Nemo Action Bar

A fast, configurable GTK power bar with 18 native Nemo file-manager actions.

_{18 native Nemo actions, one focused bar, and a faster path through every folder.}

The current default layout in a real Nemo window, together with Nemo's original toolbar and the active-window highlight:

What it provides

• 18 direct actions for folders, clipboard operations, undo/redo, selection, views, paths, terminal/admin access, favorites, archives and the trash.
• 14 useful buttons enabled by default; powerful or situational actions remain one JSON switch away.
• Live configuration reload in open Nemo windows.
• Native Nemo actions, selection rules, dialogs and file operations.
• Theme-compatible GTK icons and a compact layout that stays out of the way.

All 18 available actions enabled:

The complete layout in a real Nemo window, together with Nemo's original toolbar and the active-window highlight:

Nemo does not expose a public hook for third-party buttons in its built-in toolbar. This extension therefore uses Nemo's supported Python LocationWidgetProvider interface and places a native GTK bar immediately above the directory view. Each button activates an allowlisted Nemo GtkAction or a known keyboard accelerator. File selection, capability checks, confirmation dialogs and file operations therefore remain under Nemo's control. No configurable shell commands are executed.

The bar is intentionally omitted from Nemo's desktop surface. Opening the actual Desktop folder in a regular Nemo window still shows it normally.

Requirements and installation

• Nemo 5 or newer
• nemo-python
• GTK 3 Python introspection bindings
• Optional: nemo-fileroller for Create archive and Extract here

git clone https://github.com/ClaudiuSchuster/nemo-action-bar.git
cd nemo-action-bar
./install.sh

Then close every Nemo window and start Nemo again. Existing user configuration is preserved during updates. To install a later version, run git pull in the checkout followed by ./install.sh again.

Configuration

The default configuration is installed only when ~/.config/nemo-action-bar/buttons.json does not yet exist. Valid changes are picked up live by open Nemo windows. A button consists of an ID, a label, an installed GTK icon name and one of the supported action IDs:

{
  "id": "duplicate",
  "label": "Duplicate",
  "icon": "nemo-action-bar-duplicate-symbolic",
  "action": "duplicate"
}

English is the default language for labels and runtime messages. Labels remain plain configuration values, so a personal buttons.json can translate or rename them without changing the extension.

Use { "type": "separator" } for a separator or "enabled": false to hide an entry temporarily. Shortcut-only entries from earlier releases remain supported; their shortcut must be a valid GTK accelerator. Arbitrary command lines are intentionally not supported.

Supported actions

Action ID	Behavior
new-folder	Create and immediately name a folder
cut, copy, paste	Nemo's native clipboard operations
duplicate, rename, trash	Operate on the current selection
undo, redo	Nemo's file-operation history
properties, select-all	Properties or full selection
show-hidden	Toggle hidden files for the current window
copy-path	Put selected local paths/URIs on the clipboard as plain text
open-terminal	Open Nemo's configured terminal at the selected/current folder
open-admin	Use Nemo's built-in “Open as Root” action and authentication dialog
favorite-toggle	Add or remove the selection according to its current state
archive-create	Open File Roller's archive-creation dialog (nemo-fileroller)
archive-extract	Extract the selected supported archive here (nemo-fileroller)

The shipped open-admin, favorite-toggle, archive-create and archive-extract entries use "enabled": false. Change the desired values to true in your personal JSON to show those buttons without restarting Nemo.

The screenshots deliberately show the complete layout with all available actions. Copy buttons.json from the repository over your personal configuration if you want to adopt the current defaults after an update.

Uninstall

Run ./uninstall.sh. The user configuration is deliberately retained and can be removed separately if it is no longer needed. Restart Nemo afterwards.

Development

make check

The checks compile the Python extension, validate the shipped and fallback button configurations, parse JSON and run ShellCheck. Every push and pull request runs the same validation in GitHub Actions.

Cinnamon Spices status

This project is a Nemo Python UI extension, not a Cinnamon desktop extension and not a declarative Nemo context-menu Action. It therefore does not fit the Cinnamon Extensions or Cinnamon Actions download categories in their current form. Community distribution can use this repository, a distro package, or an upstream proposal to Nemo/nemo-extensions.

Licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.