nextmeeting: Calendar Widget for Waybar and Polybar

Overview

nextmeeting is a simple CLI tool that leverages gcalcli to display your upcoming meetings in bars, terminals, and other scripts.

It goes beyond basic gcalcli output:

• Integrates with status bars like Waybar and Polybar.
• Displays dates in natural English ("tomorrow", "next Monday") instead of raw timestamps.
• Shows time-to-meeting countdowns and changes color when events are imminent.
• Provides clickable hyperlinks in the default terminal view.
• Sends configurable notifications via notify-send.
• Truncates long meeting titles for tighter layouts.
• Excludes next-day events when you only care about today.
• Queries CalDAV-compatible calendars with the --caldav-* flags.

Screenshot

Installation

Use pip with:

pip install -U nextmeeting

Alternatively, if you prefer to run from source, you can use uv (recommended) or install dependencies manually.

Using uv (recommended)

First, install uv by following the instructions uv installation guide. Then, clone this repository and run:

uv run nextmeeting

Manual Installation

If you don't want to use uv, install the dependencies manually from PyPI or your operating system's package manager:

• python-dateutil
• gcalcli
• caldav (required when you use the --caldav-* options)

Then install nextmeeting itself:

pip install nextmeeting

After installing dependencies, you can run the nextmeeting script directly:

python3 src/nextmeeting/cli.py

You can also copy src/nextmeeting/cli.py to your system's PATH for convenience.

AUR

yay -S nextmeeting

NixOS

For Nix users, the repository includes ready-to-use flake inputs and a Home-Manager module. Expand below for details.

nextmeeting = {
  url = "github:chmouel/nextmeeting?dir=packaging";
  inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};

let 
  nextmeeting = lib.getExe inputs.nextmeeting.packages.${pkgs.system}.default;
in
{
  "custom/agenda" = {
      format = "{}";
      exec = nextmeeting + "--max-title-length 30 --waybar";
      on-click = nextmeeting + "--open-meet-url";
      interval = 59;
      return-type = "json";
      tooltip = true;
  };
}

Prerequisites

• Install gcalcli.
• Set up the Google OAuth integration so gcalcli can read your calendar.

Quick Start

Run uv sync once, then display upcoming meetings:

uv run nextmeeting

If no meetings show up, specify a calendar with --calendar=CALENDAR. Explore nextmeeting --help for every option.

Working with other calendar servers

Point nextmeeting straight at a CalDAV-compatible server when you do not want to rely on gcalcli:

nextmeeting \
  --caldav-url https://example.com/dav/calendars/user/work/ \
  --caldav-username user \
  --caldav-password secret

Every filter and output mode still applies. If your server exposes several collections, pass --caldav-calendar with the specific collection URL. For basic-auth deployments the username and password flags are enough; for token auth just put the token in --caldav-password.

The fetch window defaults to “12 hours back, 48 hours ahead”. Tune it with:

• --caldav-lookbehind-hours to include ongoing meetings that started up to N hours ago (default 12).
• --caldav-lookahead-hours to look N hours into the future (default 48).

To avoid typing the flags each time, drop them in your config file:

[nextmeeting]
caldav-url = "https://example.com/dav/calendars/user/work/"
caldav-username = "user"
caldav-password = "secret"
today-only = true

If a request fails, rerun with -v (or --debug) to see the full traceback and the endpoints that were attempted.

JSON output

If you need machine-readable output outside Waybar, use --json to print the same JSON shape as --waybar (keys like text, tooltip, and optional class). This is useful for other bars or scripts:

nextmeeting --json

Configuration file

You can set defaults in a TOML file. By default, ~/.config/nextmeeting/config.toml is loaded if present, or you can point to a custom file with --config.

Command-line flags map directly to keys in the [nextmeeting] table: remove the leading -- and keep hyphen separators (--max-title-length → max-title-length). Both hyphens and underscores work in configuration keys (caldav-url and caldav_url are equivalent).

Example ~/.config/nextmeeting/config.toml:

[nextmeeting]
calendar = "Work"
max-title-length = 30
today-only = true
include-title = ["standup", "1:1"]
exclude-title = ["OOO"]
notify-min-before-events = 5
notify-offsets = [15, 5]
privacy = false

CLI flags always override config values.

Event caching

Reduce calls to gcalcli by caching its raw output for a short period:

nextmeeting --cache-events-ttl 2   # cache for 2 minutes

Polybar output

For Polybar, print a single-line text with the next meeting:

nextmeeting --polybar

It uses the same formatting and filters as other modes and respects --max-title-length.

Custom formatting

You can customize how each line is rendered using templates. Available placeholders: {when}, {title}, {start_time}, {end_time}, {meet_url}, {calendar_url}, {minutes_until}, {is_all_day}, {is_ongoing}.

# Single-line formatting (TTY, Polybar, and Waybar text)
nextmeeting --format "{when} • {title}"

# Waybar tooltip formatting (applies to the tooltip only)
nextmeeting --waybar --tooltip-format "{start_time:%H:%M}-{end_time:%H:%M} · {title}"

Use 12-hour timestamps for absolute times:

nextmeeting --time-format 12h

Showing multiple items

Limit the number of meetings shown in list-style outputs (TTY and Waybar tooltip):

nextmeeting --limit 3

Title filters

You can include or exclude meetings based on title substrings (case-insensitive):

# Only include meetings containing either "standup" or "1:1"
nextmeeting --include-title standup --include-title "1:1"

# Exclude meetings containing "OOO" or "holiday"
nextmeeting --exclude-title ooo --exclude-title holiday

Filters apply across modes (TTY, --json, --waybar).

You can also restrict to working hours by start time:

nextmeeting --work-hours 09:00-18:00

Filter by calendar using substrings of the event URL (useful when you have multiple accounts/calendars):

nextmeeting --include-calendar "primary" --exclude-calendar "personal"

Privacy mode

Redact meeting titles to a static label to avoid leaking details:

nextmeeting --privacy               # titles become "Busy"
nextmeeting --privacy --privacy-title "Busy 🗓️"

Unicode titles like the emoji example work fine, but sticking to ASCII keeps the output consistent across limited fonts.

Quick actions

• Open the next meeting URL

  nextmeeting --open-meet-url
  

• Copy the next meeting URL to the clipboard (tries wl-copy, xclip, or pbcopy; falls back to printing)

  nextmeeting --copy-meeting-url
  

• Open the Google Calendar day view for the next meeting (respects --google-domain if set)

  nextmeeting --open-calendar-day
  

Waybar

A more interesting use case for nextmeeting is its integration with Waybar, allowing for a clean output on your desktop. For example, my configuration looks like this:

    "custom/agenda": {
        "format": "{}",
        "exec": "nextmeeting --max-title-length 30 --waybar",
        "on-click": "nextmeeting --open-meet-url",
        "on-click-right": "kitty -- /bin/bash -c \"batz;echo;cal -3;echo;nextmeeting;read;\"",
        "interval": 59,
        "return-type": "json",
        "tooltip": "true"
    },

This configuration displays the time remaining until my next meeting. Clicking the item opens the meeting's URL. A right-click launches a kitty terminal to show time zones using batz and my next meeting. I can also click on the meeting title within the terminal to open its URL.

Styling

You can style the Waybar item using the following CSS:

#custom-agenda {
  color: #696969;
}

If you enable the --notify-min-before-events option, nextmeeting will output a soon class when an event is approaching, allowing you to style it with:

#custom-agenda.soon {
  color: #eb4d4b;
}

Notifications

• Choose how many minutes before a meeting to trigger the built-in notification and the soon CSS class with --notify-min-before-events (default 5).

• Add extra reminder offsets with --notify-offsets (repeatable or comma separated):

  nextmeeting --notify-offsets 15 --notify-offsets 5   # 15 and 5 minutes
  nextmeeting --notify-offsets 20,10,5                 # CSV variant
  

• Customize the highlighted countdown in Waybar with --notify-min-color and --notify-min-color-foreground.

• Control notification urgency with --notify-urgency low|normal|critical.

• Snooze all notifications and exit:

  nextmeeting --snooze 30    # minutes
  

• Send a once-per-day morning agenda near a specific time (±2 minutes window):

  nextmeeting --morning-agenda 09:00
  

Related

• For GNOME users, gnome-next-meeting-applet provides similar information inside the desktop shell if you prefer an applet over a status bar widget but the project has been discontinued.

Copyright

Apache-2.0

Authors

• Chmouel Boudjnah https://github.com/chmouel
  • Fediverse - <@chmouel@fosstodon.org>
  • Twitter - <@chmouel>
  • Blog - <https://blog.chmouel.com>