Deskmap

Or install from the command line with Homebrew (Homebrew 7 and later asks you to trust a third-party tap once):

brew trust cnkndmr/tap
brew install --cask cnkndmr/tap/deskmap

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[!NOTE] This is a vibe-coded project. Deskmap was written by AI coding agents in Claude Code. I directed the work and use the app every day, but I have not read every line.

Models used: Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Sonnet 5 and Claude Haiku 4.5.

Pin a window once. From then on it lives on that display, that desktop (Space), in that layout: when it opens, when it wanders off, and when you plug in or unplug a monitor.

Features

• Pin by window title. Two VS Code workspaces or two Safari tab groups can live in two different places. Or pin the whole app, or just one window.
• Display, desktop and layout in one pin. Draw the area on a grid, pick a preset, or set a fixed size.
• Two setups. Monitor connected and Laptop only have separate targets. Plug in or unplug, and every window moves to its place.
• More than one monitor. Each external monitor keeps its own role by its display ID, not by where it stands, so swapping cables never moves pins to the other screen. A pinned window can list fallback places for when a monitor is away.
• Desktop names that stick. A name belongs to one desktop and follows it across displays, reordering and plug/unplug; pins can target a name.
• Pin groups. Collect some pins under a name; move, open or close them as one.
• Your own layouts. Draw layouts on a grid, name them, reorder them in Settings › Layouts.
• The map. Every display, every desktop, every window. Drag a window to move it. Add, remove and reorder desktops.
• Open or close a workspace at once. One click opens every closed pinned window of a desktop, each in its place; per app, close or reopen all its pinned windows there (say, every Excel window of a project).
• Free move. Let a pinned window roam for 1 to 60 minutes; then it goes home. Also from a right-click on the menu bar icon.
• Profiles. Office, Home, Café: switch with a click.
• Automatic backups. Every profile, pin and desktop name is backed up hourly (kept a day), daily (kept a week) and weekly (kept forever), inside the app. Restore any of them from Settings › Backups; undoable.
• Undo instead of dialogs. Multi-step ⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z and a session history of settings changes (Recent moves › Changes) you can jump back or forward in.
• Mission Control slips undone. A desktop dragged to another display in Mission Control moves back (or asks, or stays; your choice).
• Automation. A deskmap command line tool, a status.json file and deskmap:// URLs for Shortcuts, Raycast, scripts or AI agents.
• One small app. No scripts, no config file, no dependencies; System Integrity Protection stays on. Nothing is collected or sent.

How it compares

	Deskmap	macOS	Rectangle Pro	Moom	Stay	ShiftPlus	yabai	AeroSpace	Hammerspoon
Rules match the window title, not just the app	✅	❌	✅	🟡	✅	❌	✅	✅	🟡
Sends a window to a chosen native desktop (Space)	✅	🟡	❌	❌	❌	🟡	✅	❌	🟡
…with System Integrity Protection left on	✅	✅	—	—	—	🟡	✅	—	🟡
Separate targets per display setup	✅	❌	🟡	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	🟡
Re-places windows when a display is plugged in or unplugged	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌	🟡	🟡	🟡
Routes new windows as they open	✅	🟡	✅	❌	🟡	❌

✅ built in · 🟡 partly, or with a limitation (see the notes) · ❌ not available · — does not apply (the tool does not move windows between desktops)

Rectangle Pro and Stay come closest, but neither moves a window to another desktop. yabai does, from a shell script. The map, temporary pins and timed free move are built into none of them.

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗