Tiling Layouts

termtile provides several tiling algorithms and supports restricted regions for window placement.

Layout Modes

Mode	Description
Auto	Dynamic grid calculation. cols = ceil(sqrt(n)), rows = ceil(n/cols).
Fixed	Explicit rows and columns grid (e.g., 2x2).
Vertical	Single column; windows stacked top-to-bottom.
Horizontal	Single row; windows placed side-by-side.
Master-Stack	One master window on the left, others in a grid on the right.

Built-in Layouts

termtile comes with several pre-configured layouts:

Name	Mode	Region	Notes
grid	Auto	Full	Optimized dynamic grid.
columns	Vertical	Full	Simple column stack.
rows	Horizontal	Full	Side-by-side row.
half-left	Auto	Left Half	Tiles only on the left 50% of screen.
half-right	Auto	Right Half	Tiles only on the right 50% of screen.
master-stack	MasterStack	Full	Slot 0 is the master (40% width).

Tile Regions

Regions restrict where windows are placed on the screen.

• full: Entire work area (minus docks/panels).
• left-half / right-half: Vertical split.
• top-half / bottom-half: Horizontal split.
• custom: Percentage-based custom area.

tile_region:
  type: "custom"
  x_percent: 10
  y_percent: 10
  width_percent: 80
  height_percent: 80

Customization

Gaps and Padding

• Gap Size: Space between windows.
• Screen Padding: Extra space around the edges of the monitor (top, bottom, left, right).

Constraints

• Max Terminal Size: Caps the width or height of individual windows in a layout.
• Flexible Last Row: In auto mode, the last row can expand to fill the width if it has fewer windows than columns.

Terminal Sorting

Determines the order windows are placed into the grid:

• position: Sorted by Y then X coordinates.
• window_id: Sorted by X11 window ID.
• active_first: The focused window is placed in slot 0.
• session_slot: Sorted by tmux slot number (ideal for Master-Stack).

Interaction

Cycling Layouts

You can cycle through layouts using hotkeys (default Mod4-Mod1-] and Mod4-Mod1-[).

Undo

Restores windows to their exact positions before the last tiling operation.

Preview

Temporarily apply a layout to see how it looks:

termtile layout preview --duration 5 grid

After 5 seconds, the windows will revert to their previous positions.