Marquee

Marquee is a free, source-available Windows replacement for Lian Li's L-Connect for the 8.8" Universal Screen and its LED ring. Make themes in a visual editor or in YAML, showing hardware sensors, game FPS and AI-agent usage from Claude Code and Codex. L-Connect can keep managing your fans, pump and other RGB devices.

Install

Open the latest release, download Marquee-<version>-x64.msi and run it. It's the only file you need: the release's other files (signatures, checksums, a standalone marquee zip, and GitHub's "Source code") are optional. It installs for every user and asks for administrator rights once; the .NET runtime is included.

The MSI has no Authenticode signature yet, so an "unknown publisher" prompt from Windows is expected. If SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway. The separate signature used to verify Marquee updates is explained below.

The installer adds:

• The tray app and Marquee Theme Editor to C:\Program Files\Marquee, with Start menu shortcuts.
• The marquee command to the system PATH, available in a new terminal.
• A logon task, \Marquee\Marquee, that starts the tray at sign-in with the highest rights your account has.
• An administrator-only data and update folder under %ProgramData%\Marquee (see Logs).

The tray starts after installation. Choose Themes and Orientation in its menu; without settings it shows example-landscape. Game FPS and the L-Connect handover need administrator rights, which the logon task supplies for administrator accounts (see Without administrator rights).

Installing a newer MSI upgrades in place and keeps your settings and themes. Uninstall from Settings → Apps: Marquee closes the trays and removes the program, shortcuts, PATH entry, logon task and downloaded updates. Your %LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee settings and themes, and per-user logs and data under %ProgramData%\Marquee\users\<SID>, remain so you can reinstall without losing them.

L-Connect and the screen

Closing L-Connect's window doesn't free the screen; its background service keeps it open. Choose Take over the screen from L-Connect in Marquee's tray menu to use the screen while L-Connect keeps managing your fans and RGB. Taking over needs administrator rights; see Sharing the screen with L-Connect for setup and handover details.

Making a theme

Choose New theme… in the tray or editor to start from Blank, Gaming stats or System monitor, or Open one of yours on the start screen to open a theme folder. Add opens the module gallery and Add layer ▾ opens the background gallery, both with live previews; select an item on the canvas to change what it shows, its colour and size in the plain-language Properties panel. Follow the theme guide to make your first theme and use Show on screen to select it for the running tray.

Updates

With a release key built in, the tray looks for a newer Marquee once a day, the first time 5 minutes after it starts, and remembers when it last looked (last-update-check.txt in its data folder), so restarting the PC doesn't make it look again. That check is the only automatic outbound HTTP request made directly by Marquee: one unauthenticated GitHub Releases API call, GET https://api.github.com/repos/madjagstudio/marquee/releases/latest, with no account and no cookies. All it sends about you is what any request does (your IP address) and a User-Agent header saying Marquee/<version>, which GitHub requires. If the check fails, nothing else is affected, and it tries again the next day.

Manual checks and the installer/signature downloads you request also use the network. Separately, the Claude usage provider runs the installed Claude CLI's /usage command, which can contact Anthropic; turn that polling off with providers: { claude_usage: off }. Local sensor readings and Codex log reading need no outbound request.

updates: off in config.yaml turns the daily check off. "Check for updates" in the tray's menu still checks when you click it, whatever updates: says, and says what it found.

A newer version shows as a balloon and as "Install Marquee …" in the menu. Nothing is downloaded until you click one. Then the tray downloads the installer and its signature from the GitHub release into %ProgramData%\Marquee\updates, a folder only administrators can change, with its progress in the status line. It checks the signature against the public key built into Marquee, and only then runs the installer. A missing or wrong signature means nothing is installed, and the log says why. How releases are signed is in docs/releasing.md.

While the installer runs, the tray pauses: the screen and the ring go dark. The installer closes the tray, replaces Marquee's files and starts the new tray. If the update doesn't install (you cancel it, another installation is under way, or it fails and rolls back), the screen comes back and a balloon gives the installer's exit code and its log, %ProgramData%\Marquee\updates\Marquee-<version>-x64.msi.log. The offer stays in the menu, to try again. The next download replaces that log, and uninstalling removes it.

A tray without administrator rights can't install an update: its offer opens the release's page instead, to download and run the installer from there. A development build with the placeholder in place of the release key (see docs/releasing.md) never checks or installs anything: "Check for updates" points to the releases page.

How Marquee differs

Marquee draws the screen itself. L-Connect manages Lian Li hardware as well as its screens; LianliThemeEditor edits themes for L-Connect, which still displays them. This comparison is for the 8.8" screen, at the time of writing; "not verified" means we haven't established support, not that a feature is absent.

	Marquee	L-Connect 3	LianliThemeEditor
Theme format	layout.yaml plus local assets	L-Connect templates	L-Connect .template, .turtheme and compatible ZIP exports
Editor	Visual canvas, module/background galleries and YAML editing	Built-in screen/theme editor	Layer editing, grouping, undo/redo and recovery snapshots
Sensors	LibreHardwareMonitor or HWiNFO; custom values from scripts	Built-in hardware readings	L-Connect sensor data layers
Game FPS	PresentMon: FPS, frame time, 1% low and app name	An FPS sensor for 8.8" modular assets, off by default; no 1% low	Available sensor choices depend on L-Connect; FPS not verified here
AI-agent usage	Claude Code and Codex limits and sessions	None in its screen guide or changelog	None in its README or sensor labels
Screen LED ring	Theme-driven effects and rules, or a fixed colour/off	Screen lighting controls	Managed through L-Connect; independent ring control not verified
Licence	Source-available, free for personal and noncommercial use; see licence	No public source identified at the time of writing	Source on GitHub; no open-source licence identified at the time of writing
Price	Free	Free download	Free download (an MSI on its GitHub releases)

Sources: Lian Li's screen guide, L-Connect downloads, L-Connect's FPS changelog, LianliThemeEditor's README, releases and editor sensor labels.

Built with AI agents

Marquee is built by a small studio working with AI coding agents (Claude, Codex); changes go through review and testing before release.

Command line

marquee devices
marquee show-image <file> [--orientation portrait|portrait-flipped|landscape|landscape-flipped] [--brightness 0-100] [--repeat N] [--sink <folder>]
marquee sensors [--sensors lhm|hwinfo|none] [--no-claude-usage] [--raw | --keys-only] [--primary-only] [--config <file>]
marquee run [<theme-folder>] [--orientation ...] [--fps 1-60] [--sensors lhm|hwinfo|none] [--preview] [--sink <folder>] [--frames N]
            [--http-port 1024-65535 | --no-http] [--no-claude-usage] [--no-fps] [--config <file>]
marquee validate <theme-folder|zip> [--fps 1-60]
marquee edit [<theme-folder>]   (opens the theme editor; see Theme editor)
marquee push <key> <value> [--ttl 30s|5m|2h] [--port 1024-65535] [--config <file>]
marquee setup-claude [--undo] [--dry-run]
marquee task install [--tray <file>] | remove [--updates] | status | start [--user <SID>] | stop
marquee claim-screen      (in an administrator terminal; see Sharing the screen with L-Connect)
marquee statusline        (Claude Code runs this; see setup-claude)
MarqueeTray.exe           (the tray; see The tray)

Settings not given on the command line come from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee\config.yaml, or the file --config names (see Settings); a --sink run reads only the file --config names.

marquee run themes/example-landscape --preview shows a theme on the screen and in a preview window (press 1 for 1:1). Edit layout.yaml and save: the screen updates within a second. If the file has a mistake, the last good layout stays on screen and the error, with its line number, shows in the console and the preview. --sink <folder> writes PNG frames instead of using the screen, and keeps writing them until stopped (Ctrl+C) unless --frames N is given; --frames N renders N frames and exits. marquee run without a folder shows the theme set in config.yaml.

A --sink run is for tests and for looking at a theme, and often runs beside the tray, so it keeps out of your setup: it reads no config.yaml unless --config names one (so it needs a theme folder, and its frames are landscape unless --orientation says otherwise), and it neither shows nor saves the last Claude Code limits. It still logs, like any marquee run.

The command line's, the tray's, the preview's and the theme editor's messages are in resource files that can be translated; docs/localization.md says how to add a language.

The logon task

marquee task looks after the logon task, \Marquee\Marquee in Task Scheduler, that starts the tray. The installer runs it, so it is seldom needed by hand. All but status need an administrator terminal.

• install makes the task (or replaces it): at every sign-in, for every user, it starts the MarqueeTray.exe next to marquee.exe with the highest rights that user has. It refuses a tray that isn't under Program Files, because the task gives administrator rights to whoever can change that file; --tray <file> names another one (for development), with a warning when it is outside Program Files. It also makes %ProgramData%\Marquee (see Logs).
• remove deletes the task, and its folder in Task Scheduler. --updates deletes the downloaded updates too, as uninstalling does.
• status says whether the task is installed and what it starts, and exits 0 if it is and 1 if it isn't.
• start runs the task now in your sessions, or with --user <SID> in that user's, so the tray starts as it does at sign-in. For a user whose tray is running already, that opens its menu.
• stop closes every tray running from this folder, for every user, as the installer does before it changes any files. Each is asked to quit, and one still running after a minute is ended.

Settings

marquee run and the tray read their settings from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee\config.yaml. The file is optional, and so is every key in it. Here is each key with its values; the comments give the defaults.

theme: example-agents         # a theme folder's name or path; no default
orientation: landscape        # portrait | portrait-flipped | landscape | landscape-flipped; default landscape
fps: 30                       # 1-60; default: each theme's canvas.fps
sensors: lhm                  # lhm | hwinfo | none; default lhm
http: { port: 47913 }         # port 1024-65535, or http: off; default on, port 47913
providers: { claude: on, claude_usage: on, codex: on, fps: on }   # each on or off; default on
custom: { max_keys: 1000 }    # 1-10000; default 1000
ring: theme                   # theme | off | a quoted color like "#3A7BFF"; default theme
lconnect: { handover: off }   # off | ask | auto; default off
updates: check                # check | off; default check

• theme is the theme marquee run shows when no folder is given on its command line. Without either, it says so and exits; the tray shows example-landscape instead.
• http is the local server for custom values: http: off turns it off.
• providers turns sources of values on and off: claude is the Claude Code session counts (claude.sessions.*), claude_usage the /usage poll for Claude Code's limits, codex the Codex limits and sessions, and fps the game FPS.
• custom.max_keys is how many different custom.* keys a running Marquee holds.
• ring is the screen's LED ring: theme lets each theme set it, off keeps it dark, and a color shows that color for every theme. Quote the color: an unquoted # starts a comment.
• lconnect.handover controls the L-Connect handover.
• updates: check has the tray look for a newer release once a day; updates: off turns that off. See Updates.

The tray writes theme, orientation and lconnect.handover when you pick them from its menu, changing only that setting and keeping the rest of the file, comments included.

A command-line flag wins over config.yaml, config.yaml over the theme, and the theme over the default: fps in config.yaml overrides every theme's canvas.fps, and --fps overrides both. --no-http, --http-port, --no-claude-usage and --no-fps likewise win over http and providers. Orientation is the exception: a theme never sets it (see Orientation).

A rooted value, a value with \ or / in it, or . or .., is a path, resolved relative to config.yaml's folder. Anything else is a theme name, looked for in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee\themes, then in a themes folder beside marquee.exe, then in config.yaml's folder. On the command line, paths and that last lookup are relative to the current folder.

marquee run reloads settings when you save config.yaml. It changes only the settings you edited: a theme or frame-rate change keeps the screen on, orientation reopens it, and a provider or HTTP change restarts that part. Invalid edits leave the previous settings active and log the error with its line number. At startup, an invalid file uses the defaults instead. Command-line flags still win over these settings.

If a new theme fails to load, Marquee keeps the previous settings and watches the theme. Fixing and saving it applies the waiting settings without another edit to config.yaml. If the theme can't be found, correct its name or path in config.yaml.

marquee sensors reads sensors and providers.claude_usage from config.yaml too, and marquee push reads http. --config <file> makes run, sensors and push read that file instead, to try settings out or keep several sets side by side; marquee run then watches that file. A file named that way that doesn't exist gets a warning, and the defaults are used.

The tray

MarqueeTray.exe is Marquee's tray icon. It runs what marquee run runs, with no window and no command line: its settings are config.yaml's, and what marquee run would print goes to its log. Its menu, from the top:

• The status: the theme, its frame rate and the screen, or what stops it (paused, waiting for the screen, L-Connect using it, a theme that didn't load). Under it, a line for each problem until it is fixed: an error in config.yaml or the theme, game FPS off, a source of values that is failing (LibreHardwareMonitor or PresentMon missing, claude not found, and so on), or why taking the screen from L-Connect failed. An error in config.yaml, the theme or a handover also shows as a balloon, at most once a minute for each.
• Themes and Orientation: your themes, then the installed examples, and the four orientations. Picking one writes theme: or orientation: to config.yaml, changing only that setting, then shows it.
• Open preview, Edit theme… (the theme on show in the theme editor), New theme… (the start screen), Open themes folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee\themes, made if it isn't there), Open logs and Edit settings (config.yaml in your editor; if there is none, one naming the theme on show is written first).
• Take over the screen from L-Connect and Always take over at start (see Sharing the screen with L-Connect).
• Pause lets go of the screen, so another program (L-Connect, or marquee run) can have it, and turns the ring off. Resume takes it back.
• Check for updates, or Install Marquee … once there is one (see Updates).
• About Marquee and Quit. Quit lets go of the screen, darkens the ring, saves the Claude Code limits and ends the tray until you next sign in. The Start menu's "Marquee" starts it again as signing in does: elevated through the logon task for an administrator, with a user's own rights otherwise (see below).

The first time, with no config.yaml, the tray shows example-landscape and a balloon says to pick your theme and the screen's orientation from its menu. That balloon shows once; it waits for a later start if L-Connect has the screen (the handover's offer comes first) or if config.yaml has an error (whose balloon comes instead). A config.yaml without a theme: line shows example-landscape too.

marquee run while the tray is showing the screen says so and stops: pause the tray, or quit it, first.

The logon task starts the tray as administrator, which game FPS and the L-Connect handover need. Files, folders and web pages open through Explorer with your normal rights. Logs and data use the administrator-only folder described in Logs.

If Explorer isn't running, the tray can't open files or web pages and shows a balloon instead. The tray won't write config.yaml, or make a missing folder, through a junction or symbolic link, which could send an administrator's write somewhere else. It won't edit a config.yaml that is a hard link either, since reading it as administrator could expose a file you can't otherwise read. The balloon and log explain a refused write; you can edit the file by hand. An existing themes folder that is a junction can still be opened.

Without administrator rights

For an administrator, starting Marquee from the Start menu, taskbar or Explorer while no tray is running starts it through the logon task, elevated as at logon, as long as the task is still set up as the installer left it. Otherwise, or if Task Scheduler can't be asked about the task, the tray starts with the user's own rights; when Task Scheduler refuses to start the task, the log has its reason. A user who isn't an administrator always gets a tray with their own rights. A tray without administrator rights shows themes as usual, but game FPS and the L-Connect handover are off, and its menu says why: "Game FPS is off: Marquee isn't running as administrator." and, while L-Connect has the screen, that Marquee can take it only as administrator. It can't install updates either: its update offer opens the release's page. marquee claim-screen in an administrator terminal still hands it the screen once. To have an administrator's elevated tray back, quit this one, then sign out and in again or run marquee task start in an administrator terminal. If the task was turned off or changed, run marquee task install in that terminal first: it sets the task up again as the installer does.

More than one user

Every user who signs in gets a tray of their own, with their own config.yaml, themes and folders, and one tray each: starting it again opens the running one's menu. There is one screen, though: the first tray to open it keeps it until it pauses or quits, and the others wait for it.

Sharing the screen with L-Connect

Only one program can drive the screen at a time. L-Connect 3's background service holds it, and closing the L-Connect 3 window doesn't free it. Marquee can take the screen over while L-Connect keeps running your fans and RGB: it stops L-Connect's service watcher and service, opens the screen, and starts them again straight away. L-Connect then skips the screen and goes on running everything else. The cost is a pause of a few seconds while the service is stopped, in which your fans keep their last speed and L-Connect doesn't adjust them or the RGB. Marquee waits up to 15 seconds for the watcher, then the service, to stop. It never stops another service that depends on L-Connect's: if one is running, the handover fails and L-Connect keeps the screen. Pausing or quitting Marquee during a handover (an install closing the tray included) starts L-Connect again at once, and doesn't count as a failure.

lconnect.handover in config.yaml says when Marquee does this:

• off (the default): not on its own. While L-Connect has the screen, the tray's menu still offers "Take over the screen from L-Connect". The first time L-Connect holds the screen, a user who hasn't set lconnect.handover gets the ask balloon below, once, so that they hear the handover exists. Its click takes the screen this once, and it adds: "To do this at every start, choose "Always take over at start" in Marquee's menu." Writing lconnect: { handover: off } yourself turns that balloon off too. Without the tray, the log explains the manual handover below.
• ask: whenever Marquee finds L-Connect using the screen, the tray shows a balloon: "L-Connect is using the screen. Marquee can take it over while L-Connect keeps running your fans and RGB. Click here to take over." Clicking it does.
• auto: at start, and whenever Marquee finds the screen busy again (after you unplug it, say). Failed attempts retry after 1, 2 and 5 minutes, then every 10 minutes while L-Connect's service holds the screen. Opening the screen or pausing Marquee resets that schedule. Take over the screen from L-Connect bypasses the wait. This also applies to marquee run.

The tray's "Always take over at start" item writes lconnect.handover: auto to config.yaml when you check it, and ask when you uncheck it. Checking it while L-Connect has the screen also takes the screen at once, rather than at the next time it is found busy. It shows only where L-Connect is installed, or while it is checked, so it can be turned off. "Take over the screen from L-Connect" shows only while L-Connect has the screen, in any mode, and does nothing once Marquee has it. A handover that fails says why in a balloon (with auto, that Marquee will keep trying) and in a menu line until Marquee gets the screen.

Stopping L-Connect's service takes administrator rights. The tray has them when its logon task starts it. A tray without them offers neither item, and while L-Connect has the screen its menu says why; a marquee run without them says once in its log that it can't take the screen over. marquee claim-screen, run in an administrator terminal, takes the screen once for a Marquee without those rights (a marquee run in another window, or such a tray): it stops L-Connect, waits until that Marquee has the screen (15 seconds at most), and starts L-Connect again. It does nothing when no Marquee is running, or when Marquee has the screen already.

To turn the handover off, set lconnect: { handover: off }. It changes nothing in L-Connect itself.

By hand, with the handover off:

1. Right-click L-Connect's tray icon and choose its stop-service option. Ending the service in Task Manager doesn't stick: a watcher service starts it again. Fans keep their last settings meanwhile.
2. Start Marquee (marquee run …, or Resume in the tray) and wait for the picture.
3. Start the service again from the same tray menu. L-Connect skips the screen and goes on running your fans and RGB.

While Marquee has the screen, L-Connect doesn't control it or its LED ring, and neither shows up in the L-Connect app. To give the screen back, pause or quit Marquee, then stop and start the service from the tray again.

Orientation

Pick the orientation that matches how the screen is mounted, with --orientation or orientation: in config.yaml. A vertical mount is portrait; a horizontal mount is landscape (the default). If the picture comes out upside down, use the -flipped variant. Layouts are designed at 480×1920 (portrait) or 1920×480 (landscape). A theme declares which one it was designed for; running it on the other shape prints a warning and shows it scaled down rather than stretched. The theme's shape never changes the orientation: that is how the screen is mounted, which only you know.

Themes

Start with the theme guide for the visual editor and a first YAML theme; the key reference lists the readings you can use.

A theme is a folder with a layout.yaml and any images or fonts it uses. A small example:

canvas: { orientation: landscape, fps: 30 }
styles:
  big: { size: 84, weight: bold, color: "#F4F6FA" }
  hot: { color: "#FF5A36", glow: { color: "#FF5A36", radius: 16 }, pulse: { property: glow, period: 1200 } }
background:
  - fill: { linear: ["#070A12", "#141B2E"], angle: 90 }
widgets:
  - type: value
    at: [40, 40]
    size: [300, 110]
    source: cpu.temp
    format: "{0:0}°C"
    smooth: 400
    style: big
    when:
      - { above: 85, style: hot }
      - { stale: true, style: { color: "#5A6275" } }

• Widgets: text (templates like "{gpu.load:0}% · {gpu.vram_used|bytes}"), value, bar, gauge, graph, image, video (a clip in a box), shape (a rect, ellipse, line or arc, which when rules can recolor), donut (a pie or donut of up to 12 slices), group.
• Styles: named in styles:, layered with extends:, changed by when: rules (above, below, equals, stale), animated with pulse:. Letter effects: an outline (text_stroke), a color or gradient for the letters alone (text_fill), italic, underline, strike and case (upper, lower or title).
• Background: fill (color or gradient), image, shader and video layers, each with opacity and blend; up to 16 layers, at most 4 of them shaders and 2 of them videos.
• Colors are quoted CSS hex ("#RRGGBB" or "#RRGGBBAA"): an unquoted # starts a YAML comment.
• Gradients go in fill, track, a stroke's color and fill layers: { linear: ["#000000", "#36D1DC", "#FFFFFF"], stops: [0, 0.8, 1], angle: 90 } or { radial: ["#FFFFFF60", "#00000000"], center: [0.3, 0.4], radius: 0.8 }. stops place the colors, and a radial gradient's center and radius move and size it.
• Fonts: the bundled Inter by default, an installed font by name, or a .ttf/.otf file in the theme folder. Characters the font lacks, such as Japanese with Inter, are drawn with a Windows font that has them. Those are the right letters, but Arabic letters aren't joined yet, Arabic and Hebrew run left to right, and Indic marks aren't yet moved into place. Color emoji keep their own colors, and take no glow, shadow or outline.
• Names: name (up to 64 characters) on a widget or a background layer is what the theme editor's layers list calls it; the screen ignores it.
• Times: resets_at and updated_at keys are Unix seconds and now is the current time, so "{claude.five_hour.resets_at - now|duration}" reads "2h 14m". "{now|time}" is the local short time, and "{now|time:ddd HH:mm}" or a value's format: "time:HH:mm" takes a .NET date and time pattern. Times follow the PC's time zone and regional format (day and month names, the short time, a 24-hour clock), as the taskbar clock does. Letters in a pattern are pattern letters, so quote words ("{now|time:'Today is' dddd}") and write a letter alone as %H ("{now|time:%H}"). The pattern runs to the closing brace, so spaces before the brace are kept.

A value with a smaller unit, such as a big "52" with a small "°C", is a value widget with spans instead of format. Each span has its own template and style, and they share a baseline, so the unit stays beside the number as the number's width changes. {0} is the widget's value after smooth ({0:0.0} formats it), and other placeholders still read their keys. A missing value shows a single "—" in the first span's style. The widget's style places the spans, and its when rules change every span:

- type: value
  at: [140, 500]
  size: [300, 90]
  source: cpu.temp
  smooth: 400
  style: { size: 72, color: "#F4F6FA", align: center }
  spans:
    - { text: "{0:0}" }
    - { text: "°C", style: { size: 30, color: "#36D1DC" } }
  when:
    - { above: 85, style: { color: "#FF5A36" } }

A text widget takes spans instead of text in the same way, for words in several styles; its placeholders show each reading as it comes, as a text widget's always do, since only a value widget's {0} follows smooth. A span's style sets how its letters look. The box keys (fill, stroke, radius, padding, align, wrap, line_height, opacity, blend and pulse) are the widget's: a span's own style can't set them, and a named style's are left out.

Every key, with its values and default, is in docs/themes-reference.md. VS Code completes and checks theme files once the YAML extension (Red Hat) is installed: the examples' first line, # yaml-language-server: $schema=../../docs/layout.schema.json, points it at the schema. For a copied theme, point that first line at a local copy of the schema or use the public URL:

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/madjagstudio/marquee/main/docs/layout.schema.json

See themes/example-landscape, themes/example-portrait, themes/example-agents, and themes/example-showcase with themes/example-showcase-portrait for a vertically mounted screen. The showcase includes a clock with the weekday, an outlined gradient title, a video box, a number with a small unit, shapes, dials, segmented meters, charts, a donut, wrapped text, rotation, blending, names and hidden widgets. See the theme authoring guide for the full walkthrough.

Shader backgrounds

A shader layer runs an SkSL file from the theme folder over the whole canvas. Marquee sets uniform float time (seconds), uniform float day (whole days) and uniform float2 resolution (pixels); declare only the ones a shader uses. time wraps back to 0 once a day so it stays precise, and day counts up by one at the same moment. A cycle whose period divides a day (a minute, an hour) carries on across the wrap with time alone; for any other period, add the day's offset: fract(fract(day * 86400.0 / period) + time / period). Bind any other uniform to a number or an expression, one value per component. Marquee binds floats only, so declare bound uniforms as float, float2, float3 or float4; a layer that binds an int uniform is skipped with a warning (an unbound one only gets the warning that it stays 0). A binding whose sensor is missing or stale reads as 0.

background:
  - shader: shaders/aurora.sksl
    uniforms:
      heat: "clamp(max(cpu.load, gpu.load) / 100, 0, 1)"   # float
      tint: [0.2, 0.5, "gpu.load / 100"]                 # float3
    scale: 0.5        # render at half size and stretch it up (0.1–1, default 1)
    opacity: 0.55
    blend: screen

On the screen (the tray and marquee run), shaders draw on the graphics card through OpenGL, which ships with Windows: a full-canvas starfield costs under 1 ms of CPU a frame there. Without a usable graphics card (no OpenGL driver, or only Windows' software OpenGL) or if the graphics card fails, they draw on the CPU instead, where a smooth full-canvas shader costs about 10–15 ms per frame at scale: 0.5; the log says which. The theme editor and its preview always draw shaders on the CPU. Marquee draws the next frame while the last one goes to the screen, so 30 fps holds, and it prints a warning if a theme can't keep up. A shader that takes too long would freeze the screen, so when a theme loads Marquee renders each shader layer once, on the CPU, at 1/8 of its size each way and estimates what a full frame costs. A layer whose estimate is over the frame budget (1000 ms divided by the fps, from canvas.fps or --fps) is skipped, with its estimated cost in the console and the preview; lower its scale or the fps, or simplify the shader. The budget is per layer, and the test frame runs with time, day and bound uniforms at 0. Marquee never lowers a layer's scale on its own. A shader that doesn't compile is skipped with the error in the console and the preview, and editing the .sksl file reloads the theme like editing layout.yaml.

Video backgrounds

A video layer plays a clip from the theme folder, over and over for as long as the theme shows.

background:
  - video: clips/rain.mp4
    fit: cover        # cover | contain | stretch | none, as for images (default cover)
    opacity: 0.8
    blend: screen

MP4, M4V, MOV and WMV clips go through Windows' own decoder (Media Foundation), so nothing is bundled for them. H.264 needs nothing extra; HEVC, VP9 and AV1 need Microsoft's extension for that format from the Microsoft Store. Animated GIF and WebP go through Skia. Any other extension is an error in layout.yaml, with its line.

A video widget plays a clip the same way inside a box of its own, over the style's fill and under its stroke, clipped to its radius. Its shadow is the box's, as an image widget's is, so a clip that leaves part of the box empty still casts the whole box's shadow:

- type: video
  at: [470, 130]
  size: [360, 210]
  src: video/tunnel.mp4
  fit: cover          # as for a layer (default cover)
  style: { radius: 8, stroke: { width: 2, color: "#FFFFFF40" } }

A theme can have at most 2 video layers, and at most 4 videos in all, counting its video layers and video widgets together; a hidden one isn't loaded, but it counts. A video widget's box can cover at most as many pixels as the canvas (1920×480). A clip's file can be up to 200 MB, and its frames up to 3840×2160 either way round (2160×3840 suits a portrait theme). Each clip is decoded on its own thread, a few frames ahead and scaled to the size it is drawn at, and the layer draws the frame for the current time, so drawing never waits on decoding and the clip plays at its own speed.

A clip that can't be played skips its layer, with a warning in the console and the preview that says why: the file is missing or over a limit, Windows has no decoder for its format, it is damaged, or Media Foundation isn't there at all (Windows N editions need the Media Feature Pack, from Settings > System > Optional features). When the theme loads, Marquee also times a few frames of each clip and skips one that decodes slower than it plays; a smaller clip, or one with fewer frames per second, fixes that. A clip that fails partway through stays on its last good frame, and the reason is logged once. Saving over a clip reloads the theme, like editing layout.yaml.

LED ring

The screen's ring of 60 LEDs is set by a theme's ring: block:

ring:
  color: "#3A7BFF"
  effect: breathe            # static | breathe | spin | rainbow
  speed: 1.0                 # 0.1-10
  brightness: 80             # 0-100
  source: cpu.temp
  when:
    - { above: 85, color: "#FF3A2E", effect: static }

• Effects: static is the color on every LED; breathe fades it between a fifth of the brightness and full, every 3 seconds; spin sends a bright segment with a fading tail round the ring, once every 2 seconds; rainbow spreads the hues round the ring and turns them, once every 6 seconds, ignoring color. speed: 2 is twice as fast.
• when rules work as a widget's do (above, below, equals, stale), comparing the ring's source, and change any of color, effect, speed and brightness. Every matching rule applies, in order, so a later rule wins.
• The default: a theme without a ring: block shows a soft static warm white (#FFF1E0 at 40%). A field a ring: block leaves out is static, white (#FFFFFF), speed 1 and brightness 100 instead, so ring: { color: "#3A7BFF" } shows that blue at full brightness.

ring: in config.yaml overrides every theme's ring: ring: off keeps it dark, and ring: "#3A7BFF" shows that color on every LED, static, at full brightness. An alpha byte dims it: "#3A7BFF80" is about half as bright. Saving config.yaml changes the ring at once, without restarting anything else.

Marquee updates the ring up to 30 times a second on a thread of its own, so the ring never slows the screen. A ring that fails (held by another program, say) is tried again after 2 seconds, one that isn't plugged in is looked for every 5 seconds, and a screen without one is fine. Taking the screen from L-Connect takes the ring too. The ring goes dark when Marquee pauses or quits, and so while an update installs. --sink and --frames leave it alone.

Theme editor

Open Edit theme… in the tray, Marquee Theme Editor in the Start menu, or marquee edit to edit the configured theme; marquee edit <theme or folder> opens another. New theme… opens the start screen described above. The canvas uses the same renderer as the screen; the theme guide walks through the galleries, Properties, Layers, styles, rules and test values.

layout.yaml stays the source of truth. Edits save automatically after about a second, preserving comments and unrelated formatting. Hand edits reload as one undo step; undo keeps up to 500 steps, and a recovery copy helps after a crash. Installed examples are read-only: make a copy to edit, or open one read-only to look around.

Show on screen writes the selected theme to config.yaml; a running tray follows that setting and subsequent saves. The editor runs as you and refuses to start as administrator.

Checking a theme

marquee validate themes/example-agents
marquee validate neon.zip --fps 60
marquee validate my-theme

A bare name is looked up where marquee run looks for one (see Settings). marquee validate loads a theme the way marquee run does, but it lists every problem instead of stopping at the first: each independent mistake in layout.yaml with its line; images, fonts, shaders and clips that are missing or can't be used; shaders that don't compile or are over the frame budget (at --fps if given, otherwise the theme's canvas.fps); clips that can't be decoded or can't keep up; files over the limits below; and symbolic links or junctions, which it doesn't follow. Anything marquee run would skip is an error. Anything it works around, such as a font that isn't installed or a shader uniform left unbound, is a warning. It needs no screen and no config.yaml.

It prints one problem a line, sorted by file and then line, and ends with the theme's name, the orientation and size it is designed for, and the counts:

layout.yaml:4: error: fill: 'nope' is not a color. Use "#RRGGBB", "#RRGGBBAA" or "transparent"
layout.yaml: warning: Font 'NoSuchFamily123' is not installed on this PC; using Inter instead.
logo.png: error: Image 'logo.png' was not found and was skipped.
neon (landscape, 1920×480): 2 errors, 1 warning.

It exits 0 when there are no errors (warnings alone are fine) and 1 when there are any.

A theme, in a folder or a zip, can have at most 1,000 files, each up to 200 MB and 512 MB in all. A zip holds the theme at its top level (layout.yaml next to everything else) or in its one top-level folder. A zip file over 512 MB, or one listing more than 1,000 entries, is refused before its entries are read. Before anything is extracted, Marquee checks every entry: its name must stay inside the theme, it must not be a link, and it must not expand more than 100 times its compressed size (the mark of a zip bomb). The zip is extracted into a temporary folder, which is deleted afterwards. marquee validate never changes the theme or the zip.

Run as administrator, marquee validate refuses a zip: it would unpack it into your temp folder, which your other programs can change. Validate the zip from a normal terminal, or unzip it and validate the folder. Folders and theme names are checked as usual.

Claude Code and Codex

marquee run reads Claude Code and Codex status automatically. See the sensor key reference.

Marquee checks Claude Code's usage limits every 5 minutes with claude -p /usage (no model call or cost). This needs a native claude.exe installation or the desktop app's bundled copy, logged in to a claude.ai subscription. API-key sessions have no usage limits. Setting providers: { claude_usage: off } in config.yaml, or passing --no-claude-usage to marquee run or marquee sensors, turns the poll off.

When Marquee runs elevated, it starts claude with your normal rights through Explorer. If it can't (Explorer isn't running, or belongs to another account), it logs the problem and uses only status-line updates. The child runs with its auto-updater disabled and stops when Marquee exits.

Troubleshooting: Marquee uses the account logged in to the claude command line, which can differ from the desktop app's account. Check /status in a terminal Claude session and use /login to match accounts. An npm-only installation supplies claude.cmd, which Marquee cannot run; use the native installer or desktop app.

When Claude Code can't fetch fresh limits (/usage then falls back to its last-known bars and lists none), Marquee writes nothing, keeps the last values until they reset, and logs that once. It then checks less often, after 5, 10 and 20 minutes and then every 30, and goes back to every 5 minutes once fresh limits arrive (and logs that it is working again).

Claude Code also hands its limits, and the context-window percentage, to its status-line command as a session runs, which updates them sooner than the 5-minute poll. To use that, run marquee setup-claude once, from marquee.exe itself (setup refuses to run from anything else; --undo runs from anywhere). It points Claude Code's statusLine at marquee statusline, which hands the data to Marquee and then runs your previous status-line command, so your status line looks the same as before. It edits only statusLine in ~/.claude/settings.json, keeps a timestamped backup, and marquee setup-claude --undo puts the old setting back. --dry-run shows the change first. If it can't rewrite settings.json exactly (comments, trailing commas, repeated keys, a file that isn't UTF-8, a link, or a statusLine that isn't an object), it changes nothing and says why. A project's .claude/settings.json or managed settings with their own statusLine win over this one.

Status-line updates arrive while Marquee is running and a terminal Claude Code session is updating its status line. Only programs running as your Windows account can send them. The desktop app's Code tab does not run status lines, so Marquee relies on the /usage poll. If claude is missing, logged out or fails, Marquee logs the problem once and retries after 5 minutes.

marquee run and the tray keep the last limits across restarts in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee\claude-limits.json, or, running as administrator, in %ProgramData%\Marquee\users\<your SID>\claude-limits.json (see Logs for why). The file holds only each window's percentage and reset time and when they were read (no login or account details). It saves them whenever they change and when it stops, and loads them at start, so the bars show at once, with claude.updated_at still saying how old they are. A window that reset while Marquee was stopped stays stale (—), and a window without a reset time isn't saved, nor is the per-model weekly limit (it shows after the first /usage poll). Fresh values from /usage or the status line replace the loaded ones as they arrive. A missing or unreadable file is skipped with one log line; deleting it is safe. A --sink run neither loads nor saves them.

The session files and Codex logs are undocumented formats that may change. If Marquee can't read them any more, it logs a warning and those keys go stale; everything else keeps working.

Custom values

Scripts can send custom.* readings with marquee push or HTTP. See the Custom section of the sensor key reference.

Hardware sensors

marquee sensors lists current readings; marquee sensors --raw also lists the hardware source's unmapped readings. See the Hardware section of the sensor key reference.

Choose the source with --sensors or sensors: in config.yaml:

• LibreHardwareMonitor (lhm, the default) reads sensors directly. CPU temperatures and motherboard sensors need administrator rights and the PawnIO driver, which you install separately.
• HWiNFO (hwinfo) reads HWiNFO's shared memory. Start HWiNFO and enable Settings → Shared Memory Support.
• None (none) disables hardware readings.

For missing-reading warnings and HWiNFO fallback, see the sensor key reference.

If GPU temperature, clock or power disappears after a graphics driver update, compare:

marquee sensors --sensors lhm --primary-only --no-claude-usage --raw
marquee sensors --sensors hwinfo --no-claude-usage --raw

To select only HWiNFO instead, set sensors: hwinfo in config.yaml. --primary-only disables fallback only for that diagnostic listing; --keys-only prints fresh hardware key names, skips agents and sends diagnostics to stderr (it cannot be combined with --raw). Marquee does not change drivers.

Game FPS

marquee run measures the game in front. See the FPS section of the sensor key reference. The foreground process is checked every 250 ms; if it has several swap chains, Marquee measures the one with the most frames in the last second.

Frames are counted by PresentMon 2.6.0, Intel's open-source frame-time tool (MIT). It is bundled next to marquee.exe as PresentMon\PresentMon-2.6.0-x64.exe, and Marquee checks its SHA-256 before every start and won't start a file that doesn't match. It runs without a window as Marquee's child and ends with Marquee, even if Marquee crashes. If it exits, Marquee logs why and starts it again. Building Marquee downloads it once from its GitHub release into .cache\presentmon and checks the same hash.

PresentMon reads Windows' event tracing, which needs administrator rights, so FPS works only when Marquee runs as administrator: the tray does when its logon task starts it, and marquee run does from an elevated terminal. Unelevated, FPS is off with a warning saying why (in the tray's menu, too). providers: { fps: off } in config.yaml or --no-fps turns FPS off, and the warning with it.

Logs

marquee run writes what it prints to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee\logs\marquee-YYYYMMDD.log as well, and so does the tray (with no console of its own), one file per day, so a problem can still be read after the console is closed. The files of the last 7 days, today's included, are kept; older ones are deleted. A day's file stops at 10 MB, with a last line saying so, and logging carries on in the next day's file. The file can be opened while Marquee runs. "Open logs" in the tray's menu opens the folder.

Running as administrator (the tray from its logon task, or marquee run from an elevated terminal), Marquee keeps its log and its data in %ProgramData%\Marquee\users\<your SID>\ instead (logs\marquee-YYYYMMDD.log, claude-limits.json, and the tray's last-update-check.txt and first-run markers), a folder only administrators can change and you can read. %LOCALAPPDATA% belongs to your unelevated programs, and one of them could put a link there that sends an elevated write anywhere on the PC. config.yaml and your themes stay in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Marquee, where you edit them.

The installer makes %ProgramData%\Marquee (through marquee task install), so no other program can make it first: any user may make folders in %ProgramData%. If %ProgramData%\Marquee or a folder in it already exists and someone other than administrators can change it, Marquee leaves it alone and won't use it. The installer only warns in its log; a Marquee running as administrator says so and stops (the tray in a message box). Delete that folder (as an administrator) and Marquee makes it again, safely.

Verified hardware

Setup	Firmware	Verified	Measured frame rates and timings
8.8" Universal Screen (1CBE:A088)	lianli88_0001_0023	Portrait orientation, brightness, image retained after exit	~47 fps; ~21 ms per frame including JPEG encoding
Same screen, example themes	lianli88_0001_0023	Rendering, hot reload, letterboxing, USB reconnect	30 fps for 12 min; render ~2.5 ms, send ~18 ms; --fps 60 reaches ~51 fps; reload ~2 s
Same screen, example-agents	lianli88_0001_0023	Aurora, Claude and Codex readings, custom values	30 fps at scale: 0.25; render ~11 ms, send ~26 ms, overlapped; --fps 60 reaches ~43 fps at scale: 0.5
Same screen, video and game FPS	lianli88_0001_0023	Config reload, MP4 background, PresentMon readings and cleanup	~30 fps; render ~7 ms, send ~28 ms
Same screen, example-showcase v2 and v2.1; Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RX 7800 XT	lianli88_0001_0023	Widgets, text, clock locale/time-zone changes, voltages, GPU fan	FPS not measured
Same screen and LED ring (0416:8050), theme editor	lianli88_0001_0023	Editing, undo, recovery, layers, styles, rules, gallery, sensor bindings and ring effects	Saves reach screen in about 1 s; FPS not measured
Same screen and LED ring (0416:8050), tray and MSI	lianli88_0001_0023	Install, elevated logon, elevated start from the Start menu, L-Connect handover, ring, theme switching, sleep/wake, reconnect, upgrade, uninstall	22 fps; send ~28–29 ms; handover ~10 s after tray start; 0.1.0 → 0.1.1 upgrade restarts tray in 2 s
Same screen, tray with a starfield shader and a 480×1920 MP4; Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RX 7800 XT	lianli88_0001_0023	Shaders on the graphics card, hardware video decoding, Windows' JPEG encoder	MarqueeTray 31% of one core at 30 fps (0.1.2: 116%); no frame-rate warning

Known limitations:

• Tray rendering reaches 22 fps, not 30; the cause isn't known yet.
• Graphics driver changes can leave LibreHardwareMonitor without temperature, hotspot, clock or power readings. HWiNFO recovery depends on available shared-memory readings; see recovery steps.

Licence and third-party notices

Marquee is source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0: free to use, change and share for any noncommercial purpose. Commercial use, such as selling Marquee or a modified version or bundling it with hardware you sell, needs a commercial licence from MadJag Studios: support@madjagstudios.com. Contributions are welcome under the terms in CONTRIBUTING.md.

The panel and LED ring protocols were documented by the community, notably sgtaziz/lian-li-linux (MIT). Marquee is an independent implementation. Game FPS uses the bundled PresentMon (MIT). Third-party components and their licenses, including everything the installer redistributes, are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

Marquee is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lian Li Industrial Co., Ltd.