| title | Otter Shell: Fast, Lightweight Wayland Desktop for PikaOS |
|---|---|
| sidebarTitle | Introduction |
| description | Otter Shell is a collection of native Wayland apps forming a lightweight Linux desktop for PikaOS — fast, resource-light, and tightly integrated. |
Otter Shell is an otterly fast, resource-light Linux desktop environment built exclusively for Wayland on PikaOS. It is composed of a collection of tightly integrated native applications — each one purpose-built, small, and efficient. From a terminal emulator to a screen recorder, clipboard manager, and on-device speech transcription, everything in Otter Shell is designed to work seamlessly together.
A full-featured Wayland terminal emulator with tabs, split panes, shell integration, and URL handling. Capture regions, windows, or the full screen with native Wayland capture — no X11, no grim. Persistent clipboard history with search, pinning, image support, and a Super+V popup. Hardware-accelerated recording via NVENC, Quick Sync, and VAAPI with region and window capture. Frame screenshots with gradients, shadows, corner radius, and custom chrome for polished exports. On-device hotkey-triggered transcription using an embedded Parakeet model — no cloud required. Markdown sticky notes on a persistent layer-shell surface, toggled with Super+N. Open-Meteo weather fetcher for the bar and a 7-day forecast popup. Install Otter Shell on PikaOS using the official package repository. Get your desktop up and running in a few minutes. Understand the unified configuration system used across all Otter apps. Learn the default keyboard shortcuts and how to customize them.