Rectangle Mac: Shortcuts and Snap Zones for Window Layout

What Rectangle does on a Mac

Rectangle is a free, open-source window manager for macOS. It does not replace the windows you already use. It sits beside the apps you run and performs one job: it puts the frontmost window into the layout position you ask for, without making you drag an edge and judge the result by eye.

The app gives you two ways to ask.

• The keyboard: hold a modifier combination and press a layout key, and the frontmost window moves to that position.
• The pointer: drag a window to a screen edge or corner, pause, and release. The window snaps into the region that edge represents.

Both routes end in the same place, and most people settle into a mix of the two: keys for the halves and quarters they use every hour, drag zones for the one-off arrangement that does not deserve a shortcut.

Two expectations are worth setting before you install. Rectangle is not an automatic tiling window manager, so it will not lay out new windows for you, and it does not change how macOS draws or animates windows. It acts only on the windows you already have, only when you ask.

What to check before you install

Three checks remove most of the confusion people run into after a first install.

• Your macOS release. Every build supports a defined range of macOS versions, and that range moves as the project follows the platform. Compare your version against the project's own release notes before you download. An older Mac that cannot run the current build is the one situation configuration cannot fix.
• Existing window tools and shortcut habits. Two window managers on the same Mac will compete for the same keys. If another layout tool is already installed, decide which one owns the layout bindings before you add a second.
• Your permission appetite. macOS does not let one app move another app's windows without an explicit grant. Rectangle needs Accessibility permission for window control, and the layout actions stay inert until you approve it.

Your setup is ready to install when the macOS version is inside the supported range, no other tool claims the layout shortcuts you intend to use, and you are comfortable granting Accessibility permission to a window manager.

Install Rectangle on macOS

With Homebrew

If Homebrew is already on the Mac, the cask is the shortest path. The command shape is brew install --cask <token>, where the token is the cask entry for the app. Confirm the exact token before you run the install, because cask names do not always match the name on the app's own page.

brew search rectangle
brew install --cask <token>

Homebrew keeps upgrades in the same command family, so a cask install also gives you a routine way to move to a later build. Read the release notes before you upgrade: a new build can change or add shortcuts.

From the project's release page

Download the asset that the project publishes for your macOS version. Two habits matter here. Take the file from the project's own release page rather than a mirror or a bundle site, and note which release you installed. Window-manager behaviour follows the build, and the shortcut list is one of the things that can change between releases. If the project publishes checksums or signatures, compare them before you open the app.

Build it from source

If you want a specific commit, or you want to read the code that will move your windows before you run it, build the app yourself. The project is a standard macOS codebase: clone the repository, install the Xcode command line tools, and use the Makefile targets the project documents. The Makefile names in this family of projects typically include make app, make test, and make dist; confirm the target names in the repository README before you run them. Running the test target first is the cheap check, and the distribution target produces the bundle you keep.

If macOS blocks the first launch

A build that was not notarised will be stopped by Gatekeeper the first time you open it. The supported route is System Settings -> Privacy & Security, where the blocked app appears with an Open Anyway button. The command-line equivalent, for a build whose provenance you have already checked, is:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/<App>.app

The command removes the quarantine flag from that one bundle, which is exactly why it is worth pausing over. Run it for a release you trust, not for a file from an unknown mirror.

Permissions Rectangle asks for, and why

macOS separates "this app can see the screen" from "this app can control other apps". Rectangle needs the second category.

• Accessibility. This is the permission that allows an app to move and resize windows that belong to other applications. Without it, the shortcuts and drag zones have no effect. Grant it in System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Accessibility, then restart the app if the toggle does not take effect immediately.
• Screen Recording. Some builds and some features read screen content and therefore ask for Screen Recording as well. It is a broader grant than window control, so approve it only when the app actually asks, and treat it as a separate decision from Accessibility.

Both permissions can be revoked from the same settings pane, and macOS sometimes requires you to re-approve an app after an update replaces the binary. If a layout action stops working after an update, check this pane before you troubleshoot anything else.

The keyboard workflow, step by step

The keyboard route is where the tool earns its place. Work through it once deliberately, then let it become muscle memory.

1. Bring the window you want to arrange to the front, and leave it focused. Layout actions apply to the frontmost window of the app you are using.
2. Open the app's shortcut list and read it once, from top to bottom. Whether you keep the defaults or change them, you should know which modifier combination owns layout, because that is the one you will press hundreds of times.
3. Run the layout actions you actually need. In this class of tool the useful set is small: left and right halves, top and bottom halves, the four quarters, centre, maximise or fill, restore to the previous frame, send to the next display, and grow or shrink the window in place.
4. Check the result after each action rather than after a chain of them. If a window lands in the wrong region, the cause is usually a missing binding or a conflict, not the window.
5. Finish a layout the way you would use it in real work: four presses for a two-by-two grid of four windows, one press to restore the window you moved most recently.

The value of the keyboard workflow is that it removes the pointer from the layout loop. Resizing by dragging a window edge is a two-step aim: move to the edge, then judge the size. A shortcut collapses both steps into one keystroke you can make without looking.

Drag-to-edge and corner snap zones

The pointer route mirrors the keyboard layouts onto the screen itself. Start dragging a window, move the pointer to a screen edge or corner, and release. Left and right edges produce half-screen layouts, corners produce quarter layouts, and the top edge produces a full-height or maximised window, depending on the settings you choose. Some builds highlight the region before you release; if yours does, the highlight is the confirmation that the window knows where it is going.

Three details decide whether drag zones feel reliable.

• Start from the window's own drag surface. The snap applies while macOS is moving a window, so an element inside the page that swallows the drag will not trigger it.
• Pause before you release. The region needs a moment to register on some setups, and a fast flick can land the window in the previous position.
• Check the corner zones on a small screen. Quarter regions in the corners are the smallest targets, and they are the first to feel fiddly when the display is small or the cursor is accelerated.

If a drag does nothing at all, the app is not running, the Accessibility grant is missing, or the snap feature is switched off in the settings. Check those three before you change anything else.

Custom shortcuts, sizes, and layouts

Defaults are a starting point, and the tool expects you to rewrite them.

• Rebind the actions you use. Assign a binding to every layout action you press often, and remove or change the ones that collide with habits you already have.
• Add custom sizes. If the version you install exposes custom dimensions, a centred 70 percent column or a fixed reading width is more useful than another exact half.
• Adjust grid and gap settings. Spacing and grid behaviour belong to preference, and the defaults assume a generic monitor. If windows feel cramped or the snap regions feel narrow, these settings are the place to look.
• Avoid the system's own keys. Mission Control, Spotlight, input-source switching, and screenshot shortcuts belong to macOS. Keep the layout bindings in a modifier family that the system does not already use, and keep them consistent across every action.
• Write the bindings down. A local note is enough. It survives the relearning that follows every update and makes conflicts obvious the next time you install something.

Multiple displays, Spaces, and full-screen windows

The behaviour that surprises people most is not the layout. It is the context the layout happens in.

Multiple displays. A layout action applies to the display that holds the window, not the display that holds the pointer. When the two differ, move the window first and snap it afterwards. Displays with different scaling or a changed arrangement can shift what "half" means in pixels, so re-check the layout after you rearrange monitors.

Spaces. Each Space holds its own set of windows. A shortcut acts on the frontmost window of the current Space, and a window on another Space stays where it is. If a command appears to do nothing, confirm you are looking at the Space that contains the window.

Full-screen windows. A full-screen app occupies its own Space, and window managers do not arrange it. Leave full screen first, then snap the window. The same applies to windows that an app has put into a special presentation state.

The limits are worth understanding

• It is not a tiling window manager. Windows stay where you put them. If you expect every new window to find its own place, that expectation belongs to a different kind of tool.
• Supported macOS range. The current build targets a defined range of macOS versions. Macs outside that range do not get a partial version of the behaviour; they are simply not the target.
• Shortcut conflicts. Any other tool that arranges windows, and some of macOS's own accessibility features, can claim the same combination. A shortcut that stops working is usually a shortcut that was taken.
• Permission friction. Accessibility is a per-app grant that macOS can require again after an update. Budget for one settings visit after a major update.
• Drag zones on small screens. Corner regions are small by definition. On a laptop display the quarter zones can be a precision task, and a fast drag can snap a window when you meant to move it across the screen.
• Configuration is local. Bindings and custom sizes live with the installation, so a second Mac starts from the defaults.

License summary

"Free to download" and "free to use however you like" are different statements, and the difference is written in the project's licence file.

• The authoritative text is the LICENSE file in the repository, for the release you actually installed. A summary on a download page, including this one, is not the licence.
• A permissive licence is what allows reuse. If you plan to bundle the app in a company image, redistribute it, or ship it inside a product, read the licence before you do. Companies that require a licence review will ask for that file, not for the download page.
• Zero price is not a licence. A tool can be free of charge and still restrict redistribution, and the reverse is also possible.
• The release you use is the version the licence covers. If a project changes its licence, the text attached to the build you keep is the text that applies to that build.

Should you use it?

Use Rectangle when you want a keyboard-first way to arrange the windows you already have, you like the idea of snapping by dragging to an edge, and you are willing to spend one sitting learning and rebinding shortcuts. The install is short, the permission is a single grant, and the payoff, a two-by-two desktop reached in four keystrokes, shows up the same day.

Choose a different approach when your workflow needs windows to arrange themselves, when your layouts have to be scripted or driven from a terminal, or when your Mac runs a macOS release outside the current build's range. It is also reasonable to stay with a window manager you already know: two of them on one Mac cost more than either one gives you.

Project facts to verify

Release-specific facts change between builds, so this table points to the authority for each one instead of freezing a value that will age badly.

Two habits close the loop. Keep the release tag next to the app you installed, and re-read the shortcut list after every upgrade. Both cost a minute, and both turn a stopped shortcut from a mystery into a check.