Tiler

A small, fast tiling window manager for macOS that lives in the menu bar and tiles one desktop on one display at a time, only where you turn it on. Every other display and every other desktop (Space) is left exactly as it is.

It does the core job of HyprMac: Hyprland-style BSP "dwindle" tiling with keyboard focus, swap and resize, and mouse drag-to-swap and drag-to-resize. It does this in about 3,700 lines (Settings, the shortcuts overlay, the move/resize mode, focus follows mouse and ⌘⌥-drag included) instead of 35,000, with no polling, no keyboard event tap and no virtual workspaces.

Use it

1. Click the menu bar icon on the display you want, then choose Tile This Desktop (or press ⌃⌘P). The windows on that desktop arrange themselves.
2. Do the same on any other desktop you want tiled. Each one is independent and remembered across restarts.
3. Choose it again (or ⌃⌘P) to stop tiling that desktop. Windows stay where they are.

The icon is filled when the desktop you are working on is tiled. The tiling hotkeys only exist while a tiled desktop has focus, so on every other desktop the same keys still reach your apps.

Forgot a shortcut? Press ⌃⌘/ (or menu → Keyboard Shortcuts) for an overlay listing them all; Esc or a click closes it. Change anything in Settings… (⌘, from the menu, or open Tiler again): gaps, resize step, every shortcut (click it and press the new keys), apps that always float, and Launch at Login.

Default hotkeys

Keys	Action
⌃⌘P	Turn tiling on/off for the current desktop (works everywhere)
⌃⌘ ←/→/↑/↓	Focus the neighbouring window
⌃⌘⇧ ←/→/↑/↓	Swap with the neighbouring window
⌃⌘[ / ⌃⌘]	Move the vertical divider next to the window left / right
⌃⌘⇧[ / ⌃⌘⇧]	Move the horizontal divider next to the window up / down
⌃⌘T	Float / tile the focused window (floated windows are centred at 60%)
⌃⌘J	Flip the split the window is in (side by side ↔ stacked)
⌃⌘⇧J	Mirror the desktop left ↔ right
⌃⌘E	Make every split 50/50
⌃⌘R	Retile: re-read the desktop and rewrite every tile
⌃⌘/	Show the keyboard shortcuts overlay (works everywhere)
⌃⌘M	Move or resize the focused untiled window with the keyboard (works everywhere, see below)
⌥⌘M	Unminimize every minimized window of the frontmost app (works everywhere; on a tiled desktop they rejoin the layout). Replaces the system's ⌥⌘M "Minimize All" in apps that have it; rebind it in Settings if you use that
⌃⌘, / ⌃⌘.	Move the focused window to the previous / next desktop and follow it (works everywhere, see below)
⌃⌘H	Bring the focused window to the screen under the pointer, onto the desktop showing there (works everywhere, see below)

Sending a window to another desktop

⌃⌘, and ⌃⌘. carry the focused window to the previous or next desktop on its display, and you go with it. This works from any desktop, tiled or not. On a tiled desktop the window joins the layout; leaving one, it drops out of that layout; a floating window stays floating with its size and position.

macOS no longer lets apps move windows between desktops directly, so Tiler does what you would do by hand: it holds the window by its title bar and presses your Mission Control shortcut Move left/right a space. Keep those two shortcuts turned on in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Mission Control (they are on by default; a customised key is fine). Tiler says so if there is no desktop on that side, or if it is a full-screen app's space.

⌃⌘H brings the focused window here: onto the desktop showing on the screen the pointer is on. Pick the app with ⌘Tab, then press it. The window can be on another desktop of the same screen (macOS leaves it there when When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows is off), or on another screen. Coming from another desktop, you briefly see Tiler fetch it with your Mission Control shortcuts. From another screen, it keeps its size (shrunk if the screen is smaller) and its relative place. If the desktop it lands on is tiled, the window joins its layout; if it left a tiled desktop, it drops out of that layout; a floating window stays floating. Tiler says so if the window is already here or the screen shows a full-screen app.

Frame around the active window

On a tiled desktop the window that has focus gets a light-green frame (#90EE90, 4 pt) in the gap around it, so it is obvious where your typing goes. Windows above it still cover the frame. Change the colour and width, or turn it off, in Settings → General → Active window (config keys activeBorder and activeBorderWidth).

Drag a window from anywhere in it

Hold ⌘⌥ and drag anywhere inside a window to move it, on any desktop, tiled or not. The click never reaches the app, so nothing gets selected, opened or typed. On a tiled desktop a tiled window behaves as if you dragged its title bar: drop it on another tile to swap them, anywhere else and it snaps back. Pick other keys (⌃⌘, ⌃⌥, …) or turn it off in Settings → General → Drag windows with (config key dragToMove).

This is Tiler's only active event tap. It sees left-button presses, drags and releases only (no key presses, no plain mouse moves), runs on its own thread, and lets every click without the keys through untouched.

Focus follows mouse

Off by default. Turn it on from the menu (Focus Follows Mouse) or in Settings → General, where you can also set the delay (default 150 ms). On a tiled desktop, the window under the pointer gets focus once the pointer rests there; passing over a window does not focus it. Menus, popovers and floating windows on top are respected, an open menu is never closed, and desktops Tiler does not tile are left alone.

It costs nothing while the mouse is still and about 0.15 % of one core while it moves: a listen-only listener wakes Tiler on the first movement, then Tiler checks the pointer 25 times a second until it stops, instead of handling every mouse event.

Floating windows

⌃⌘T floats the focused window or tiles it again. Floating windows keep their size and position: Tiler remembers where each one is, across Tiler restarts and when you float a window again after tiling it. A window floated for the first time is centred at 60 % of the screen. Everything is forgotten when the window closes.

Moving and resizing untiled windows

⌃⌘M (or menu → Move or Resize Window) starts a move/resize mode for the window you are in, as long as Tiler is not tiling it: a floating window on a tiled desktop, or any window on a desktop Tiler leaves alone. A small hint appears at the bottom of the screen.

Key	In the mode
← ↑ → ↓	Move 40 pt (hold to keep moving)
⇧ + arrows	Resize: → and ↓ grow, ← and ↑ shrink (the top-left corner stays)
⌥	With either of the above: fine 8 pt steps
C	Centre on the screen
M	Fill the screen (minus the outer gap)
↩ / esc / ⌃⌘M	Done

The arrow keys belong to Tiler only while the mode is on; switching app or desktop, or clicking, also ends it. A tiled window is left alone (float it first with ⌃⌘T).

With the mouse: drag a tile onto another tile to swap them, drag a tile's edge to resize the split, and drop a window from elsewhere onto the desktop to tile it.

The defaults avoid the shortcuts Rectangle (⌃⌥, ⌃⌥⌘) and Hyper-key setups use. Rebind anything in Settings → Shortcuts or in the config file.

Install

With Homebrew:

brew tap biks2013-tools/tiler
brew install --cask tiler

Or download Tiler-<version>.dmg from Releases and drag Tiler to Applications. The app is universal (Apple silicon and Intel), needs macOS 14 or later, and is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple.

On first launch macOS asks for Accessibility permission (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility). Tiler needs no other permission (no Input Monitoring, no Screen Recording, SIP stays on). Turn on Launch at Login in Settings → General.

Decks: for users and for engineers (also in Project Deck/).

Build from source

Requirements: Xcode command-line tools and a code-signing certificate.

security find-identity -v -p codesigning          # pick one (SHA-1)
TILER_SIGN_IDENTITY=<sha1> scripts/build-app.sh --install

Releases: scripts/package.sh signs, notarizes and packages; see docs/design/release-runbook.md.

Configuration

~/Library/Application Support/Tiler/config.json, written on first launch. Every key is required; a missing or invalid key is reported in the menu and the last good configuration stays in force. Settings writes this file for you; if you edit it by hand, choose Settings → General → Reload.

{
  "innerGap": 8,
  "outerGap": 8,
  "resizeStep": 0.05,
  "floatingApps": ["com.apple.systempreferences", "com.apple.ActivityMonitor", "com.apple.calculator"],
  "hotkeys": { "toggleDesktop": "ctrl+cmd+p", "focusLeft": "ctrl+cmd+left", "…": "…" }
}

Full reference: docs/design/configuration-guide.md.

Scripting and debugging

scripts/tiler-ctl.sh toggle active     # or a display UUID
scripts/tiler-ctl.sh retile | reload | settings | shortcuts | moveresize | dump
log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "com.giorgosmarinos.tiler"' --level debug

Development

swift build            # debug build
swift test             # layout, geometry and config tests

Design: docs/design/project-design.md · Features: docs/design/project-functions.md · Research behind the implementation choices: docs/reference/macos-tiling-research.md · Known issues: Issues - Pending Items.md

License

MIT © 2026 Giorgos Marinos