0.9 betaJade Shell · for GNOME 50

The GNOME you already have, redrawn.

22 themes that re-color everything, a magnifying dock and a redrawn top bar, on the stock GNOME you already run. One install, everything undoable. No new OS, no tiling window manager to learn.

$ curl -fsSL https://jadeshell.app/install | bash
Tested on Fedora 44 and Ubuntu 26.04 Themes from Omarchy Watch the demo GitHub Release notes

Every theme, on eight real screens

Click to switch theme · hold to riffle Real screenshots · ← → keys
Osaka Jade
Current theme
14 / 21
Dark
Screenkeeps the theme
Every themejump to one
Demo · screen recording

The real thing, recorded on a real desktop.

No mockups. The dock magnifying under the pointer, three theme switches from the picker, menus opening along the top bar, then the Jade Menu.

RecordingFedora 44 · GNOME 50
Speed · measured, not estimated

Measured in frames.

11.0ms

p95 to the first painted frame of any top-bar menu. That is under two frames at 180 Hz, where one frame is 5.6 ms.

Percentiles, not best runs: p75 and p95 show the slow opens too. The whole desktop re-colors in a quarter of a second, and the dock does its work in a sliver of each frame.

Jade Shell
RTX 3060 Ti · 180 Hz · GNOME 50 · Fedora 44
Idle cost: nothing measurable
180 Hz5.6 ms a frame
Menus
open to first frame · n=80
6.6 msp50
01 frame23
Theme switch
click to whole desktop repainted · n=19
253 msp50
0300600 ms
Unlock
password accepted to desktop · n=12
26.6 msp50
02550 ms
Dock
work per frame while magnifying
0 / 360frames dropped
05.6 ms = one frame
First menu open after login25–46 ms (was 71)
Theme switch before this releasep50 505 · p95 535 ms
Soak test80 switches · 400 opens · 18 lock cycles · no memory growth
How this was measured
Menus
Top-bar menu opens and hover-switches, time to first painted frame. 80 samples.
Theme switch
Click to fully repainted Shell: top bar, menus, dock, wallpaper, lock screen. 19 samples.
Unlock
Password accepted to desktop drawn. 12 samples.
Dock
Work per frame while magnifying: median 0.087 ms, p95 0.169 ms; 0 of 360 frames dropped.
Idle
CPU cost at idle, Jade on vs off, over 60 s: 0 measurable.

Measured in Jade Shell’s own test harness on a desktop GPU (NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti) driving a 180 Hz display: one frame = 5.6 ms. GNOME 50, Fedora 44, 25 Sep 2026. One machine; your numbers will differ.

Features · one desktop, one family

A redrawn Shell, on the GNOME you keep.

Everything below lives in GNOME Shell itself: no new session, no replacement window manager. Turn any part off in the Jade Shell app.

Theme picker

22 themes, dark and light. One click re-colors all of it.

Click the palette in the top bar or press Super+Ctrl+Shift+Space. The menu stays open while you try themes, and each one keeps the wallpaper you last gave it.

GNOME ShellGNOME appsPtyxisKittyGhosttyAlacrittyVS CodeNeovimObsidiantmuxbtopStarshipVicinaeClaude CodeTahoe icons
The theme picker open: wallpaper previews of all 22 themes, Osaka Jade selected
The dock

Magnification, genie, bounces. At 180 Hz.

Jade Shell’s dock on frosted glass, apps past a separator on the right
  • Icons grow under the pointer, a label names each one, running apps get a dot. The dock on this page works the same way.
  • Windows pour into their icon when minimized; an app bounces until its window is up.
  • Drawn on frosted glass in the theme’s colors, moved by GPU transforms: 0.09 ms of work per frame.
The top bar

A redrawn bar, one icon family.

  • 148 original icons, GNOME’s status icons included, all on the same rhythm.
  • Numbered workspaces replace Activities, as in Omarchy’s Quattro bar. Weather sits by the clock, no Weather app needed.
  • Claude and Codex usage as one icon, with Omarchy’s usage panel as its menu.
Jade MenuSuper+Alt+Space

A keyboard menu for everything: apps, capture, toggles, style, setup, system. Type to search it all.

Clipboard historySuper+Ctrl+V

Text and images, newest first, searchable. Memory only, and never what a password manager marks secret.

Screenshot cardPrint

A card in the corner: Edit, Text (copies the words in it), Pin (keeps it above your windows), Files.

Color pickerSuper+Print

Copies #rrggbb. Capture also has Copy Text from Screen and Read QR Code.

Network panelSuper+Ctrl+W

Signal, ping, DNS. Test Speed on demand, Share Wi-Fi as a QR code a phone joins from.

NotificationsSuper+V

Behind a bell, in a panel of their own, with Do Not Disturb and Clear at the top.

Shortcut sheetSuper+K

Every shortcut on this desktop, Jade’s, GNOME’s and yours, in one searchable sheet.

Frosted glassToggles

Top bar, menus, dialogs and the screenshot card blur what is behind them, tinted by the theme.

Omarchy keymapoptional

Omarchy’s keys on GNOME’s own shortcuts. Every key is saved first; jade keys revert puts them back.

System monitortop bar

CPU, memory, GPU and temperature from /proc and sysfs. Never polls the GPU on battery.

Undo · nothing is a one-way door

Try it. Your desktop comes back exactly.

Every switch saves what it will change before it changes it. Edits you made to a config since are kept.

Saved before every switchThe 30 most recent switches are kept, plus the state from before your first.
Checked against SHA256SUMSThe package is verified before anything is installed.
Updates the normal wayThrough dnf, apt or GNOME Software.
Community themes can’t run codeOnly their colors, wallpapers and a preview are kept. Scripts never run.
Install · one line

Paste it, log out, log back in.

Run it as your desktop user. It fetches the latest .rpm or .deb, checks it, installs it with dnf or apt, then sets up Osaka Jade.

kitty — ~
~ › curl -fsSL https://jadeshell.app/install | bash
# jadeshell.app/install is install.sh on GitHub: read it first if you like. # then log out and back in once. The Welcome page opens: # pick a theme, glass, icons, the keymap and your weather city. OS: Fedora Linux 44 or Ubuntu 26.04 Desktop: GNOME 50 Remove: the same line with bash -s -- --uninstall
Before you run it
Status0.9 beta
GNOME50 only
Tested onFedora 44, Ubuntu 26.04
Atomic desktopsnot yet

Setup turns off extensions that do the same jobs (it names each one) and hands the dock to Jade’s. jade restore turns them back on.

github.com/parvezrob/jade-shell