StayHere – a small app to keep macOS Spaces focused

Software
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Hi everyone,

I’d like to drop a post about a problem I managed to solve recently.

I switched to macOS not that long ago. I started using Spaces heavily. And one thing began to annoy me very quickly. I wanted Spaces to work like separate rooms. One for programming. One for communication. One for writing. One for research…

But macOS doesn’t really help with this: I click Safari and suddenly I’m teleported to another desktop. The Dock shows apps from everywhere. Window switchers mix all contexts together. After a while, Spaces start leaking into each other, leaving me drowning in a mess.

I saw plenty of apps that propose navigating this chaos through fancy previews and thumbnails. Maybe I’m weird, but I don’t want better ways to navigate chaos. I want less chaos!

So I built a small menu bar app for myself. Its goal was to isolate workflows into Spaces and let me navigate through their content in a simple but effective way.

I built several features into it:

  • meaningful names for Spaces, such as Work, Writing, Calls, or Programming
  • the current Space name visible in the menu bar;
  • a small popup whenever the active Space changes, so you always know where you are;
  • more predictable Dock clicks, preventing them from teleporting you to another Space where the selected app is already running;
  • opening a new application window in the current Space whenever possible;
  • window switchers scoped to the current Space, making navigation simpler and less distracting.

You can see it in action below. Just click the image to see a demo:

StayHere Demo

I made both the source code and the app itself available for free here:

I’d appreciate any feedback on my work. :slightly_smiling_face: I’m still wondering if it’s worth continuing.

Thanks for reading!
THA

–
A small disclaimer

Unfortunately, since I do not make any profit from it, I cannot afford to notarize it yet. Especially since I don’t know if anybody will like it or if it even makes sense to keep going. This means macOS will show a warning, and you will have to accept it manually. In the README, I left a link to instructions explaining how to bypass this.

Still concerned about safety? No need to trust me - the code and build process are public. :slightly_smiling_face:

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yabai (TWM) and StayHere are an excellent match, combining window management and Spaces management;

Feedback provides several small features:

  1. Built-in shortcut implementation (create spaces, switch spaces), although some shortcuts can be set in Settings

  2. Interface adaptation for Yabai + SKHD

Previously, the use was Ybai + SKHD, and it is hoped that a solution for Yabai + _SKHD + StayHere will appear in the future;

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It’s interesting that these developers don’t seem to want to tell us their real names.

Katie

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You can find that on his user page on GitHub, if it’s important to you.

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@rocky.houjinsong I’ve got to say, you’ve pointed me in an interesting direction. I wasn’t aware of Yabai. I’m still pretty new to macOS territory and trying to figure out how to implement some power-user workflows.

Yabai seems like a significant upgrade to my tool stack. I used Rectangle + AltTab until AltTab went commercial, which pushed me to implement my own alternative in StayHere. Yabai looks like something I could use to boost my workflow even more. I’ll definitely give it a try and see how both tools can work together :slight_smile:

Thank you for your feedback!

@KVZ As someone already mentioned, I’m not hiding, nor do I have any hidden agenda here. I’m just a regular tech guy struggling with switching my working environment to macOS.
I wanted to treat this as an opportunity to try and learn something new, share it, and - if it proved useful - gain some traction, since building something other people can use is more fun than writing code for a drawer :slight_smile:

Looking at my GitHub profile should provide some clues as to why I use THA as an account name. I like the abbrev :wink:

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Version 0.2.5 is out!

Windows Switcher can now be controlled by voice thanks to the exposed automation URL and integration with macOS’s built-in Voice Control feature. A live demo of this feature can be watched here.

It also supports keyboard control and displays windows in recently used order, making the most frequently needed ones even more accessible.