What is Amethyst?
Amethyst tiles your windows automatically. Instead of arranging them yourself, you pick a layout — Tall, Wide, Two Pane, three-column variants, fullscreen, floating or binary space partitioning — and Amethyst places every window in it, rearranging as windows open and close. It is explicitly modelled on xmonad, the X11 tiling manager, and it keeps that heritage in the keyboard commands, which mostly map to xmonad key combinations. Layouts can be disabled so they drop out of the cycle, and the modifier keys are configurable. It needs Accessibility permission, runs on macOS 10.15 or later, is installed with a Homebrew cask, and is free and open source under the MIT licence.
Verified product facts
- Type
- window managerEditorially reviewed
- Platform
- macOS
- Pricing
- Open sourceDeveloper-stated
- Open source
- Yes
- Developer
- Ian Ynda-HummelDeveloper-stated
- Relationship to Nuanyue
- Third-party product — not published by NuanyueEditorially reviewed
- Licence
- MIT
- Current version
- 0.24.3Developer-stated
- Official website
- ianyh.com/amethyst/
Last updated . Facts marked developer-stated come from the developer and are not independently confirmed; editorially reviewed marks a Nuanyue judgement.
Key features
What Amethyst does at a glance.
Automatic tiling
Windows are arranged by the application rather than dragged into place
Eleven layouts
Tall, Tall-Right, Wide, Two Pane, three 3-Column variants, Fullscreen, Floating, Binary Space Partitioning and a beta Custom layout
Layouts can be individually enabled or disabled
So unused ones drop out of the cycle
A full keyboard command set, largely mapped to xmonad key combinations
Configurable modifier keys
With two in use by default and two more optional
Commands to throw windows to any of ten spaces, and to move focus between screens
Cycle layouts forward and backwards
With a single shortcut each
Toggle floating
For one window, or global tiling for everything
Installable
With a Homebrew cask as well as by direct download
What you can use Amethyst for
- Having every window sized and positioned automatically as you open and close them
- Cycling between different layouts for different kinds of work
- Driving window management entirely from the keyboard
- Trying a tiling workflow on macOS without giving up System Integrity Protection
Who is Amethyst for?
- People coming from a Linux tiling window manager such as xmonad who want the same model on a Mac
- Users who want automatic tiling without running a command-line tool and editing a config file
Who is Amethyst not for?
- Anyone who wants to position windows manually — tiling is the whole premise
- Users unwilling to grant Accessibility access and change a Mission Control setting
Limitations
- Requires permission to use the accessibility APIs, granted in Privacy & Security
- The Mission Control setting 'Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use' should be disabled, because it makes keyboard navigation between spaces unpredictable
- The beta Custom layout is experimental rather than finished
- Whether the current release ships as a universal binary for Apple silicon is not stated in the sources Nuanyue tracks
Strengths and trade-offs
What Amethyst does well, and what to weigh before choosing it. Points marked developer-stated come from the developer’s own material and have not been independently confirmed.
Strengths
- Tiles windows automatically, so they are arranged by layout rather than by hand.Developer-stated
- Offers eleven layouts including Tall, Wide, Two Pane, three-column variants, Fullscreen, Floating and Binary Space Partitioning.Developer-stated
- Layouts can be enabled or disabled individually, which controls whether they appear in the cycle at all.Developer-stated
- Commands largely map to xmonad key combinations, so the keyboard model is familiar to anyone coming from that window manager.Developer-stated
- Free and open source under the MIT licence, and the project states that Amethyst is free and always will be.
- Can be installed with a Homebrew cask, as well as by direct download.Developer-stated
Trade-offs
- Requires Accessibility API permission before it can manage other applications' windows.
- The Mission Control setting 'Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use' has to be disabled, or keyboard navigation between spaces becomes unpredictable.
- Only supported on macOS 10.15 and later.
- One of the eleven layouts, Custom, is marked beta rather than finished.
- It enforces a tiling model, so there is no way to use it as a conventional free-form window manager.Derived
First-use experience
What the app asks of you when you set it up. Only established facts appear here; anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed at.
- Installation
- Downloaded from the project's releases page, or installed with the Homebrew cask `brew install --cask amethyst`.
- First launch
- Amethyst must be given permission to use the accessibility APIs, granted under Privacy & Security in System Settings, before it can manage windows.
- System integration
- Runs in the background managing every window through the accessibility APIs; the project also advises disabling the Mission Control setting that rearranges spaces by recent use.
What it does
Amethyst is an automatic tiling window manager for macOS, modelled — the project says so directly — on xmonad. The distinction between “automatic” and the snapping tools it competes with is the important one. A snapping tool moves a window where you tell it; Amethyst decides where windows go. You choose a layout, and every window is placed in it, with the arrangement redrawn as windows open and close.
There are eleven layouts: Tall, Tall-Right, Wide, Two Pane, three-column variants in left, middle and right form, Fullscreen, Floating, Binary Space Partitioning, and a Custom layout the project marks as beta. Layouts can be individually enabled or disabled, which controls whether they appear in the cycle at all — so you can keep the two or three you actually use and skip the rest.
Living with it
The keyboard model is inherited from xmonad, and the project notes that the
commands are mostly a mapping of xmonad’s key combinations. Two modifier
combinations are used by default — option + shift and ctrl + option + shift —
with two more available if you want them. From there the command set covers
shrinking and expanding the main pane, changing how many windows share it, moving
focus clockwise and counter-clockwise, swapping the focused window with the main
one, toggling float for one window or global tiling for everything, cycling
layouts forward and backwards, throwing a window to any of ten spaces, and moving
focus between screens.
Two setup requirements matter before you install it. Amethyst must be given permission to use the accessibility APIs, granted under Privacy & Security, or it cannot manage windows at all. And the project advises disabling the Mission Control setting “Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use”, because that setting swaps spaces around as you work and makes keyboard navigation between them unpredictable. There is a terminal command in the documentation for turning it off.
Project and licensing
Amethyst is free and open source under the MIT licence, and the project states
plainly that it is free and always will be. Its author asks that people who want
to donate give to technology-oriented organisations instead of to him. It runs on
macOS 10.15 and later, and can be installed either from the project’s releases
page or with the Homebrew cask brew install --cask amethyst. Whether the current
release is a universal binary for Apple silicon is not stated on the pages Nuanyue
checked.
Questions about Amethyst
Is Amethyst free?
Yes. It is free and open source under the MIT licence, and the project states that Amethyst is free and always will be. Its author asks people to donate to technology-oriented organisations rather than to him.
What layouts does Amethyst offer?
Eleven: Tall, Tall-Right, Wide, Two Pane, 3Column-Left, 3Column-Middle, 3Column-Right, Fullscreen, Floating, Binary Space Partitioning, and a Custom layout that is marked beta. Layouts can also be enabled or disabled so they drop out of the cycle.Developer-stated
What permissions does Amethyst need?
It must be given permission to use the accessibility APIs, in the Privacy & Security tab under Accessibility. The project also advises disabling 'Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use' in Mission Control, because that setting makes keyboard navigation between spaces unpredictable.
Which macOS versions does Amethyst support?
macOS 10.15 and later — the project states that it is now only supported on 10.15 or above.
How do I install Amethyst?
Either from the project's releases page or with Homebrew: `brew install --cask amethyst`.
Alternatives to Amethyst
Apps that could replace this one — the same job, a different trade-off.
yabai
Tiling window manager for macOS with binary space partitioning.
Both are tiling window managers for macOS modelled on X11 tools, but yabai is a command-line utility configured through a file with optional System Integrity Protection changes, while Amethyst is a graphical application that asks only for Accessibility permission.
Competitors
Direct competitors: overlapping features aimed at the same users.
Rectangle
Free open-source window manager for macOS, with a paid Pro tier.
Both arrange windows from the keyboard, but Rectangle snaps a window to a position on request while Amethyst keeps a continuous tiling layout that rearranges itself automatically.
Works well with
Not a replacement — apps commonly used alongside this one.
AltTab
Windows-style Alt-Tab window switcher for macOS.
Amethyst decides where windows sit and AltTab decides which one you switch to, so they cover different halves of navigating a crowded screen.
Links
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the sources below. Last updated .
