Streifen — Your Desktop, Horizontal

STREIFEN

ALPHA

Your desktop, thought horizontally.

A scrolling window manager inspired by PaperWM for macOS.

Get it on GitHub

Try it — click windows or press 1-9

Browsing

Sat 18:30

How it works.

A scrolling window manager inspired by PaperWM for macOS.
The concept in 30 seconds.

Layout

Horizontal Strip

Windows sit side by side in a scrollable band. No grid, no floating. One after another.

Context

9 Workspaces

One keystroke. Each workspace has its own strip. Instant context switch — no hunting, no guessing.

Sizing

Slice Grid

Your screen is a grid of columns. Window widths are integer multiples. Like a layout raster — predictable and compatible.

Your screen, sliced.

Every screen has a fixed number of slices. Windows take 1, 2, 3… slices. They fit together like a grid — whether you're on a laptop or an ultrawide.

Ultrawide — 8 slices

VS Code6

Terminal2

Desktop — 6 slices

Browser3

Slack2

Terminal1

Laptop — 4 slices

VS Code3

Terminal1

Laptop

Desktop

Ultrawide

Every app knows
its size.

Smart defaults. Configure once, forget forever.

XS Calculator

S Terminal, Finder, Spotify

M Teams, Slack, Outlook, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Discord, Zoom

L Browser, VS Code (default for unknown apps)

XL JetBrains IDEs, Excel

📌 Pinned

First window goes to a fixed workspace. Additional windows land wherever you are.

e.g. Teams → always Workspace 1

🧲 Follow

Focus the window and it moves to your current workspace. Travels with you.

e.g. Finder, Calculator — always within reach

📍 Stay

Windows stay where you put them. Switch away, they hide. Switch back, they reappear.

e.g. Safari, VS Code — right where you left them

Hands on keyboard.
Eyes on work.

Hyper = Ctrl + Alt + Cmd. Everything else is one or two keys away. NumPad numbers work too.

Workspaces

HYPER

1 – 9

Switch workspace

HYPER

↑ ↓

Next / previous workspace

HYPER

SHIFT

1 – 9

Send window to workspace

HYPER

SHIFT

↑ ↓

Send window to next / previous workspace

Navigation

HYPER

← →

Focus previous / next window

HYPER

SHIFT

← →

Reorder window in strip

Sizing — Slice Grid

HYPER

F1 – F8

Set slice count (1 → 8)

HYPER

Step −1 slice

HYPER

Step +1 slice

HYPER

SHIFT

F1 – F5

Set app default (XS → XL)

HYPER

SHIFT

ESC

Reset all windows to defaults

F-keys over screen max cap at full. ß/´ step one slice at a time. Set an app default with Shift and every window of that app updates instantly.

KEYS

Built right.

Runtime

Native Swift

No Electron. No web views. Compiled, fast, light. A proper macOS citizen.

API

Accessibility

Pure Accessibility API. No SIP disable. No private frameworks. No hacks.

Origin

PaperWM

Inspired by PaperWM for GNOME. Rebuilt from scratch as a first-class macOS app.