Your first day with TrellisWM

Install

1. Download TrellisWM and open the file you downloaded.
2. Drag TrellisWM into your Applications folder.
3. Open TrellisWM from Applications. Its icon appears in the menu bar, at the top right of your screen.

You need a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) running macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. Every download starts with a free 14-day trial of everything.

Set up

The first time it opens, TrellisWM walks you through a few steps, one at a time.

1. Let TrellisWM arrange your windows. Click Allow…, then switch TrellisWM on in System Settings. This is required: macOS only lets apps you trust move windows.
2. See your windows as they are (optional). This lets TrellisWM show your windows' real contents while they move. Nothing is recorded or kept. Afterwards, click Reopen TrellisWM: macOS applies this one when the app reopens.
3. Turn off what gets in the way. macOS's edge tiling, "Click wallpaper to reveal desktop" and Stage Manager move windows on their own and fight TrellisWM. One click turns them off.
4. Arrange your windows, or keep them where they are and dock them as you go.

You can change any of these later in TrellisWM's Settings ▸ General.

The idea

With TrellisWM, most windows are docked: they share the screen side by side and never overlap. One part of the screen is the Desktop, where windows float freely, just as they always have.

You don't have to fit everything on one screen. Zoom out and you see every window you have open, laid out like a map. Zoom in on anything to work there. Docked windows can even hold spaces inside spaces, as deep as you like.

Dock a window

1. Drag a window by its title bar, the strip at the top with the three coloured buttons.
2. Move it over the edge of another window, or the edge of the screen. A space opens for it.
3. Let go. The window slides into place, and its neighbours make room.

To resize docked windows, drag the gap between them. To move one somewhere else, drag it again.

If a window gets too small for its app, it's covered in its app's colour and icon until there's room. Double-click it to go in.

Float a window

Sometimes you want a window floating on its own, like a calculator or a video. Drag it onto the Desktop and it floats there, just like on any Mac.

The quickest way to switch: click a window's green button. A docked window floats, and a floating window docks. (Hold ⌥ as you click for the green button's usual zoom.)

Tab groups

Drag a window over the middle of another and pause for a moment. Let go, and the two become tabs of one window, even if they're from different apps.

Click a tab to switch to it. Drag a tab out to make it its own window again. Right-click a tab to close it or move it out.

Zoom out and in

Press ⌃⌥Space to see everything you have open. Double-click any window's title bar to zoom back in on it, or press ⌃⌥[ to go back to where you were.

• ⌃⌥↑ steps out one level. ⌃⌥↓ steps back in.
• ⌃⌥[ and ⌃⌥] go back and forward, like a web browser.
• On a trackpad, pinch on bare desktop, or hold ⌥ and pinch anywhere, to zoom.

Focus on one thing

Double-click a window's title bar to give that window the whole screen. Double-click it again to go back to where you were. Double-click the Desktop to do the same with the Desktop.

To look at a few windows together, hold ⌘⇧ and drag a rectangle around them. The view zooms to fit what you framed. Press Esc to cancel.

Saved views

Found a view you like? Press ⌃⌥⇧ and a number from 1 to 9 to save it. Press ⌃⌥ and that number to jump straight back to it, from anywhere.

Your saved views also show as numbers in the menu bar. Click one to go there.

The menu bar

TrellisWM keeps a few controls in your menu bar, at the top right of the screen.

Right-click them for TrellisWM's menu: Settings, arranging all your windows at once, floating them all, leaving an app's windows alone, checking for updates and reporting a problem. Prefer just an icon? Choose Icon only in Settings ▸ Appearance.

All shortcuts

You can change any of these in Settings ▸ Shortcuts.

Free and Pro

Every download starts with 14 days of everything. After that, Free keeps docking, floating and zooming, with up to 5 docked windows per screen. Pro adds unlimited docked windows, tab groups, saved views, and commands you can run from apps like Raycast and Shortcuts.

See pricing →

If something's not right

Windows don't move or dock.

TrellisWM needs the Accessibility permission. Open Settings ▸ General in TrellisWM and check it says Allowed. If it doesn't, switch TrellisWM on in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Accessibility.

A window jumps to half the screen when I drag it to an edge.

That's macOS's own edge tiling. Turn it off in TrellisWM's Settings ▸ General, under macOS features.

Moving windows show as coloured boxes with an icon.

That's how they look without the optional Screen Recording permission. Allow it in Settings ▸ General, then reopen TrellisWM.

I want TrellisWM to leave an app alone.

Right-click the menu bar controls while that app is in front, and choose Don't Arrange it.

I want my windows back to normal.

Right-click the menu bar controls and choose Float All Windows on Desktop, or quit TrellisWM: your windows return to view.

Something else.

Choose Report a Problem… from TrellisWM's menu. It writes an email to us with the details we need, and you see everything before it's sent. Or email support@trelliswm.app.