Autumn - macOS window manager for JavaScript hackers

Design your own window manager,

using an embedded IDE,

JavaScript and TypeScript support,

a live developer console,

and built-in documentation.

Increase your productivity

Window managers are one of the hacker's secrets to increased productivity. Manually managing windows takes small but real amounts of concentration away from more important matters. Over time that adds up. Window managers relieve you of that by doing all the moving and positioning for you.

Completely customizable

Most window managers give you pre-designed hotkeys that move windows in simplistic, often unhelpful ways. They don't adapt to your preferences or your behavior. Autumn puts the control back in your hands, by allowing you to shape your very own customized window manager through experimentation.

All-in-one IDE experience

Autumn comes with everything you need built-in, including a state-of-the-art IDE, embedded searchable documentation, and a developer console, so you can explore all that Autumn can do for you with complete ease, and experiment without losing your place or your train of thought.

Things you can do with Autumn

Here are some sample code snippets that demonstrate the kinds of capabilities Autumn gives you:

Keep your Mac from sleeping while an app is open

As long as "Dictionary" is open, your Mac will not fall sleep! This can be altered to use other events, such as connecting to a specific Wifi network, or when a window with a specific title is open.

App.onAppLaunched = (app) => {
  if (app.name === 'Dictionary') {
    console.log(`${app.name} has opened. Preventing sleep.`);
    const allowSleep = Power.preventSleep();
    app.onTermination = () => {
      console.log(`${app.name} has quit. Allowing sleep again.`);
      allowSleep();
    };
  }
}

Make your windows dance in place!

This is actually in the demo video up top, and I put it there because it's super fun, even though it's probably completely impractical. Try it out to get the full effect.

function dance(win: Window) {
  const f = win.position();
  const w = (Math.random() * 0.6 + 0.4) * 200;
  const h = (Math.random() * 0.6 + 0.4) * 200;
  // const h = w; // this makes it a circle
  const r = 7;
  setInterval(() => {
    const t = new Date().getTime();
    win.setPosition({
      x: f.x + (Math.cos(t / w) * r),
      y: f.y + (Math.sin(t / h) * r),
    });
  }, 50);
}

Window.visibleWindows().forEach(dance);
Window.onWindowOpened = dance;

Show sleep-time when your computer wakes from sleep

This example demonstrates that you can run custom code in response to hardware events, such as your computer going to sleep or waking, a USB device being connected or disconnected, and screens being added or removed.


let sleepTime: number;
Power.onSleep = () => {
  const now = new Date();
  sleepTime = now.getTime();
  console.log(`Good night! Sleeping at ${now.toLocaleString()}.`);
};

Power.onWake = () => {
  const now = new Date();
  let time = Math.floor((now.getTime() - sleepTime) / 1000);
  const delay = 7; // seconds
  alert("Good morning!", delay);
  alert(`It's ${now.toLocaleString()}.`, delay);
  alert(`Computer slept for ${hhmmss(time)}.`, delay);
}

function hhmmss(time) {
  const s = time % 60;
  time = Math.floor(time / 60);
  const m = time % 60;
  time = Math.floor(time / 60);
  const h = time;
  return [h, m, s].map(padWithZeroes).join(':');
}

function padWithZeroes(n: number) {
  return n.toString().padStart(2, '0');
}

Full-fledged window manager in just a few lines of code!

This is the exact code that I use every day to manage my windows, verbatim. It's a complete window manager that works by dividing your screen up into a logical "grid" of rows and columns, and moving your windows so that they fit into "cells" on that grid.

const { Command, Control, Option, Shift } = Hotkey.Mods;

const grid = new GridWM();
grid.rows = localStorage.getItem('rows') as number || 2;
grid.cols = localStorage.getItem('cols') as number || 6;

Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'h', () => grid.moveLeft());
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'l', () => grid.moveRight());
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'k', () => { grid.shrinkFromBelow(); grid.moveUp() });
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'j', () => { grid.shrinkFromAbove(); grid.moveDown() });

Hotkey.activate(Command | Shift | Option, 'h', () => Window.focusedWindow().focusNext(Window.Dir.Left));
Hotkey.activate(Command | Shift | Option, 'l', () => Window.focusedWindow().focusNext(Window.Dir.Right));
Hotkey.activate(Command | Shift | Option, 'k', () => Window.focusedWindow().focusNext(Window.Dir.Up));
Hotkey.activate(Command | Shift | Option, 'j', () => Window.focusedWindow().focusNext(Window.Dir.Down));

Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'o', () => grid.growRight());
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'i', () => grid.shrinkFromRight());
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'u', () => grid.fillCurrentColumn());
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'm', () => grid.moveToCellGroup(grid.fullScreenCellGroup()));

Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'c', () => Window.focusedWindow().centerOnScreen());

Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, ';', () => grid.align());
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, "'", () => grid.alignAll());

Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'n', () => grid.moveToNextScreen());
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, 'p', () => grid.moveToPreviousScreen());

Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, '-', () => changeWidthBy(-1));
Hotkey.activate(Command | Control | Option, '=', () => changeWidthBy(+1));

function changeWidthBy(n) {
  grid.cols = Math.max(1, grid.cols + n);
  localStorage.setItem('cols', grid.cols);
  alert(`Grid width is now ${grid.cols}`);
  grid.alignAll();
}

alert(`Running GridWM example, rows = ${grid.rows}, cols = ${grid.cols}`);

Embedded IDE Autumn utilizes the same editor as VS Code, for features like auto-completion, in-line type-checking, in-line documentation, and all the other features that make modern IDEs, well, modern.

Built-in documentation Easily explore all of Autumn's capabilities without losing context using the built-in documentation viewer, complete with full-text search, quick access via reference links, and syntax highlighting.

Developer console Interact with live objects, inspect their properties, and explore the API while it's running, from the comfort of a strangely familiar console.

Comprehensive APIs Autumn lets you automate a wide variety of tasks, such as arranging windows, performing actions in response to USB and Wifi events, binding custom hotkeys, moving your mouse cursor, and even changing your screen's brightness.

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