configuration-files.md

Configuration Files

Amethyst will pick up a config file located at ~/.amethyst.yml or ~/.config/amethyst/amethyst.yml in this order. A sample can be found at /.amethyst.sample.yml

Configuration Keys

Key	Description
layouts	Ordered list of layouts to use by layout key (default tall, wide, fullscreen, and column).
mod1	First mod (default option + shift).
mod2	Second mod (default option + shift + control).
mod3	Third mod (not used by default).
mod4	Fourth mod (not used by default).
window-max-count	The max number of windows that may be visible on a screen at one time before additional windows are minimized. A value of 0 disables the feature.
window-margins	Boolean flag for whether or not to add margins between and around windows (default false).
smart-window-margins	Boolean flag for whether or not to set window margins if there is only one window on the screen, assuming window margins are enabled (default false).
window-margin-size	The size of the margins between and around windows (in px, default 0).
window-minimum-height	The smallest height that a window can be sized to regardless of its layout frame (in px, default 0).
window-minimum-width	The smallest width that a window can be sized to regardless of its layout frame (in px, default 0)
floating	List of bundle identifiers for applications to either be automatically floating or automatically tiled based on floating-is-blacklist (default []).
floating-is-blacklist	Boolean flag determining behavior of the floating list. true if the applications should be floating and all others tiled. false if the applications should be tiled and all others floating (default true).
ignore-menu-bar	true if screen frames should exclude the status bar. false if the screen frames should include the status bar (default false).
float-small-windows	true if windows smaller than a 500px square should be floating by default (default true)
mouse-follows-focus	true if the mouse should move position to the center of a window when it becomes focused (default false). Note that this is largely incompatible with focus-follows-mouse.
focus-follows-mouse	true if the windows underneath the mouse should become focused as the mouse moves (default false). Note that this is largely incompatible with mouse-follows-focus
mouse-swaps-windows	true if dragging and dropping windows on to each other should swap their positions (default false).
mouse-resizes-windows	true if changing the frame of a window with the mouse should update the layout to accommodate the change (default false). Note that not all layouts will be able to respond to the change.
enables-layout-hud	true to display the name of the layout when a new layout is selected (default true).
enables-layout-hud-on-space-change	true to display the name of the layout when moving to a new space (default true).
use-canary-build	true to get updates to beta versions of the software (default false).
new-windows-to-main	true to insert new windows into the first position and false to insert new windows into the last position (default false).
follow-space-thrown-windows	true to automatically move to a space when throwing a window to it (default true).
window-resize-step	The integer percentage of the screen dimension to increment and decrement main pane ratios by (default 5).
screen-padding-left	Padding to apply between windows and the left edge of the screen (in px, default 0).
screen-padding-right	Padding to apply between windows and the right edge of the screen (in px, default 0).
screen-padding-top	Padding to apply between windows and the top edge of the screen (in px, default 0).
screen-padding-bottom	Padding to apply between windows and the bottom edge of the screen (in px, default 0).
restore-layouts-on-launch	true to maintain layout state across application executions (default true).
debug-layout-info	true to display some optional debug information in the layout HUD (default false).
disable-padding-on-builtin-display	true to disable screen padding on in-built display (default false).
hide-menu-bar-icon	true to hide the menu bar icon (default false).

Commands

Commands are defined at the root of the config file, and have a mod and a key.

Key	Description
mod	The modifier to use, either mod1, mod2, mod3 or mod4.
key	The key on the keyboard to use.

Mods

A mod is a list of keyboard modifiers. Namely, option, control, shift, and command.

Command Keys

Command	Description
cycle-layout	Move to the next layout in the list.
cycle-layout-backward	Move to the previous layout in the list.
shrink-main	Shrink the main pane by a percentage of the screen dimension as defined by window-resize-step. Note that not all layouts respond to this command.
expand-main	Expand the main pane by a percentage of the screen dimension as defined by window-resize-step. Note that not all layouts respond to this command.
increase-main	Increase the number of windows in the main pane. Note that not all layouts respond to this command.
decrease-main	Decrease the number of windows in the main pane. Note that not all layouts respond to this command.
command1	General purpose command for custom layouts. Functionality is layout-dependent.
command2	General purpose command for custom layouts. Functionality is layout-dependent.
command3	General purpose command for custom layouts. Functionality is layout-dependent.
command4	General purpose command for custom layouts. Functionality is layout-dependent.
focus-ccw	Focus the next window in the list going counter-clockwise.
focus-cw	Focus the next window in the list going clockwise.
focus-main	Focus the main window in the list.
focus-screen-ccw	Focus the next screen in the list going counter-clockwise.
focus-screen-cw	Focus the next screen in the list going clockwise.
swap-screen-ccw	Move the currently focused window onto the next screen in the list going counter-clockwise.
swap-screen-cw	Move the currently focused window onto the next screen in the list going clockwise.
swap-ccw	Swap the position of the currently focused window with the next window in the list going counter-clockwise.
swap-cw	Swap the position of the currently focused window with the next window in the list going clockwise.
swap-main	Swap the position of the currently focused window with the main window in the list.
focus-screen-n	Move focus to the n-th screen in the list; e.g., focus-screen-3 will move mouse focus to the 3rd screen. Note that the main window in the given screen will be focused.
throw-screen-n	Move the currently focused window to the n-th screen; e.g., throw-screen-3 will move the window to the 3rd screen.
throw-space-n	Move the currently focused window to the n-th space; e.g., throw-space-3 will move the window to the 3rd space.
throw-space-left	Move the currently focused window to the space to the left.
throw-space-right	Move currently the focused window to the space to the right.
toggle-float	Toggle the floating state of the currently focused window; i.e., if it was floating make it tiled and if it was tiled make it floating.
display-current-layout	Display the layout HUD with the current layout on each screen.
toggle-tiling	Turn on or off tiling entirely.
reevaluate-windows	Rerun the current layout's algorithm.
toggle-focus-follows-mouse	Turn on or off focus-follows-mouse.
relaunch-amethyst	Automatically quit and reopen Amethyst.

Layout Selection

Amethyst supports defining shortcuts for selecting specific layouts directly. They take the form of select-${layout_key}-layout. For example, defining the command select-tall-layout will define a shortcut that when used will switch directly to the Tall layout. Note, this works for custom layouts as well.