Usage

Starting Nicotine

nicotine start

This launches everything: the background daemon, the config panel, and one preview window per running EVE client. On Linux it backgrounds itself automatically, so the terminal returns right away. Closing the config panel quits Nicotine.

The config panel

The panel has four sections:

  • Display Mode: choose Previews (one thumbnail per client) or List (a compact roster, with the active character highlighted in Nicotine red).
  • Cycle Order: order your characters and assign per-character jump hotkeys.
  • Keyboard Hotkeys: bind the forward and backward cycle keys.
  • Preview Windows: size sliders, opacity, and a show/hide toggle.

Changes apply live and are saved to disk a moment later.

For previews and the list window:

  • Left-click and drag to reposition; edges snap to adjacent windows.
  • Click a preview without dragging to bring that EVE client to the front.
  • Lock positions in the panel to freeze the layout while you play.

Cycling and switching

nicotine forward     # next client      (aliases: f, cycle-forward)
nicotine backward    # previous client  (aliases: b, cycle-backward)
nicotine switch 2    # jump to client 2
nicotine 2           # shorthand for "switch 2"
nicotine stack       # center / stack all EVE clients

Each of these sends the command to the running daemon for an instant switch. If no daemon is running, the same command executes standalone, which is a little slower since it has to connect to the window manager first.

Mouse and keyboard bindings

Nicotine has built-in input listeners, so you don't need to wire anything up in your desktop environment. You can also bind the CLI verbs above to global hotkeys if you prefer.

Mouse

  • Linux: on by default. Forward is side button 9 (evdev 276), backward is side button 8 (evdev 275). Requires the input group.
  • Windows: off by default. A global mouse hook would intercept the back and forward side buttons everywhere (games, browser), so Nicotine leaves them alone unless you opt in. The defaults are XBUTTON2 (forward) and XBUTTON1 (backward).

To find your button codes on Linux, run sudo evtest, pick your mouse, and press the buttons to read the codes. If autodetection picks the wrong mouse, set mouse_device_name or mouse_device_path. Device selection priority is name, then path, then autodetect.

Keyboard

  • Linux: off by default, so it can't clash with games that use Tab. The default key is Tab (evdev 15); set modifier_key if you want one (such as Shift) for backward. Requires the input group.
  • Windows: on by default. Forward is F11, backward is F10.

Cycle order

By default, nicotine 1, nicotine 2, and so on target whatever order the window manager reports. To pin a stable order, set it in the panel's Cycle Order section, which writes a characters list to your config.toml:

characters = ["Main Character", "Alt One", "Alt Two"]

Each entry is the character name as it appears after EVE - in the client's title bar. Entry 1 becomes target 1, entry 2 becomes target 2, and so on. (This replaces the older characters.txt file mentioned in some places.) Per-character jump hotkeys are stored under [character_hotkeys] and written for you when you set them in the panel.

All commands

nicotine start         Start daemon + config panel + previews
nicotine stop          Stop all Nicotine processes
nicotine stack         Stack / center all EVE windows
nicotine forward | f   Cycle to the next client
nicotine backward | b  Cycle to the previous client
nicotine switch N      Switch to client N
nicotine N             Shorthand for "switch N"
nicotine init-config   Write a fresh default config.toml

Advanced / diagnostic:
nicotine daemon        Run the daemon only (headless, no panel)
nicotine list          Print detected EVE clients  (id <tab> title)
nicotine active        Print the currently-focused EVE client