winget install --id=jcardama.LeopardWM -e LeopardWM is an open-source tiling window manager for Windows 10 and 11 that takes a scroll-first approach inspired by niri and PaperWM. Windows sit on a horizontal strip and the monitor acts as a viewport that scrolls over them, so navigation stays spatially consistent as windows are added — instead of constantly rebuilding split trees. Written in Rust on top of the Win32 API.
A scrollable tiling window manager for Windows.
Most Windows tilers use tree or BSP layouts. LeopardWM is scroll-first: windows sit on a horizontal strip, and your monitor acts as a viewport that scrolls over them. Navigation stays spatially consistent as windows are added — you move through context instead of constantly rebuilding split trees.
DwmFlush-driven animation engineA few deliberate non-features, so you know what you're getting:
winvd) breaks every 3-6 months on Windows feature updates. Instead, Win+Ctrl+Arrow is intercepted and routed to LeopardWM's workspace prev/next so the native muscle memory still works.Ctrl+Alt+T); only the active tab fills the column rect, the rest sit in a clickable strip above--safe-mode)lwm doctor)winget install jcardama.LeopardWM # Windows Package Manager
scoop install extras/leopardwm # Scoop (after `scoop bucket add extras`)
Both fetch the signed MSI installer and put leopardwm, leopardwm-cli, and lwm on your PATH. winget upgrade / scoop update keep you on the latest release.
Download LeopardWM-x.y.z-x86_64.msi from GitHub Releases and run it. Re-running a newer MSI upgrades in place — no manual uninstall needed.
For users who prefer not to install:
LeopardWM-x.y.z-x86_64-windows.zip from GitHub Releasesleopardwm.exelwm autostart enableReleases are signed via the SignPath Foundation program.
Prerequisites: Rust with the MSVC toolchain (stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc)
git clone https://github.com/jcardama/LeopardWM.git
cd LeopardWM
cargo build --release
Start the daemon:
./target/release/leopardwm.exe
A default config is created automatically at %APPDATA%\leopardwm\config\config.toml. Customize via the tray icon → Settings, or edit the file directly.
Most hotkeys use Ctrl+Alt as the base modifier. Layered pattern: base = focus, +Shift = move, +Win = monitor scope. Workspace prev/next reuses Windows' native Win+Ctrl+Arrow shortcut so it works with existing muscle memory. Every hotkey is rebindable in config.toml.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Ctrl+Alt+H/L/J/K | Focus left / right / down / up |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H/L | Move column left / right |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+J/K | Move window down / up in column |
Ctrl+Alt+[ / ] | Move window to left / right column |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+[ / ] | Expel window to new column left / right |
Ctrl+Alt+Minus / Ctrl+Alt+Equals | Cycle column width down / up |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Minus / Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Equals | Cycle window height down / up |
Ctrl+Alt+0 | Equalize all column widths |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+0 | Equalize window heights in column |
Ctrl+Alt+M | Maximize focused column to viewport width |
Ctrl+Alt+C | Center focused column in viewport |
Ctrl+Alt+Win+,/. | Focus monitor left / right |
Ctrl+Alt+Win+Shift+,/. | Move window to monitor |
Ctrl+Alt+1...9 | Switch to workspace 1–9 |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+1...9 | Move focused window to workspace 1–9 |
Win+Ctrl+Left / Right | Workspace prev / next (cycles) |
Ctrl+Alt+W | Close focused window |
Ctrl+Alt+F | Toggle floating |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F | Toggle fullscreen |
Ctrl+Alt+T | Toggle tabbed mode on focused column |
Ctrl+Alt+P | Toggle pause |
Ctrl+Alt+R | Refresh (re-enumerate windows) |
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R | Reload config |
Win+Ctrl+Escape | Emergency restore + panic-revert |
Stack multiple windows into a clickable tab strip inside any column. Combine with the scrolling viewport for niri-style tabs that also pan horizontally — a combination no other Windows window manager ships today.
Basics
Ctrl+Alt+T on the focused column toggles between vertical stacking (the default) and tabbed modeCtrl+Alt+J / Ctrl+Alt+K cycle the active tab — same keys as intra-column focus, no new bindings to learnPer-tab actions
Close window / Untab this window / Rename tab…close_window (default, browser-style) or untab (rip the tab out into a new vertical column to the right)Close window always closes regardless of the toggle, Untab this window always untabsDrag-and-drop (Chrome semantics)
Lifecycle
Customization — strip height, background, active/inactive text colours, active highlight, opacity, and the tab close action are configurable from the Settings UI or [appearance] / [behavior] (tab_strip_height, tab_strip_bg, tab_strip_active_bg, tab_strip_active_text, tab_strip_inactive_text, tab_strip_opacity, tab_close_action).
LeopardWM ships two interchangeable CLI binaries — both invoke the same code:
| Binary | When to use |
|---|---|
leopardwm-cli | Canonical name. Use in docs, scripts, and shared examples. |
lwm | Short alias for daily typing. |
Examples below use whichever is shorter for the line.
lwm run # start the daemon (idempotent — no-op if already running)
lwm stop # stop the daemon
lwm status # show version, monitor count, window count, uptime
lwm query workspace # current workspace placements as JSON
lwm query focused # focused window info
lwm query all-windows # every managed window across all workspaces
Most users drive the layout via hotkeys, but every hotkey has a CLI equivalent — useful for scripting or AutoHotkey integration.
lwm focus left | right | up | down
lwm move left | right # move focused column
lwm move-window up | down # reorder within a column
lwm workspace 3 # switch to workspace 3
lwm toggle-floating
lwm toggle-fullscreen
lwm autostart enable # writes HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
lwm autostart disable # removes it
This is also exposed as a Settings UI toggle and a tray menu item.
lwm subscribe # all events, newline-delimited JSON
lwm subscribe --events workspace,focused_window # filtered subset
lwm subscribe | jq # pretty-printed in another terminal
After the daemon answers Subscribed, the connection stays open and streams IpcEvent frames (workspace_changed, focused_window_changed, layout_changed, config_reloaded, heartbeat) as state changes occur. Pipe into a status bar (Yasb, eww, custom Tauri/Electron widgets) to re-render on each event without polling. Full schemas + sample clients in agent_docs/ipc-events.md.
lwm doctor # diagnostic checks (config valid, daemon reachable, hotkey conflicts, etc.)
lwm collect-logs # bundles logs + crash reports into a zip for bug reports
lwm reload # reload config from disk without restarting
lwm refresh # re-enumerate windows after weird state
lwm panic-revert # emergency: uncloak everything, drop daemon out of management
Run lwm help (or lwm --help) for the full surface — there are ~40 subcommands.
> Note: Crate names and on-disk paths still use leopardwm internally. A full crate rename is future work.
| Item | Path |
|---|---|
| Config | %APPDATA%\leopardwm\config\config.toml |
| State | %APPDATA%\leopardwm\data\workspace-state.json |
| Log (stdout) | %TEMP%\leopardwm-daemon.log |
| Log (stderr) | %TEMP%\leopardwm-daemon.err.log |
LeopardWM is a Rust workspace with five crates:
| Crate | Responsibility |
|---|---|
leopardwm-core-layout | Platform-agnostic scrolling layout engine |
leopardwm-platform-win32 | Win32 integration, window operations, DwmFlush animation engine |
leopardwm-ipc | Named-pipe command/response protocol |
leopardwm-daemon | Runtime event loop, state management, dedicated message-pump threads |
leopardwm-cli | User-facing CLI (also installed as lwm for shorter typing) |
LeopardWM is a window controller, not a compositor. DWM remains the compositor. Elevated or protected windows may reject placement/styling changes, and behavior can vary across app frameworks (Win32, WPF, Electron, UWP).
LeopardWM automatically skips certain windows that should never be tiled. You can add your own rules via [[window_rules]] in the config, but these are always active.
These windows are filtered out during enumeration and never enter the layout engine:
| Class | Why |
|---|---|
Progman | Program Manager (desktop) |
Shell_TrayWnd / Shell_SecondaryTrayWnd | Taskbar |
WorkerW | Desktop worker |
Windows.UI.Core.CoreWindow | UWP system windows |
XamlExplorerHostIslandWindow / TopLevelWindowForOverflowXamlIsland | XAML islands |
RAIL_WINDOW | WSLg RemoteApp — RDP-projected Linux windows that break when repositioned |
Ghost | DWM hung-window replacement — tiling would duplicate the original |
#32770 | Standard Win32 dialog (Open/Save/Print/Properties) |
Chrome_RenderWidgetHostHWND | Internal Electron/Chrome render widget, not a real window |
These processes are ignored via built-in window rules (action = ignore):
| Executable | Why |
|---|---|
smartscreen.exe | Windows Defender SmartScreen |
consent.exe | UAC elevation prompt |
msiexec.exe | Windows Installer |
CredentialUIBroker.exe | Windows credential/login prompt |
SnippingTool.exe | Screen capture overlay |
The focus border tries to match each window's actual corner radius. Apps that explicitly set DWMWA_WINDOW_CORNER_PREFERENCE are honored (DONOTROUND → 0 px, ROUNDSMALL → 4 px, ROUND → 8 px); everything else falls back to the 8 px Win11 default.
Some apps draw their own non-DWM-composited frame with square corners while still reporting the OS default — Firefox / Zen Picture-in-Picture popups are the most common example. Override the corner style per window rule:
[[window_rules]]
match_class = "MozillaDialogClass"
corner_style = "square" # also: "rounded" | "small_rounded"
The MozillaDialogClass → square rule ships in the default config as a working example. Open Settings → Window rules and use the Corners column (Auto / Square / Rounded / Small rounded) to edit, remove, or add new rules for other apps.
If you find LeopardWM useful, consider supporting development:
See CONTRIBUTING.md.