KTApple

KDE Plasma KWin Tiling — reimagined for macOS

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A tiling window manager that brings the flexibility of KDE Plasma's KWin Tiling to macOS. Design your tile layout visually, drop windows in with Shift+Drag, and resize by dragging boundaries — no config files needed.

_{▶ Watch the demo on YouTube}

Why KTApple?

Existing macOS tiling WMs force you into fixed layouts or text-based configs. KTApple takes the approach KDE Plasma got right: a visual editor where you design the layout you want.

	KTApple	yabai	AeroSpace	Amethyst	Rectangle
Visual Tile Editor	Yes	—	—	—	—
Free Tile Placement	Yes	BSP only	i3 tree	Fixed	Presets
Shift+Drop Placement	Yes	Zones	—	—	Snap
Gap-Drag Resize	Yes	—	—	—	—
No SIP Required	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
GUI Settings	Yes	CLI	TOML	GUI	GUI

Quick Start

Install via Homebrew

brew tap m96-chan/homebrew-tap
brew install --cask --no-quarantine ktapple

Or download manually

1. Grab the .dmg from Releases
2. Move KTApple.app to /Applications
3. Remove quarantine: xattr -cr /Applications/KTApple.app
4. Grant Accessibility permission in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility

Note

KTApple is ad-hoc signed (no Apple Developer Program). Gatekeeper bypass via xattr -cr or Homebrew --no-quarantine is required.

Key Features

Visual Tile Editor (⌃⌥T)

Split, resize, and delete tiles through an interactive GUI. Layouts are stored in normalized 0.0–1.0 coordinates — resolution-independent and portable.

┌────────────┬──────────┐
│            │   Top-R  │
│   Left     ├──────────┤
│   (60%)    │ Bottom-R │
│            │  (40%)   │
└────────────┴──────────┘

Shift+Drop Window Placement

Hold Shift while dragging any window. A tile highlight appears — release to snap the window into place.

Gap-Drag Resize

Drag the boundary line between any two tiles. Both adjacent windows resize in real time.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌃⌥T	Open tile editor
⌃⌥ + Arrow	Move focus
⌃⌥⇧ + Arrow	Move window
⌃⌥F	Toggle float
⌃⌥M	Toggle maximize
⌃⌥= / -	Expand / shrink tile

Architecture

KTApple
├── TileManager         Per-display tile tree management
├── TileEditor          Visual tile editor (SwiftUI)
├── WindowManager       Window ops via Accessibility API
├── HotkeyManager       Global shortcut registration
├── DragDropHandler     Shift+Drag detection & tile snapping
├── GapResizeHandler    Boundary drag-resize handling
├── LayoutStore         JSON layout persistence
└── DisplayObserver     Monitor hotplug observation

Tile Tree Structure

Tiles follow the same tree model as KWin:

RootTile (Screen)
├── Tile (Left, 60%)
│   ├── Tile (Top-Left)
│   └── Tile (Bottom-Left)
└── Tile (Right, 40%)
    ├── Tile (Top-Right)
    └── Tile (Bottom-Right)

Each node carries:

• proportion — Size relative to siblings (0.0–1.0)
• layoutDirection — Horizontal / Vertical
• children — Arbitrary child count
• windowIDs — Assigned windows

macOS API Usage

Layer	API
Window Operations	AXUIElement (Accessibility API)
Window Enumeration	CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo
Global Events	CGEvent Tap / NSEvent.addGlobalMonitorForEvents
Hotkeys	Carbon.HIToolbox (RegisterEventHotKey)
Display Monitoring	CGDisplayRegisterReconfigurationCallback
UI	SwiftUI

Requirements

• macOS 14.0+ (Sonoma)
• Swift 6 / Xcode 16+ (to build from source)
• Accessibility permission
• No SIP disable required

Documentation

Guide	Description
Getting Started	Installation, setup, first steps
Keyboard Shortcuts	Full shortcut reference
Architecture	Internals for contributors

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

git clone https://github.com/m96-chan/KTApple.git
cd KTApple
swift build
swift test

License

GPL-3.0