How to Install WinJitsu on Arch, Debian, and Fedora

WinJitsu depends on two system-level packages — xdotool for window manipulation and python-xlib for monitor detection via RandR — that must be installed before WinJitsu itself. Choose the installation path that matches your distribution: Arch Linux users can pull WinJitsu straight from the AUR and have everything set up in a single command; everyone else can build a wheel from source or install directly with pip.

The WinJitsu daemon must be started after installation before any action commands will work. Running winjitsu N (or any other action) without a running daemon will print an error and exit. See the Quickstart for how to start it.

Installation Methods

Arch Linux (AUR)
Build from Source
Manual (pip)

WinJitsu is published to the Arch User Repository. If you have an AUR helper such as yay installed, a single command installs WinJitsu and all of its dependencies automatically:

yay -S winjitsu

If you prefer a different AUR helper (paru, trizen, etc.), substitute its name — the package name winjitsu is the same in every case.To install the system dependencies manually first (e.g. before a makepkg build), run:

sudo pacman -S python xdotool python-xlib

Building a wheel locally gives you the same installed binary as the AUR package and works on any distribution. Follow these steps:

Install system dependencies

Install Python, xdotool, and python-xlib using your distribution’s package manager:

sudo pacman -S python xdotool python-xlib

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Evilchuck666/winjitsu.git
cd winjitsu

Install the build tool

pip install build

Build the wheel

python3 -m build

The wheel is written to dist/ as winjitsu-0.3.0-py3-none-any.whl.

Install the wheel

pip install dist/winjitsu-0.3.0-py3-none-any.whl --force-reinstall

Verify the installation

winjitsu --help

You should see the full help output including the list of available actions. If the command is not found, make sure your pip scripts directory (typically ~/.local/bin) is on your $PATH.

For a quick, editable install straight from the repository without building a wheel first, clone and install in one go:

git clone https://github.com/Evilchuck666/winjitsu.git
cd winjitsu
pip install .

This installs WinJitsu and its Python dependency (python-xlib) into your current Python environment. Remember to install the system-level dependencies (xdotool and python-xlib) via your package manager first — pip cannot install those.

Once installation is complete, head to the Quickstart to start the daemon and snap your first window in under two minutes.

Get Started

Usage

Guides

How to Install WinJitsu on Arch, Debian, and Fedora

Installation Methods

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Get Started

Usage

Guides

Documentation Index

​Installation Methods

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Installation Methods