One of the constraints of running i3 is that you can’t minimize windows (and I dislike the system tray implementation and refuse to use it). This makes using the GUI versions of certain programs annoying. Luckily, many programs have CLI or daemonized versions. Sadly, these CLI versions of programs often don’t intergrate with the desktop.

I installed transmission-cli because I didn’t want to have to leave the GUI running someplace at all times. However, I wanted to be able to add torrents directly from the browser. You can set up a watch directory for .torrent files (you have to manually add “watch-dir” and “watch-dir-enabled” keys to the transmission settings file). Magnet links are a little more complex.

Create a file at ~/.local/share/applications/transmission-magnet.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Transmission (Magnet)
Comment=Add magnet link to transmission
Exec=/usr/bin/transmission-remote -a %u
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/magnet;

Set this as the default handler for magnet links: xdg-mime default transmission-magnet.desktop x-scheme-handler/magnet

This should hopefully work out of the box, but you may need to choose the program manually in your browser.