Kmonad configuration to type german special characters?

[scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Hello everyone,
I am currently trying to set up a kmonad config file to replace the autohotkey script I used on windows. My goal is simply to use the right alt key in combination with a,o,u and so on to type german umlaut characters like ä,ö,ü, etc.

So far I am having trouble even getting kmonad to run the config. I guess I probably misunderstand how this is supposed to work significantly. My initial config file was generated by ChatGPT since I had no idea where to even start.

This is my current config file

(defcfg
  input  (device-file "/dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-0-event-kbd")
  output (uinput-sink "kmonad_keyboard")
  fallthrough true
  allow-cmd true
)

(defsrc
  ralt a o u s lsft
)

(deflayer german
  ralt-a "ä"
  ralt-o "ö"
  ralt-u "ü"
  ralt-s "ß"
  ralt-shift-a "Ä"
  ralt-shift-o "Ö"
  ralt-shift-u "Ü"
)

Any help would be appreciated.

[vort3@lemmy.ml]

Tbh I don't have an answer and this isn't what you're looking for, but have you heard of Compose key? I don't know what is kmomad, but I'm pretty happy with my custom compose sequences.

[scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

The way I understood the compose key is that it requires me to type a combination in order to get the actual character I want.

What I want is to use the right alt key more like a layer modifier (just like shift works to switch between numbers and signs for example), in order to get my special characters