diff --git a/rc.lua b/rc.lua
index 59d3882..feedd2a 100644
--- a/rc.lua
+++ b/rc.lua
@@ -63,16 +63,21 @@ end
 -- {{{ Autostart windowless processes
 
 -- This function will run once every time Awesome is started
-awful.spawn.once(string.format("sh -c 'cd %s && ls | xargs -n1 gio launch'", os.getenv "HOME" .. "/.config/autostart"))
--- awful.spawn.once "picom"
+local function run_once(cmd_arr)
+  for _, cmd in ipairs(cmd_arr) do
+    awful.spawn.with_shell(string.format("pgrep -fx '%s' > /dev/null || (%s)", cmd, cmd))
+  end
+end
+
+run_once { "compton" } -- comma-separated entries
 
 -- This function implements the XDG autostart specification
---[[
+--[
 awful.spawn.with_shell(
-    'if (xrdb -query | grep -q "^awesome\\.started:\\s*true$"); then exit; fi;' ..
-    'xrdb -merge <<< "awesome.started:true";' ..
+  'if (xrdb -query | grep -q "^awesome\\.started:\\s*true$"); then exit; fi;'
+    .. 'xrdb -merge <<< "awesome.started:true";'
     -- list each of your autostart commands, followed by ; inside single quotes, followed by ..
-    'dex --environment Awesome --autostart --search-paths "$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart:$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart"' -- https://github.com/jceb/dex
+    .. 'dex --environment Awesome --autostart --search-paths "$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart:$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart"' -- https://github.com/jceb/dex
 )
 --]]