WindowPilot

A macOS-native window navigator. Three ways to switch windows — see and pick, hold and slide, or type and go.

Cmd+Tab switches apps, not windows. Mission Control is slow. WindowPilot gives you instant, window-level switching across all Spaces — including full-screen.

Install

Download the latest DMG from Releases, or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/ethannortharc/WindowPilot.git
cd WindowPilot
swift build -c release

On first launch, macOS will prompt for Accessibility permission. Grant it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. Screen Recording permission is optional (enables window screenshot previews).

Signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

Usage

Panel — Option+Space

A floating panel that shows every open window on your Mac.

Tab	What it shows
Recent	Grid of most-used windows with screenshot thumbnails, ranked by recency and active time. Single click to switch.
All Windows	Two-level tree (App → Windows). Type to search by app or window title. Click to preview, Enter to switch.

The panel doesn't steal focus — your current app keeps running while you browse. Click outside or press Esc to dismiss.

Carousel — Ctrl+Option+Space

Hold-to-browse switcher for rapid window switching:

1. Hold Ctrl+Option+Space — a horizontal strip of window thumbnails appears
2. Left/Right arrows to navigate
3. Release the modifier keys — instantly switches to the selected window

The previous window is pre-selected, so a quick press-and-release is a fast back-and-forth toggle.

CLI — windowpilot-cli

Standalone command-line tool. Works independently from the GUI app — no daemon required.

# List all windows across all Spaces
windowpilot-cli list

# Fuzzy search and switch
windowpilot-cli "chrome"
windowpilot-cli switch "my document"

# Search with JSON output (for scripting and agents)
windowpilot-cli search "terminal"

# Switch by window ID
windowpilot-cli focus --id 257

# Capture a window screenshot
windowpilot-cli capture 260 screenshot.png

Designed for integration with Claude Code, Raycast, shell scripts, and any automation that needs programmatic window switching. This is the only macOS CLI that can switch at the window level (not just app level like open -a).

How It Handles Full-Screen

Switching to and from full-screen Spaces is a known hard problem on macOS. The system provides no public API for programmatic Space switching, and macOS 16 blocks all forms of simulated keyboard shortcuts.

WindowPilot works around this:

• Normal → Full-Screen: Switches to the full-screen Space, exits the window from full-screen, focuses it, then re-enters full-screen via the native macOS animation (~0.5s transition).
• Full-Screen → Normal: Exits the blocking full-screen window (set to near-fullscreen size so it doesn't shrink), then focuses the target window.
• Normal → Normal: Direct switch, instant.

Limitations:

• Switching away from a full-screen window exits it from full-screen mode (macOS provides no way to leave a full-screen Space while keeping the window full-screen in the background).
• The normal→full-screen transition has a brief visible animation.

Activity Tracking

WindowPilot tracks which windows you use in the background (session only, not persisted):

• Detects window focus changes across all monitors
• Filters out transient popups (notifications, "Build Succeeded", etc.)
• Ranks windows by 60% recency + 40% active duration
• Caches screenshot thumbnails for instant display

Requirements

• macOS 13.0+ (Ventura or later)
• Accessibility permission (required)
• Screen Recording permission (optional, for previews)

License

MIT