Remap Capslock to Control (when held) and Esc (when pressed)

[jondkinney]

Here’s the short, copy-pasteable way to get Caps Lock = Control when held, Escape when tapped using keyd on Arch (works on Omarchy.

1) Install keyd

sudo pacman -S keyd
# (If it's not found: yay -S keyd)

2) Create the keyd config

sudo mkdir -p /etc/keyd
sudo tee /etc/keyd/default.conf >/dev/null <<'EOF'
[ids]
*

[main]
# CapsLock acts as Escape on tap, Control on hold
capslock = overload(control, esc)

# (Optional) Map physical Esc to `pause` key so we can later remap it to the XCompose key in `~/.config/hypr/input.conf`
esc = pause
EOF

3) Enable and start keyd

sudo systemctl enable --now keyd

4) Tell Hyprland to use Pause as Compose

Edit ~/.config/hypr/input.conf:

Change the current kb_options to the following:

kb_options = compose:paus

Reload Hyprland:

hyprctl reload

5) Verify

• Tap Caps → sends Esc (e.g., exits insert mode in Vim).
• Hold Caps + key → behaves like Ctrl (e.g., Caps+f → Ctrl+f).
• Press Esc (now Compose), then ' then a → should produce á (example Compose sequence).

6) Edit later

Change /etc/keyd/default.conf, then:

sudo systemctl restart keyd

[soltauryan]

Worked like a charm. Thank you!

[gradientsearch]

My pinky finger thanks you 🙏

[goldncodes369]

This worked great thank you even better that expected thanks for the hold = ctrl that is awesome

[Metsker]

For anyone who just wants to rebind caps to esc, you can do it in your ~/.config/hypr/input.conf file without any dependencies as simple as that:

kb_options = caps:escape

[jnskender]

Thanks! I ended up using kb_options = caps:swapescape in case someone wants to maintain their caps lock capability

[crisecheverria]

Thanks for this

[lukepighetti]

add the following to ~/.config/hypr/input.lua

 hl.config({
   input = {
     -- Map caps lock to control
     kb_options = "ctrl:nocaps",
   },
 })

[jacob-fm]

update for Quattro:
since we're using input.lua instead of input.conf, kb_options = compose:pause becomes kb_options = "compose:pause",

Also, if you're using a logitech mouse and OpenLogi to manage it, you may notice the scroll wheel stops working after doing this. This is at the moment a known quirk of keyd - since we're using a wildcard in the [ids] section of keyd.conf, it's grabbing everything including your mouse. To blacklist your mouse specifically from keyd:

1. Get your mouse id: run sudo journalctl -u keyd | grep DEVICE:
2. find the line matching the malfunctioning device (if you're using OpenLogi as in my case, it will be labeled "OpenLogi virtual mouse"
3. under the * in /etc/keyd/default.conf write -<first 8 digits of the id including semicolon>. For example, if your mouse had the id "1234:5678:7ae97778", your line would read -1234:5678
4. run sudo keyd reload