Omarchy: Enable Notification Sound in mako

Omarchy uses mako for notifications. By default, you may have visual popups with no sound. This setup adds a sound on every shown notification, and keeps the change across theme switches.

If your first notification after idle is still clipped or silent on HDMI, see:

How to Fix HDMI First-Notification Clipping in Omarchy (mako)

1) Create a notification sound script

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cat > ~/.local/bin/omarchy-notification-sound <<'BASH'
#!/bin/bash

# Optional custom sound:
# ~/.local/share/sounds/notification.oga

custom_sound="${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/sounds/notification.oga"
default_sound="/usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/message.oga"

if [[ -f "$custom_sound" ]]; then
  if command -v paplay >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    paplay "$custom_sound" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
    exit 0
  fi
  if command -v pw-play >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    pw-play "$custom_sound" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
    exit 0
  fi
fi

if [[ -f "$default_sound" ]]; then
  if command -v paplay >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    paplay "$default_sound" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
    exit 0
  fi
  if command -v pw-play >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    pw-play "$default_sound" >/dev/null 2>&1 &
    exit 0
  fi
fi

if command -v canberra-gtk-play >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  canberra-gtk-play -i message -d mako >/dev/null 2>&1 &
fi
BASH
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/omarchy-notification-sound

2) Tell mako to run it on each notification

Omarchy links your live mako config to:

~/.config/omarchy/current/theme/mako.ini

Add:

on-notify=exec ~/.local/bin/omarchy-notification-sound

If an app already plays its own sound (for example Slack), exclude it to avoid double audio:

[app-name=Slack]
on-notify=none

Reload:

makoctl reload

Test:

notify-send "Test" "Notification sound check"

3) Native sound options you can use

Common event IDs from the built-in Freedesktop theme:

• message
• message-new-instant
• dialog-information
• dialog-warning
• dialog-error
• complete
• bell
• camera-shutter
• device-added
• device-removed
• network-connectivity-established
• network-connectivity-lost
• phone-incoming-call
• power-plug
• power-unplug
• service-login
• service-logout
• window-attention
• trash-empty

Try a sound by event ID:

canberra-gtk-play -i message -d mako
canberra-gtk-play -i complete -d mako

List all local sound IDs dynamically:

ls /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo | sed 's/\.oga$//'

4) Keep the setting after theme changes

Omarchy rewrites theme files when you switch themes. Re-apply the on-notify line with a hook.

Create ~/.config/omarchy/hooks/theme-set:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

mako_theme="$HOME/.config/omarchy/current/theme/mako.ini"
sound_rule='on-notify=exec ~/.local/bin/omarchy-notification-sound'
slack_app='[app-name=Slack]'
slack_rule='on-notify=none'

if [[ -f "$mako_theme" ]] && ! grep -Fxq "$sound_rule" "$mako_theme"; then
  printf '\n%s\n' "$sound_rule" >> "$mako_theme"
fi

if [[ -f "$mako_theme" ]] && ! awk '
  /^\[app-name=Slack\]$/ {
    getline
    if ($0 == "on-notify=none") found=1
  }
  END { exit(found ? 0 : 1) }
' "$mako_theme"; then
  printf '\n%s\n%s\n' "$slack_app" "$slack_rule" >> "$mako_theme"
fi

makoctl reload >/dev/null 2>&1 || true

Then:

chmod +x ~/.config/omarchy/hooks/theme-set

At this point notification sound is wired. If HDMI still clips the first one after idle, use the dedicated HDMI fix post linked above.