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As someone who switched to macos from the hot pile of mess called windows last year, my biggest point of pain was the window management. I use Rectangle Pro, and it helps a lot, but IMHO workspace integration is poor still.
I'll give this one a try. BTW, if this works, can you please consider asking money for it? Keep it open source but perhaps add a friction-less support channel (read: not github issues) for paying customers. Just an idea.
In any case, thanks for the hard work and making it open-source.
Very cool to see movement in this space, and congrats on launching! Agree that it looks polished, I also like that you chose to show screenshots from settings on the LP.
I use yabai and I've been wanting something similar to what you built. Instead of one desktop per workspace, I'd like to be able to have "sets of desktops" per workspace as it were, because not all work I do that involves multiple apps needs them on the same screen at all times (or even ever).
As an example: I might have IDE + browser on one desktop, Fork.app and local server on another, and Music.app on a third (as I like to listen to music while I work). So to me, those are all related, but don't make sense on one desktop.
The other consideration is that I also tend to use tiling more on bigger displays. Since I sometimes do work with just the builtin display, I have to reorganize windows and desktops every time I switch, which is a bit of a PITA. With a solution like yours, but for sets of desktops, I could just switch to a different set and be done in seconds.
I've been building HopTab as a free alternative to the combination of Cmd+Tab replacers and window managers. It started as a simpleapp switcher — pin your apps, Option+Tab through them. But the latest release adds a lot.
*What's new*
Global window tiling shortcuts — Ctrl+Opt+Arrow for halves, Ctrl+Opt+UIJK for quarters, Ctrl+Opt+DFG for thirds. Works anytime, no switcher needed. All 17 directions are configurable.
Cycle through sizes — press Ctrl+Opt+Left twice and the window goes from 1/2 to 1/3, press again for 2/3. Same for right. This is the Rectangle feature I missed most.
Undo snap — Ctrl+Opt+Z restores the previous window position. Every snap saves the old frame automatically.
Move between monitors — Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+Arrow throws the window to the next display with proportional placement.
Configurable gaps — 0–20pt gaps between snapped windows. Settings slider with live preview.
Profile switcher shows app icons — instead of generic person avatars, the Option+` overlay shows a grid of each profile's actual pinned app icons.
*What was already there*
Pin apps, Option+Tab to cycle through only those
Profiles per workflow (Coding, Design, etc.) with per-profile hotkeys
Layout templates (50/50, IDE 60/40, three columns, 2×2 grid)
Session save/restore — saves every window's position, size, z-order per profile
Assign profiles to macOS Spaces — auto-switches when you swipe desktops
Window picker for multi-window apps
Cmd+Q/H/M while switcher is open
Sticky notes per profile
What it replaces
I was using Rectangle + AltTab + some manual window dragging. HopTab combines the app switching, window tiling, and workspace management into one app. The main difference from AltTab is that you pin specific apps instead of seeing everything. The main difference from Rectangle is that tiling is integrated with profiles and layouts — snap your windows, save the session, restore it tomorrow.
Just having watched the video, the session setup, close, and launch seem tied to the idea of a single window per app. Is that right? What kinds of workflows is this explicitly meant vs. not meant to support?
The way a user switches window sets with backtick and app windows within them with tab is inverted from the usual major and minor shortcuts. Normally you switch apps with tab and windows within them with backtick, or in the case of stage manager, you switch window sets with tab and windows within them with backtick. As a default I think the keys make less sense than they could.
Cmd+Tab is one of those things that shipped in 2003 and nobody at Apple has touched since. Surprised it took this long for someone to properly replace it.
I have a really wide screen (52') and all these window managment apps fails for me at the point that I only can divide the screen in thirds or halfs. Thirds for three apps is too small, halfes to large. I need custom areas like 3/7, 3/7, 1/7. The only app which i found which this offers is 1piece
IIRC Divvy's been around closer to twelve years, not fifteen -- launched around 2010 or 2011 I think. But you're right that it handles custom grid divisions better than most. Still my recommendation too for irregular layouts.
Has anyone actually tried using custom ratios like that consistently? I'd expect the snapping to drift over time as you open and close windows — curious whether 1piece actually holds those positions or whether you're re-snapping constantly.
i just use aerospace. It's not that great, but it's a lot more usable than without it.
I wish it performed as well as glazewm on windows. I can make a windows box be almost as responsive as a linux box, I simply cannot do that with a macbook.
This looks awesome and polished. I've made similar app for myself coming from similar setup (Rectangle, altTab)
I needed custom icons, custom names for windows, obligatory custom and persistent order, 'always on' option and keyboard nav for showing/moving windows from the strip. Could not be happier.
I think there is too much customization and options. Maybe having a .*aml/json file would be good.
I have a few hammerspoon customization for me to choose and open the applications I have. I put those on different desktop but use this to open applications. Whereas for the tiling itself use either aerospace or Loop.
Here is the hammerspoon code for opening the apps using keyboard more like vim jump options.
```
----show all windows of the clicked application
local function showAppWindows(window)
local app = window:application()
local appWindows = app:allWindows()
if #appWindows > 1 then
hs.hints.windowHints(appWindows, function(selectedWindow)
selectedWindow:focus()
local frame = selectedWindow:frame()
hs.mouse.setAbsolutePosition({ x = frame.x + frame.w / 2, y = frame.y + frame.h / 2 })
end)
else
window:focus()
local frame = window:frame()
hs.mouse.setAbsolutePosition({ x = frame.x + frame.w / 2, y = frame.y + frame.h / 2 })
end
end
local function createWindowSearchModal()
local allWindows = hs.window.allWindows()
local windowChoices = {}
for i, window in ipairs(allWindows) do
if window:title() and window:title() ~= "" then
local app = window:application()
local appName = app and app:name() or "Unknown"
table.insert(windowChoices, {
text = appName .. " - " .. window:title(),
subText = "Window " .. i,
window = window,
id = i
})
end
end
local chooser = hs.chooser.new(function(choice)
if choice and choice.window then
choice.window:focus()
local frame = choice.window:frame()
hs.mouse.absolutePosition({ x = frame.x + frame.w / 2, y = frame.y + frame.h / 2 })
end
end)
chooser:choices(windowChoices)
chooser:searchSubText(true)
chooser:show()
---- window search modal for active application only
local function createActiveAppWindowSearchModal()
local frontmostApp = hs.application.frontmostApplication()
if not frontmostApp then
hs.alert.show("No active application detected")
return
end
local appWindows = frontmostApp:allWindows()
local windowChoices = {}
for i, window in ipairs(appWindows) do
if window:title() and window:title() ~= "" then
table.insert(windowChoices, {
text = window:title(),
subText = "Window " .. i,
window = window,
id = i
})
end
end
if #windowChoices == 0 then
hs.alert.show("No windows found for active application")
return
end
local chooser = hs.chooser.new(function(choice)
if choice and choice.window then
choice.window:focus()
local frame = choice.window:frame()
hs.mouse.absolutePosition({ x = frame.x + frame.w / 2, y = frame.y + frame.h / 2 })
end
end)
chooser:choices(windowChoices)
chooser:searchSubText(true)
chooser:show()
end
The configuration complexity critique is fair, but YAML/JSON configs have their own usability ceiling — most people never edit them after initial setup. Hammerspoon gives you a full scripting environment, which is a different tradeoff. The question is whether HopTab is targeting Hammerspoon users or people who'd never touch a config file at all.
I'll give this one a try. BTW, if this works, can you please consider asking money for it? Keep it open source but perhaps add a friction-less support channel (read: not github issues) for paying customers. Just an idea.
In any case, thanks for the hard work and making it open-source.