension
mutter_x11_interop	niri	XWayland tweak inherited from mutter
xdg_output_v1 (legacy)	Hyprland and mango	Pre-wl_output v4 HiDPI workaround
zwlr_export_dmabuf_manager_v1	mango only	Legacy wlroots screencast (superseded by image-copy-capture)

Unblocking the remaining three

Each needs a prerequisite, not just a coding session:

1. zwlr_output_power_management_v1 — implementable now via margo's deferred-queue pattern (pending_output_mode_changes is the model), but the DPMS apply needs on-hardware iteration before it's safe to ship — a wrong re-enable path black-screens the output.
2. wp_tearing_control_v1 — wait for smithay's DrmCompositor to expose tearing / async page-flip (FrameFlags variant). Until then any advertisement is a no-op. Track upstream smithay.
3. wp_drm_lease_device_v1 — needs MargoState to reach the udev DrmDevice synchronously (a small backend-access change to the deliberate State/BackendData split). Lowest value (VR / leased connectors), so lowest priority.

See road_map.md §15.10 for the full work log and blocker analysis.