explaingit

nikitabobko/aerospace

★ 20,638SwiftAudience · developerComplexity · 4/5MaintainedLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A keyboard-driven tiling window manager for macOS that automatically arranges windows like i3 on Linux, without needing to disable system security.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((AeroSpace))
    What it does
      Tiles windows automatically
      Keyboard-centric control
      Virtual workspaces
    Key features
      Fast workspace switching
      Multi-monitor support
      TOML configuration
      CLI with completions
    Use cases
      Developer workflows
      Keyboard power users
      Linux-to-Mac migration
    Tech stack
      Swift
      Homebrew
      TOML config

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Set up a Linux-like keyboard-driven window management workflow on macOS without touching system security settings.

USE CASE 2

Manage multiple monitors efficiently with automatic tiling that respects each display independently.

USE CASE 3

Configure window layouts and keyboard shortcuts in a plain text file that syncs across machines via dotfiles.

Tech stack

SwiftHomebrewTOMLmacOS

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose including commercial, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

AeroSpace is a tiling window manager for macOS. A tiling window manager automatically arranges your open application windows into non-overlapping tiles that fill the screen, instead of letting them float on top of each other the way macOS does by default. The project is in public beta and is inspired by i3, a popular tiling window manager from the Linux world, so it uses similar concepts and keybindings. Internally, AeroSpace organizes windows using a tree structure rather than a flat grid, which is the model it borrows from i3 and which lets you nest splits and groups of windows in flexible ways. It implements its own emulation of virtual workspaces instead of using the built-in macOS Spaces, because the maintainer found native Spaces too limited. The README highlights that workspace switching is fast and has no animations, that AeroSpace works across multiple monitors using the i3-style model, and that it does not require disabling macOS System Integrity Protection. You configure AeroSpace through a plain text TOML file, which makes it friendly to people who keep their settings in dotfiles version control. It is keyboard-centric and ships with a command line tool, manpages, and shell completion. There is no graphical configuration interface, and the project states it will never add one. Someone would use AeroSpace if they spend a lot of time keyboard-driven on a Mac and want their windows snapped automatically into predictable layouts across many workspaces and monitors. Installation is done through Homebrew. The software is written in Swift. The full README is longer than what was provided.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I install AeroSpace on macOS and set up my first keyboard shortcuts for window tiling?
Prompt 2
Show me an example TOML configuration file for AeroSpace that sets up workspaces and common window management keybinds.
Prompt 3
How does AeroSpace's virtual workspace system differ from macOS Spaces, and why would I use it instead?
Prompt 4
I'm coming from i3 on Linux, what are the key differences in how AeroSpace handles window tiling on macOS?
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Generated 2026-05-21 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.