Commands

The kakemono binary is both the daemon and the command-line client. Every command takes these options:

Option	Meaning
--config <PATH>	The config file to read. See Configuration.
--socket <PATH>	The daemon socket to connect to. See Files.

kakemono <command> --help describes each command.

Command list

Command	What it does
daemon	Starts the daemon in the background. -f, --foreground keeps it in the terminal. The daemon refuses to start twice.
quit	Stops the daemon after it saves its state. The login service restarts only a daemon that failed, so the daemon stays stopped until the next login or kakemono daemon.
next	Sets the next wallpaper: forward in the history, or a new download at the end of it.
prev	Sets the previous wallpaper from the history.
set <IMAGE-PATH>	Sets an image file as the wallpaper.
favorite	Copies the current wallpaper to the favorites folder.
trash	Moves the current wallpaper to the trash folder and sets the next one.
status	Shows the current wallpaper, the theme, the interval, and whether rotation is paused. --json prints the daemon’s JSON.
pause, resume	Stops or restarts the rotation timer.
open	Reveals the current wallpaper in Finder or the file manager. --folder opens the download folder. --favorites opens the favorites folder.
pick	Opens the thumbnail picker in the kakemono app.
settings	Opens the settings window in the kakemono app.
detect	Shows the wallpaper backend for this session and why. --write saves it to [desktop]. --force overwrites a section with managed_by = "user". Linux only. On other systems, it prints the native backend.
doctor	Prints the config file, the session, the backend and the command it would run, the picker window rules, and the daemon’s state. --apply asks the daemon to set the current wallpaper again.
service install, service uninstall, service status [--json]	Manages the login service. See Start the daemon at login.
config path, config init, config edit	Prints the config path, writes the commented default config, or opens the config in $VISUAL or $EDITOR. config init never overwrites a file.
completions <SHELL>	Prints a completion script for bash, elvish, fish, powershell, or zsh.

Exit code when the daemon isn’t running

If a command can’t reach the daemon, it exits with code 1 and says how to start the daemon.

How pick and settings find the app

pick and settings start the kakemono-ui binary from the kakemono app. They look for it in this order:

1. $KAKEMONO_UI. If this variable is set, it is the only place kakemono looks.
2. The folder that holds kakemono.
3. On macOS, /Applications/kakemono.app and ~/Applications/kakemono.app.
4. Every folder on PATH.

pick and settings pass their environment to the app when they start it. If the app is already running, it keeps its own environment.