Espanso is a cross-platform text expander written in Rust. It “detects when you type a keyword and replaces it while you’re typing“.
Follow these instructions to install Espanso 2.3.0 for Wayland on your Debian system.
Step 1
Download Espanso v2.3.0.
$ wget -P ~/Downloads/ --show-progress https://github.com/espanso/espanso/releases/download/v2.3.0/espanso-debian-wayland-amd64.deb
Step 2
Install the required dependencies from the Debian repository.
$ sudo apt-get install --yes libwxgtk3.2-1t64 wl-clipboard
Step 3
Install espanso from the package you downloaded in Step 1.
$ sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/espanso-debian-wayland-amd64.deb
Step 4
Give espanso the permissions required for its operation.
$ sudo setcap "cap_dac_override+p" $(which espanso)
Check to see if the espanso binary was installed successfuly.
$ espanso --version
Step 5
Register espanso as a systemd service.
$ espanso service register
Launch espanso.
$ espanso start && espanso status
Step 6
GNOME desktop only: remove the conflicting default shortcut for activating the window menu.
Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > View and Customize Shortcuts > Windows > Activate the window menu > [Backspace]
Use [Alt + Space] to open Espanso’s Search bar.
All Done!
Experimental support for Wayland
Espanso has some known limitations under Wayland. Most notably, “there is currently no support for App-specific configurations”.