{"slug": "xdotool", "name": "xdotool", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 2.974, "rising": -0.65, "first": "2025-11-20", "latest": "2026-10-22", "why": "The possibility to use automation scripts using something as close as possible to xdotool", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 5, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "The possibility to use automation scripts using something as close as possible to xdotool", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["xdotool"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 736237666, "item_id": 46014854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46014854", "by": "clemens3", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "xdotool is kind of the best we have", "excerpt": "I am surprised, 87 comments and so far nobody has mentioned X11Libre. They claim 30 developers right now. Don't know if true and if they are any good, but when the time comes to update my xserver, I will have a look at them - just to show my support. Ah aeh, Wayland, it too got pitched to me recently. But I don't see it improves on any use case I have, but actively disables functionality I need. So a big no go and pa", "context": "", "use_case": "GUI automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure"}, {"id": 736025954, "item_id": 46001622, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46001622", "by": "ziotom78", "date": "2025-11-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The possibility to use automation scripts using something as close as possible to xdotool", "excerpt": "Xdotool and Xmodmap are the two main reasons why, after a few months running Wayland+keyd+dotool I went back to X11. I found really hard to have the following things working at once: - Italian layout for my keyboard with heavily-customized AltGr keys for mathematical notation (in X11 it's just a matter of having a Xmodmap file) - Using Espanso for many common shortcuts like :date: (current YYYY-MM-DD date) and :pidig", "context": "", "use_case": "automation scripts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["gui automation", "typing passwords into blocked fields", "window management scripts", "keyboard-driven mouse control", "simulating human typing", "automation scripts"], "compared": [{"slug": "wayland", "name": "Wayland", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942109", "title": "Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187794", "title": "What browser task do you still do by copy-paste every week?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49373932", "title": "Xorg-Server 26.0.99.901", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48383667", "title": "Mouseless \u2013 keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47025478", "title": "Show HN: Kubernetes for AI Agents", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799402", "title": "Show HN: I'm building an AI-proof writing tool. How would you defeat it?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 2}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803051264, "item_id": 50190704, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50190704", "by": "dlcarrier", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used xdotool to type it in, out of spite.", "excerpt": "I once used a web page that prevented me from pasting in a password from the password manager. I used xdotool to type it in, out of spite.", "context": "", "use_case": "typing passwords into blocked fields", "switched_from": "", "story": "What browser task do you still do by copy-paste every week?"}, {"id": 790070933, "item_id": 49379433, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49379433", "by": "mmh0000", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have a bunch of Xorg/xdotool scripts bound to hotkeys.", "excerpt": "That's a new take: Project with new release 1 day ago declared deprecated! I've been using Linux for around 2 decades. I am currently running Fedora 43/KDE Plasma ... and wait for it ... Xorg. Why? Because it works. It works well! Why don't I use Wayland? Because it breaks everything. - Screensharing is just wonky and inconsistent across applications. It has gotten better in the last 2 years, but it's still quite won", "context": "", "use_case": "window management scripts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Xorg-Server 26.0.99.901"}, {"id": 774638401, "item_id": 48414900, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48414900", "by": "magios", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "i3wm with bindings in config to use xdotool to move and click the mouse is what i use.", "excerpt": "i3wm with bindings in config to use xdotool to move and click the mouse is what i use.", "context": "", "use_case": "keyboard-driven mouse control", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mouseless \u2013 keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows"}, {"id": 752472930, "item_id": 47029558, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47029558", "by": "ed_mercer", "date": "2026-02-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "tools like xdotool and browser automation that don't play well in containers", "excerpt": "For us, we actually moved away from k8s to dedicated VMs on Proxmox for our agents. We initially had a containerized environment manager running in k8s, but found that VMs give you things containers struggle with: full desktop environments with X11 for GUI automation, persistent state across sessions and dedicated resources per agent. Each agent gets their own Debian VM with a complete OS, which makes it much easier ", "context": "", "use_case": "GUI automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Kubernetes for AI Agents"}, {"id": 748829328, "item_id": 46801833, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46801833", "by": "ephou7", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "subprocess.call([ \"xdotool\", \"type\", c ])", "excerpt": "I used this: #!/usr/bin/python3 import subprocess import time import random with open(\"/tmp/x\") as f: t = f.read() for c in t: subprocess.call([ \"xdotool\", \"type\", c ]) time.sleep(abs(random.gauss(0,0.07))) And pasted a random Hacker News comment: Authenticity Score 81 Highly Authentic Words per minute: 162 Keystroke variance: 52ms Paste attempts: 0 Window/tab switches: 4 Pauses (\u226510s): 0 DOM manipulations: 0 You fai", "context": "", "use_case": "simulating human typing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I'm building an AI-proof writing tool. How would you defeat it?"}, {"id": 736237666, "item_id": 46014854, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46014854", "by": "clemens3", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "xdotool is kind of the best we have", "excerpt": "I am surprised, 87 comments and so far nobody has mentioned X11Libre. They claim 30 developers right now. Don't know if true and if they are any good, but when the time comes to update my xserver, I will have a look at them - just to show my support. Ah aeh, Wayland, it too got pitched to me recently. But I don't see it improves on any use case I have, but actively disables functionality I need. So a big no go and pa", "context": "", "use_case": "GUI automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure"}, {"id": 736025954, "item_id": 46001622, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46001622", "by": "ziotom78", "date": "2025-11-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The possibility to use automation scripts using something as close as possible to xdotool", "excerpt": "Xdotool and Xmodmap are the two main reasons why, after a few months running Wayland+keyd+dotool I went back to X11. I found really hard to have the following things working at once: - Italian layout for my keyboard with heavily-customized AltGr keys for mathematical notation (in X11 it's just a matter of having a Xmodmap file) - Using Espanso for many common shortcuts like :date: (current YYYY-MM-DD date) and :pidig", "context": "", "use_case": "automation scripts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Exploring the Fragmentation of Wayland, an xdotool adventure"}]}