What is this?
Rift is a tiling window manager for macOS that focuses on performance and usability, offering multiple layout styles like i3-style tiling, bspwm-style BSP, floating, dwm-style master-stack, niri-style scrolling columns, and a stack/accordion layout.
Rift is a tiling window manager for macOS that focuses on performance and usability, offering multiple layout styles like i3-style tiling, bspwm-style BSP, floating, dwm-style master-stack, niri-style scrolling columns, and a stack/accordion layout.Is this a standalone app or a plugin for something else?It's a standalone macOS application (a window manager) with a menubar icon for switching workspaces, changing layouts, and accessing controls, plus an accompanying CLI.
It's a standalone macOS application (a window manager) with a menubar icon for switching workspaces, changing layouts, and accessing controls, plus an accompanying CLI.How do I get it running?Follow the official docs for configuration and the quick start guide linked from the README.
Follow the official docs for configuration and the quick start guide linked from the README.Do I need to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) to use it?No, Rift does not require disabling SIP, unlike some other macOS tiling window managers.
No, Rift does not require disabling SIP, unlike some other macOS tiling window managers.Does it work with macOS's per-display Spaces setting?Yes — Rift explicitly supports 'Displays have separate Spaces' enabled, which the README says most other major window managers don't handle.
Yes — Rift explicitly supports 'Displays have separate Spaces' enabled, which the README says most other major window managers don't handle.Is this available for other OSes too?No, Rift is macOS-only.
No, Rift is macOS-only.How does Rift talk to other tools like sketchybar?It exposes a Mach port based IPC so external tools like sketchybar can communicate with Rift directly.
It exposes a Mach port based IPC so external tools like sketchybar can communicate with Rift directly.Why did the author build Rift instead of using Aerospace?The author liked Aerospace but missed animations and the ability to fullscreen one display while working on another, and preferred relying on private/undocumented macOS APIs for better reliability and performance.
The author liked Aerospace but missed animations and the ability to fullscreen one display while working on another, and preferred relying on private/undocumented macOS APIs for better reliability and performance.Can I save and reuse my layouts?Yes, layouts can be saved and restored from the menu bar or CLI, pulled from a configurable folder of reusable layouts.
Yes, layouts can be saved and restored from the menu bar or CLI, pulled from a configurable folder of reusable layouts.Is Rift related to yabai or glide-wm?It uses private APIs reverse engineered by yabai and other projects but is not affiliated with either yabai or glide-wm.
It uses private APIs reverse engineered by yabai and other projects but is not affiliated with either yabai or glide-wm.Which topics is it in?tiling, i3, i3wm, tiling-window-manager, window-management, hyprland, window-manager, mac, menu-bar, apple, macos-app, reverse-engineering
tiling, i3, i3wm, tiling-window-manager, window-management, hyprland, window-manager, mac, menu-bar, apple, macos-app, reverse-engineering