Tiling Window Management for Windows.
komorebi is a tiling window manager that works as an extension to Microsoft's Desktop Window Manager in Windows 10 and above.
komorebi allows you to control application windows, virtual workspaces and display monitors with a CLI which can be used with third-party software such as AutoHotKey to set user-defined keyboard shortcuts.
Translations of this document can be found in the project wiki:
There is a Discord server available for komorebi-related discussion, help, troubleshooting etc. If you have any specific feature requests or bugs to report, please create an issue in this repository.
Articles, blog posts, demos, and videos about komorebi can be added to this list by PR:
komorebi only responds to WinEvents and the messages it receives on a dedicated socket.
komorebic is a CLI that writes messages on komorebi's socket.
komorebi doesn't handle any keyboard or mouse inputs; a third party program (e.g. AutoHotKey) is needed in order to translate keyboard and mouse events to komorebic commands.
This architecture, popularised by bspwm on Linux and yabai on macOS, is outlined as follows:
PROCESS SOCKET
ahk --------> komorebic <------> komorebi
komorebi is the successor to yatta and as such aims to build on the learnings from that project.
While yatta was primary an attempt to learn how to work with and call Windows APIs from Rust, while secondarily implementing a minimal viable tiling window manager for my own needs (largely single monitor, single workspace), komorebi has been redesigned from the ground-up to support more complex features that have become standard in tiling window managers on other platforms.
komorebi holds a list of physical monitors.
A monitor is just a rectangle of the available work area which contains one or more virtual workspaces.
A workspace holds a list of containers.
A container is just a rectangle where one or more application windows can be displayed.
This means that:
- Every monitor has its own collection of virtual workspaces
- Workspaces only know about containers and their dimensions, not about individual application windows
- Every application window must belong to a container, even if that container only contains one application window
- Many application windows can be stacked and cycled through in the same container within a workspace
Prebuilt binaries are available on the releases page in a zip archive.
Once downloaded, you will need to move the komorebi.exe and komorebic.exe binaries to a directory in your Path (
you can see these directories by running $Env:Path.split(";") at a PowerShell prompt).
Alternatively, you may add a new directory to your Path
using setx or the Environment
Variables pop up in System Properties Advanced (which can be launched with SystemPropertiesAdvanced.exe at a
PowerShell prompt), and then move the binaries to that directory.
If you use the Scoop command line installer, you can run the following commands to install the binaries from the latest GitHub Release:
scoop bucket add komorebi https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-bucket
scoop install komorebi
If you install komorebi using Scoop, the binaries will automatically be added to your Path and a command will be
shown for you to run in order to get started using the sample configuration file.
If you prefer to compile komorebi from source, you will need
a working Rust development environment on Windows 10. The x86_64-pc-windows-msvc toolchain is
required, so make sure you have also installed
the Build Tools for Visual Studio 2019.
You can then clone this repo and compile the source code to install the binaries for komorebi and komorebic:
cargo install --path komorebi --locked
cargo install --path komorebic --lockedOnce you have either the prebuilt binaries in your Path, or have compiled the binaries from source (these will already
be in your Path if you installed Rust with rustup, which you absolutely should), you can
run komorebic start at a Powershell prompt, and you will see the following output:
Start-Process komorebi -WindowStyle hidden
This means that komorebi is now running in the background, tiling all your windows, and listening for commands sent to
it by komorebic. You can similarly stop the process by running komorebic stop.
Once komorebi is running, you can execute the komorebi.sample.ahk script to set up the default keybindings via AHK
(the file includes comments to help you start building your own configuration).
If you have AutoHotKey installed and a komorebi.ahk file in your home directory (run $Env:UserProfile at a
PowerShell prompt to find your home directory), komorebi will automatically try to load it when starting.
There is also tentative support for loading a AutoHotKey v2 files, if the file is named komorebi.ahk2 and
the AutoHotKey64.exe executable for AutoHotKey v2 is in your Path. If both komorebi.ahk and komorebi.ahk2 files
exist in your home directory, only komorebi.ahk will be loaded. An example of an AutoHotKey v2 configuration file
for komorebi can be found here.
Sometimes you will want a specific application to never be tiled, and instead float all the time. You add add rules to enforce this behaviour:
komorebic.exe float-rule title "Control Panel"
# komorebic.exe float-rule exe [EXE NAME]
# komorebic.exe float-rule class [CLASS NAME]In some rare cases, a window may not automatically be registered to be managed by komorebi. When this happens, you can
manually add a rule to force komorebi to manage it:
komorebic.exe manage-rule exe TIM.exe
# komorebic.exe manage-rule class [CLASS NAME]
# komorebic.exe manage-rule title [TITLE]If you are experiencing behaviour where closing a window leaves a blank tile, but minimizing the same window does not , you have probably enabled a 'close/minimize to tray' option for that application. You can tell komorebi to handle this application appropriately by identifying it via the executable name or the window class:
komorebic.exe identify-tray-application exe Discord.exe
# komorebic.exe identify-tray-application class [CLASS NAME]
# komorebic.exe identify-tray-application title [TITLE]komorebi supports two focus-follows-mouse implementations; the native Windows Xmouse implementation, which treats the
desktop, the task bar, and the system tray as windows and switches focus to them eagerly, and a custom komorebi
implementation, which only considers windows managed by komorebi as valid targets to switch focus to when moving the
mouse.
To enable the komorebi implementation you must start the process with the --ffm flag to explicitly enable the feature.
This is because the mouse tracking required for this feature significantly increases the CPU usage of the process (on my
machine, it jumps from <1% to 4), and this CPU increase persists regardless of whether focus-follows-mouse is enabled
or disabled at any given time via komorebic's configuration commands.
When calling any of the komorebic commands related to focus-follows-mouse functionality, the windows
implementation will be chosen as the default implementation. You can optionally specify the komorebi implementation by
passing it as an argument to the --implementation flag:
komorebic.exe toggle-focus-follows-mouse --implementation komorebiBy default, the mouse will move to the center of the window when the focus is changed in a given direction. This behaviour is know is 'mouse follows focus'. To disable this behaviour across all workspaces, add the following command to your configuration file:
Run, komorebic.exe toggle-mouse-follows-focus, , HideIf you create a BSP layout through various resize adjustments that you want to be able to restore easily in the future, it is possible to "quicksave" that layout to the system's temporary folder and load it later in the same session, or alternatively, you may save it to a specific file to be loaded again at any point in the future.
komorebic.exe quick-save # saves the focused workspace to $Env:TEMP\komorebi.quicksave.json
komorebic.exe quick-load # loads $Env:TEMP\komorebi.quicksave.json on the focused workspace
komorebic.exe save ~/layouts/primary.json # saves the focused workspace to $Env:USERPROFILE\layouts\primary.json
komorebic.exe load ~/layouts/secondary.json # loads $Env:USERPROFILE\layouts\secondary.json on the focused workspaceThese layouts can be applied to arbitrary collections of windows on any workspace, as they only track the layout dimensions and are not coupled to the applications that were running at the time of saving.
When layouts that expect more or less windows than the number currently on the focused workspace are loaded, komorebi
will automatically reconcile the difference.
Particularly for users of ultrawide monitors, traditional tiling layouts may not seem like the most efficient use of screen space. If you feel this is the case with any of the default layouts, you are also welcome to create your own custom layouts and save them as JSON or YAML.
If you're not comfortable writing the layouts directly in JSON or YAML, you can use the komorebi Custom Layout Generator to interactively define a custom layout, and then copy the generated JSON content.
Custom layouts can be loaded on the current workspace or configured for a specific workspace with the following commands:
komorebic.exe load-custom-layout ~/custom.yaml
komorebic.exe workspace-custom-layout 0 0 ~/custom.yamlThe fundamental building block of a custom komorebi layout is the Column.
Columns come in three variants:
- Primary: This is where your primary focus will be on the screen most of the time. There must be exactly one Primary Column in any custom layout. Optionally, you can specify the percentage of the screen width that you want the Primary Column to occupy.
- Secondary: This is an optional column that can either be full height of split horizontally into a fixed number of maximum rows. There can be any number of Secondary Columns in a custom layout.
- Tertiary: This is the final column where any remaining windows will be split horizontally into rows as they get added.
If there is only one window on the screen when a custom layout is selected, that window will take up the full work area of the screen.
If the number of windows is equal to or less than the total number of columns defined in a custom layout, the windows will be arranged in an equal-width columns.
When the number of windows is greater than the number of columns defined in the custom layout, the windows will begin to be arranged according to the constraints set on the Primary and Secondary columns of the layout.
Here is an example custom layout that can be used as a starting point for your own:
YAML
- column: Secondary
configuration:
Horizontal: 2 # max number of rows,
- column: Primary
configuration:
WidthPercentage: 45 # percentage of screen
- column: Tertiary
configuration: HorizontalAs previously mentioned, this project does not handle anything related to keybindings and shortcuts directly. I personally use AutoHotKey to manage my window management shortcuts, and have provided a sample komorebi.ahk AHK script that you can use as a starting point for your own.
You can run komorebic.exe to get a full list of the commands that you can use to customise komorebi and create
keybindings with. You can run komorebic.exe <COMMAND> --help to get a full explanation of the arguments required for
each command.
start Start komorebi.exe as a background process
stop Stop the komorebi.exe process and restore all hidden windows
state Show a JSON representation of the current window manager state
query Query the current window manager state
subscribe Subscribe to komorebi events
unsubscribe Unsubscribe from komorebi events
log Tail komorebi.exe's process logs (cancel with Ctrl-C)
quick-save-resize Quicksave the current resize layout dimensions
quick-load-resize Load the last quicksaved resize layout dimensions
save-resize Save the current resize layout dimensions to a file
load-resize Load the resize layout dimensions from a file
focus Change focus to the window in the specified direction
move Move the focused window in the specified direction
cycle-focus Change focus to the window in the specified cycle direction
cycle-move Move the focused window in the specified cycle direction
stack Stack the focused window in the specified direction
resize-edge Resize the focused window in the specified direction
resize-axis Resize the focused window or primary column along the specified axis
unstack Unstack the focused window
cycle-stack Cycle the focused stack in the specified cycle direction
move-to-monitor Move the focused window to the specified monitor
move-to-workspace Move the focused window to the specified workspace
send-to-monitor Send the focused window to the specified monitor
send-to-workspace Send the focused window to the specified workspace
focus-monitor Focus the specified monitor
focus-workspace Focus the specified workspace on the focused monitor
focus-monitor-workspace Focus the specified workspace on the target monitor
cycle-monitor Focus the monitor in the given cycle direction
cycle-workspace Focus the workspace in the given cycle direction
move-workspace-to-monitor Move the focused workspace to the specified monitor
new-workspace Create and append a new workspace on the focused monitor
resize-delta Set the resize delta (used by resize-edge and resize-axis)
invisible-borders Set the invisible border dimensions around each window
work-area-offset Set offsets to exclude parts of the work area from tiling
adjust-container-padding Adjust container padding on the focused workspace
adjust-workspace-padding Adjust workspace padding on the focused workspace
change-layout Set the layout on the focused workspace
load-custom-layout Load a custom layout from file for the focused workspace
flip-layout Flip the layout on the focused workspace (BSP only)
promote Promote the focused window to the top of the tree
retile Force the retiling of all managed windows
ensure-workspaces Create at least this many workspaces for the specified monitor
container-padding Set the container padding for the specified workspace
workspace-padding Set the workspace padding for the specified workspace
workspace-layout Set the layout for the specified workspace
workspace-custom-layout Set a custom layout for the specified workspace
workspace-tiling Enable or disable window tiling for the specified workspace
workspace-name Set the workspace name for the specified workspace
toggle-window-container-behaviour Toggle the behaviour for new windows (stacking or dynamic tiling)
toggle-pause Toggle window tiling on the focused workspace
toggle-tiling Toggle window tiling on the focused workspace
toggle-float Toggle floating mode for the focused window
toggle-monocle Toggle monocle mode for the focused container
toggle-maximize Toggle native maximization for the focused window
restore-windows Restore all hidden windows (debugging command)
manage Force komorebi to manage the focused window
unmanage Unmanage a window that was forcibly managed
reload-configuration Reload ~/komorebi.ahk (if it exists)
watch-configuration Enable or disable watching of ~/komorebi.ahk (if it exists)
window-hiding-behaviour Set the window behaviour when switching workspaces / cycling stacks
float-rule Add a rule to always float the specified application
manage-rule Add a rule to always manage the specified application
workspace-rule Add a rule to associate an application with a workspace
identify-tray-application Identify an application that closes to the system tray
identify-border-overflow Identify an application that has overflowing borders
focus-follows-mouse Enable or disable focus follows mouse for the operating system
toggle-focus-follows-mouse Toggle focus follows mouse for the operating system
mouse-follows-focus Enable or disable mouse follows focus on all workspaces
toggle-mouse-follows-focus Toggle mouse follows focus on all workspaces
ahk-library Generate a library of AutoHotKey helper functions
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Additionally, you may run komorebic.exe ahk-library to
generate a helper library for AutoHotKey which wraps every komorebic command in a native
AHK function.
If you include the generated library at the top of your ~/komorebi.ahk configuration file, you will be able to call
any of the functions that it contains. A sample AHK script that shows how this library can be
used is available here.
- Multi-monitor
- Virtual workspaces
- Window stacks
- Cycle through stacked windows
- Change focused window by direction
- Move focused window container in direction
- Move focused window container to monitor and follow
- Move focused window container to workspace follow
- Send focused window container to monitor
- Send focused window container to workspace
- Move focused workspace to monitor
- Mouse follows focused container
- Resize window container in direction
- Resize window container on axis
- Set custom resize delta
- Resize child window containers by split ratio
- Quicksave and quickload layouts with resize dimensions
- Save and load layouts with resize dimensions to/from specific files
- Mouse drag to swap window container position
- Mouse drag to resize window container
- Configurable workspace and container gaps
- BSP tree layout (
bsp) - Flip BSP tree layout horizontally or vertically
- Equal-width, max-height column layout (
columns) - Equal-height, max-width row layout (
rows) - Main half-height window with vertical stack layout (
horizontal-stack) - Main half-width window with horizontal stack layout (
vertical-stack) - 2x Main window (half and quarter-width) with horizontal stack layout (
ultrawide-vertical-stack) - Load custom layouts from JSON and YAML representations
- Floating rules based on exe name, window title and class
- Workspace rules based on exe name and window class
- Additional manage rules based on exe name and window class
- Identify applications which overflow their borders by exe name and class
- Identify 'close/minimize to tray' applications by exe name and class
- Configure work area offsets to preserve space for custom taskbars
- Configure and compensate for the size of Windows 10's invisible borders
- Toggle floating windows
- Toggle monocle window
- Toggle native maximization
- Toggle mouse follows focus
- Toggle Xmouse/Windows focus follows mouse implementation
- Toggle Komorebi focus follows mouse implementation (desktop and system tray-aware)
- Toggle automatic tiling
- Pause all window management
- Load configuration on startup
- Manually reload configuration
- Watch configuration for changes
- Helper library for AutoHotKey
- View window manager state
- Query window manager state
- Subscribe to event and message notifications
If you would like to contribute code to this repository, there are a few requests that I have to ensure a foundation of code quality, consistency and commit hygiene:
- Flatten all
usestatements - Run
cargo +nightly clippyand ensure that all lints and suggestions have been addressed before committing - Run
cargo +nightly fmt --allto ensure consistent formatting before committing - Use
git czwith the Commitizen CLI to prepare commit messages - Provide at least one short sentence or paragraph in your commit message body to describe your thought process for the changes being committed
If you use IntelliJ, you should enable the following settings to ensure that code generated by macros is recognised by the IDE for completions and navigation:
- Set
Expand declarative macrostoUse new engineunder "Settings > Langauges & Frameworks > Rust" - Enable the following experimental features:
org.rust.cargo.evaluate.build.scriptsorg.rust.macros.proc
Logs from komorebi will be appended to ~/komorebi.log; this file is never rotated or overwritten, so it will keep
growing until it is deleted by the user.
Whenever running the komorebic stop command or sending a Ctrl-C signal to komorebi directly, the komorebi process
ensures that all hidden windows are restored before termination.
If however, you ever end up with windows that are hidden and cannot be restored, a list of window handles known
to komorebi are stored and continuously updated in ~/komorebi.hwnd.json.
Running komorebic restore-windows will read the list of window handles and forcibly restore them, regardless of
whether the main komorebi process is running.
If komorebi ever stops responding, it is most likely either due to either a panic or a deadlock. In the case of a
panic, this will be reported in the log. In the case of a deadlock, there will not be any errors in the log, but the
process and the log will appear frozen.
If you believe you have encountered a deadlock, you can compile komorebi with --features deadlock_detection and try
reproducing the deadlock again. This will check for deadlocks every 5 seconds in the background, and if a deadlock is
found, information about it will appear in the log which can be shared when opening an issue.
The current state of the window manager can be queried using the komorebic state command, which returns a JSON
representation of the State struct, which includes the current state of WindowManager.
This may also be polled to build further integrations and widgets on top of (if you ever wanted to build something like Stackline for Windows, you could do it by polling this command).
It is also possible to subscribe to notifications of every WindowManagerEvent and SocketMessage handled
by komorebi using Named Pipes.
First, your application must create a named pipe. Once the named pipe has been created, run the following command:
komorebic.exe subscribe <your pipe name>Note that you do not have to include the full path of the named pipe, just the name.
If the named pipe exists, komorebi will start pushing JSON data of successfully handled events and messages:
{"event":{"type":"AddSubscriber","content":"yasb"},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusWindow","content":"Left"},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusChange","content":["SystemForeground",{"hwnd":131444,"title":"komorebi – README.md","exe":"idea64.exe","class":"SunAwtFrame","rect":{"left":13,"top":60,"right":1520,"bottom":1655}}]},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"MonitorPoll","content":["ObjectCreate",{"hwnd":5572450,"title":"OLEChannelWnd","exe":"explorer.exe","class":"OleMainThreadWndClass","rect":{"left":0,"top":0,"right":0,"bottom":0}}]},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusWindow","content":"Right"},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusChange","content":["SystemForeground",{"hwnd":132968,"title":"Windows PowerShell","exe":"WindowsTerminal.exe","class":"CASCADIA_HOSTING_WINDOW_CLASS","rect":{"left":1539,"top":60,"right":1520,"bottom":821}}]},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusWindow","content":"Down"},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusChange","content":["SystemForeground",{"hwnd":329264,"title":"den — Mozilla Firefox","exe":"firefox.exe","class":"MozillaWindowClass","rect":{"left":1539,"top":894,"right":1520,"bottom":821}}]},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusWindow","content":"Up"},"state":{}}
{"event":{"type":"FocusChange","content":["SystemForeground",{"hwnd":132968,"title":"Windows PowerShell","exe":"WindowsTerminal.exe","class":"CASCADIA_HOSTING_WINDOW_CLASS","rect":{"left":1539,"top":60,"right":1520,"bottom":821}}]},"state":{}}You may then filter on the type key to listen to the events that you are interested in. For a full list of possible
notification types, refer to the enum variants of WindowManagerEvent in komorebi and SocketMessage
in komorebi-core.
An example of how to create a named pipe and a subscription to komorebi's handled events in Python
by @denBot can be
found here.