Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#121

Post by saispas » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:00 AM UTC

Hammershaft wrote: post #70

acehinnnqru wrote: post #34

There got a lot of tiling window manager for macOS. People create another and another and another new ones.

I think the root cause is that the default window manager was just horribly designed for a long time. Instantiating new windows of an App is still a horribly designed, deeply frustrating workflow on Mac OS that is just seamless and easy on Linux and Windows. I ended up linking Aerospace to some godawful Applescript just to be able to open a new Safari window without being flung across spaces to an existing Safari win…

Unless I've misunderstood what you're asking for (in which case, apologies…) then there's a setting in `Settings > Desktop & Dock > Mission Control` to govern this behaviour.

Turn off `When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application` and then you'll be able to create a new Safari window in the current Space, not the 'existing Safari space'.

The specific path is for Tahoe, but the setting itself has been there for a long time, I think.

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#122

Post by self_awareness » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:07 AM UTC

atticus_ wrote: post #99

self_awareness wrote: post #84

> It uses private APIs reverse engineered by yabai and other projects Don't get used to this. Because of private API use, this project will break at some point after some macOS update.

This is not true. The private api's we use are not hacks to work around macos spaces and are actually the basis of how appkit and the os in general works. They are essentially guaranteed to be stable and also not to be removed because they have been in use for many many years with no change. The private api's that have been broken (as experienced by yabai) are strictly related to things that rift does not interact wi…

Only in abandonware software private APIs stay the same. In current, living technologies, they always change. Apple can simply issue an update to all consumers of the API so that they start using different symbols. If you have the energy to play this game, then it's fine. Just remember that Apple doesn't have any problem with killing the whole kernel extension market (this among lots of other things).

At my work I'm also forced to use private APIs on macOS and it's always a mess. Each update is a source of stress. Sometimes there's no work to be done, sometimes I need to spend a month to figure out what's happening.

I generally discourage people from using private API and I always say that if the platform doesn't allow doing some kind of software using public API, then don't do this software for this platform. Select a different platform. Use feedback forms to request functionalities. But using private APIs is asking for trouble. Again, if you want to play the game then it's fine. But if you offer software for users, then you're in some way responsible for those users as well.

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#123

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 10:45 AM UTC

hamasho wrote: post #17

I used to be a heavy user of i3. It's very flexible and configurable, and you can do much more than just moving windows. But after I switched to Mac, I couldn't find a tiling window manager that was both feature-rich and stable. After trying several options, I just use Rectangle[1]. It's not a window manager; it only provides shortcuts for window placements like simply moving windows to left/right/top/bottom or split…

Have you tried BetterTouchTool? It is both feature rich and stable, I have been using it for over a decade

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#124

Post by malkosta » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 2:18 PM UTC

hamasho wrote: post #17

I used to be a heavy user of i3. It's very flexible and configurable, and you can do much more than just moving windows. But after I switched to Mac, I couldn't find a tiling window manager that was both feature-rich and stable. After trying several options, I just use Rectangle[1]. It's not a window manager; it only provides shortcuts for window placements like simply moving windows to left/right/top/bottom or split…

Rectangle+Apptivate made me stop looking for an i3 alternative, after years. The first for moving windows, the second for switching between them with super+number, just like i3.

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#125

Post by rcarmo » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 2:58 PM UTC

Oscar_Hall wrote: post #56

rcarmo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason I use Moom is being able to move and resize windows using nothing but the keyboard, which is something most tiling window managers completely ignore.

@rcarmo Totally agree on keyboard-first workflow. It's interesting how different tools optimize for different input methods. Some prioritize trackpad gestures, others keyboard shortcuts. Would love to see more hybrid approaches.

On the other hand, no window manager I know of (on Mac) lets you switch to the adjacent windows using just the keyboard.

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#126

Post by sporkland » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 4:47 PM UTC

ahamez wrote: post #78

Note that using Hammerspoon, you can build your own window manager. Personally, I really like how Divvy ( https://mizage.com/divvy/ ) uses a modal (press cmd-alt-ctrl-x, then press a single key to chose a layout for the frontmost window), but it's no longer maintained. Thus, using OpenAI's Codex, I generated a modal window manager ( https://github.com/ahamez/dot_hammerspoon/blob/master/wm.lua ). Thought it would be i…

I've been using divvy, had no idea it isn't maintained... but I'm not sure if I'd need any more features outside of what it already does. What items do you want to see them add?

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#127

Post by fiddlerwoaroof » Tue, Oct 14, 2025, 12:16 AM UTC

rcarmo wrote: post #125

Oscar_Hall wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@rcarmo Totally agree on keyboard-first workflow. It's interesting how different tools optimize for different input methods. Some prioritize trackpad gestures, others keyboard shortcuts. Would love to see more hybrid approaches.

On the other hand, no window manager I know of (on Mac) lets you switch to the adjacent windows using just the keyboard.

Yeah, this is sort of annoying, but I’ve switched to using “hyper” (caps lock mapped with karabiner to command-option-control) plus a homerow key to activate the frontmost window of key apps. So, Hyper-L activates the most recent terminal, Hyper-j emacs, etc. l

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#128

Post by pulq » Tue, Oct 14, 2025, 10:47 AM UTC

lemontheme wrote: post #39

cipehr wrote: post #30

Having just gone through really yak shaving Aerospace into a spot that I'm happy with, I'm curious how folks on here manage having so many overlapping keyboard shortcuts? Maybe it's just me, but I want to map to many things to some combination of hjkl just for the ergonomics... Aerospace's modal feature sort helps solve that shortcut conflict... How are others dealing with this?

They’re not, is the impression I get. I usually run into a shortcut conflict within the first few minutes of actual day-to-day use. I switched to Aerospace about a year ago. I hide everything behind a leader key: alt+space. That brings me into Aerospace’s normal mode. I have a few alt-shortcuts there for quick access: e.g. alt-{hjkl} for moving between panes. But most things are in a dedicated mode. I have a ‘go-to’…

> One thing I constantly struggle with in Aerospace, though, is its tendency to keep windows hidden after switching screens.

I'm with you. Heres workaround: Instead of doing brute force, try toggling floating mode while the windows is focused.

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#129

Post by palata » Tue, Oct 14, 2025, 5:06 PM UTC

bsnnkv wrote: post #102

swapsCAPS wrote: post #37

I wanted to build my own window manager at some point, but was quickly scared away by the lack of a proper API on MacOS. You basically need to hack your way around it by using the accessibility API instead. I see this project uses Objective C bindings and the accessibility API and am wondering how easy it was to debug, write features and what kind of tooling was used for this.

The Accessibility framework is not what I would call a "hack" personally. It was quite well thought out and fully featured I've spent the last month working on something similar in Rust with various macOS framework bindings and it's not really that scary You don't really need anything other than a Rust dev env, rust-analyzer and a browser window with the Apple docs website and the objc2 crate docs.rs site open - no s…

Why in the world would you get downvoted for this?

Re: Show HN: Rift – A tiling window manager for macOS

#130

Post by pcunite » Sun, Oct 19, 2025, 3:39 AM UTC

I'm new to macOS, long time Windows dev. What I'm really missing is taskbar. A way to see, visually, that I have application running that are minimized and yet able to be positioned by sliding them around. Is there anything like this for macOS 15.7?