larrasket/emacs-liquid-glass

Source: https://github.com/larrasket/emacs-liquid-glass

#+title: Emacs Liquid Glass

This repo is a small recipe for building Emacs with a Ghostty-like macOS glass frame. It layers a local Cocoa patch on top of Homebrew =emacs-plus@31= and the community =frame-transparency= patch, then configures Emacs with the same shape as Ghostty:

#+begin_src conf background-opacity = 0.01 background-blur = macos-glass-regular #+end_src

This is not a dark overlay or a hard-coded theme. The patch adds native =NSGlassEffectView= support only.

[[file:screenshot.png]]

For the longer write-up, see [[https://lr0.org/blog/p/emacs-apple-glass/][the blog post]].

• What This Builds :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: what-this-builds :END:

The recipe uses the =emacs-plus@31= formula, not the =emacs-plus-app= cask. The cask ships a prebuilt binary and ignores =~/.config/emacs-plus/build.yml=, so it cannot apply local patches.

The build applies two patches, in order:

1. =frame-transparency= from =d12frosted/emacs-plus=
2. =patches/ns-glass-effect.patch= from this repo

The local patch adds these frame parameters:

| Parameter | Purpose | |—————————+––––––––––––––––––––––––––| | =ns-glass-material= | Native material, currently =regular=, =clear=, or =nil=. | | =ns-glass-tint-opacity= | Theme-owned tint opacity over the glass view. | | =ns-glass-saturation= | Saturation multiplier for the glass tint. | | =ns-glass-inactive-opacity= | Optional opacity when the frame is inactive. | | =ns-glass-corner-radius= | Optional corner radius for the glass view. | | =ns-alpha-glyphs-alpha= | Separate alpha for real glyph backgrounds. |

The last parameter is what makes =alpha-background= values near =0= usable. Without it, =hl-line=, regions, and completion selections disappear with the frame background.

• Quick Start :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: quick-start :END:

Install from your tap:

#+begin_src sh brew tap larrasket/emacs-liquid-glass https://github.com/larrasket/emacs-liquid-glass.git brew emacs-liquid-glass install #+end_src

Skip copying the rebuilt app bundle into =/Applications=:

#+begin_src sh brew emacs-liquid-glass install –no-copy-app #+end_src

Direct clone usage also works:

#+begin_src sh git clone https://github.com/larrasket/emacs-liquid-glass cd emacs-liquid-glass ./install.sh #+end_src

Use =./install.sh –no-copy-app= if you do not want it to update =/Applications/Emacs.app= and =/Applications/Emacs Client.app=.

• Manual Build :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: manual-build :END:

Copy the patch and build config:

#+begin_src sh mkdir -p ~/.config/emacs-plus cp patches/ns-glass-effect.patch ~/.config/emacs-plus/ns-glass-effect.patch cp config/build.yml ~/.config/emacs-plus/build.yml #+end_src

Build Emacs from source:

#+begin_src sh brew tap d12frosted/emacs-plus HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 brew reinstall emacs-plus@31 –build-from-source brew postinstall d12frosted/emacs-plus/emacs-plus@31 #+end_src

Copy the app bundles used by Spotlight and =/opt/homebrew/bin/emacs=:

#+begin_src sh rsync -a –delete /opt/homebrew/opt/emacs-plus@31/Emacs.app/ /Applications/Emacs.app/ rsync -a –delete “/opt/homebrew/opt/emacs-plus@31/Emacs Client.app/” “/Applications/Emacs Client.app/” #+end_src

• Emacs Config :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: emacs-config :END:

Load =lisp/lr-macos-glass.el= from your Emacs config. If this repo is installed as a Homebrew tap, you can find its path with:

#+begin_src sh brew emacs-liquid-glass path #+end_src

Example:

#+begin_src elisp (add-to-list ’load-path “/path/to/emacs-liquid-glass/lisp”) (require ’lr-macos-glass) #+end_src

The regular preset currently uses:

#+begin_src elisp (setq salih/glass-style ’macos-glass-regular salih/alpha-background 0.01 salih/ns-background-blur 0 salih/ns-alpha-glyphs-min-alpha 0.24 salih/ns-glass-material ’regular salih/ns-glass-tint-opacity 0.05 salih/ns-glass-saturation 1.9 salih/ns-glass-inactive-opacity 0.05 salih/ns-glass-corner-radius 2 salih/ns-transparent-titlebar t) #+end_src

Interactive commands:

| Command | Effect | |———————————+———————————————————–| | =M-x salih/set-glass-style= | Switch between =macos-glass-regular= and =macos-glass-clear=. | | =M-x salih/set-glass= | Set frame alpha and CGS blur. | | =M-x salih/set-glass-glyph-alpha= | Set highlight/selection glyph background alpha. | | =M-x salih/toggle-glass= | Toggle between the glass frame and an opaque frame. |

If you set =salih/alpha-background= to =0=, keep =salih/ns-alpha-glyphs-min-alpha= above =0= if you still want =hl-line=, regions, and completion selections to be visible.

• Verification :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: verification :END:

If you find issue, please first check that the installed binary contains the new frame parameters:

#+begin_src sh strings /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs
| rg ‘ns-alpha-glyphs-alpha|ns-glass-material|ns-glass-saturation’ #+end_src

If =emacs= reports an invalid =ns-glass-*= value, you are probably running an older build than the app bundle you just compiled. Fully quit GUI Emacs, restart the daemon if you use one, and make sure =/Applications/Emacs.app= was copied from =/opt/homebrew/opt/emacs-plus@31/Emacs.app=.

• Notes :PROPERTIES: :CUSTOM_ID: notes :END:

This has been tested on macOS with Homebrew =emacs-plus@31=. It should not be expected to work on GNU/Linux, Windows, terminal Emacs, or the prebuilt =emacs-plus-app= cask.