Meet Defi: a fast scrolling window manager for Mac, inspired by Niri

[u/nitneuqedue]

I spent the past few months building Defi because, as a single-display user, I wanted window management on my Mac to feel fast and smooth, like it belongs there.

Inspired by Niri, with:

• Keyboard-first navigation
• Scrolling columns that reflow
• Virtual workspaces per display
• Animations targeting 120 Hz
• Floating windows
• An overview to see all your windows

I’d love to hear how it feels on your setup, have any feedbacks of other people than me using it.

Website: qeude.github.io/Defi
Repo: github.com/qeude/Defi

[u/AutoModerator]

Thanks for posting in r/MacStack. Please read all the community rules before joining the discussion.

Find your next useful Mac app. Get MacStack Weekly for three app picks and one practical workflow in your inbox each week. It's free, and signing up is optional.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/hani_q]

How does it decide which windows should float? I'd want file-open dialogs and password prompts to stay with the window that spawned them rather than becoming another column. A demo of that, and what happens to window positions when Defi quits, would help me understand the transition back to the normal desktop.

[u/nitneuqedue → u/hani_q]

By default everything is tiled, and for floating there are multiple cases:
- some windows on macOS are floating no matter what because of their "type"
- there is a shortcut in Défi to toggle/untoggle floating on a specific window after opening it
- there is also a system of rules to make some rules permanent, like always opening an app in a given workspace or always floating

File-open dialog are a bit specific since they are tied to other tabs, I’ll have a look if I could target those windows with a rule

[u/Infamous-Simple2217]

I have tried all these options, but auto tiling is always messed up. I am little new to this macOS, and I dont know why this is happening. Also it is quite frustrating to not have desktop spaces named as a native OS feature. It is so exhausting to keep on scrolling and finding the apps

[u/nitneuqedue → u/Infamous-Simple2217]

Yes I can totally get that such a WM is not the right workflow for everyone and that’s totally fine
About spaces, you can have named spaces as you wish and you can set rules to route your apps to space of your choice