Karousel is a KWin script, so it only runs inside KDE Plasma. The way it works does carry over to a Mac. Here's what comes closest, and how Karousel's default shortcuts map to macOS.
Karousel is a "scrollable tiling KWin script" for KDE Plasma, so it can't run on macOS. What it does, putting windows in columns on a strip you scroll through, works fine on a Mac. ChainYourMac is a native scrolling window manager for macOS 13 or later, and unlike Karousel today it gives every display its own strip. OmniWM is a free option if you're on macOS 26 Tahoe, and PaperWM.spoon is free on older versions if you don't mind Hammerspoon.
Try it right here — this is a working model of ChainYourMac, not a video.
A working model of ChainYourMac, not a video. Drag a title bar to reorder, click a Dock icon to open an app, close a window with its red button. In the real app you hold ⌃⌥ with each key. The demo answers to both.
Karousel describes itself as a "scrollable tiling Kwin script". It runs inside KWin, the window manager of KDE Plasma, and arranges your windows in columns on a strip that carries on past the edge of the screen. Its README says it "works especially well with ultrawide screens". It's free and GPL-3.0, and it's still active: v0.18 came out in October 2026.
It's the KDE member of a family. PaperWM does the same on GNOME, niri is a whole Wayland compositor built around the idea, and Hyprland now ships a scrolling layout too. The scrolling window manager explainer covers all of them.
Karousel's README is upfront about its limits. It doesn't support multiple screens, windows shown on all desktops, or windows on several activities.
A KWin script is code that KWin loads and runs. Without KDE Plasma there's no KWin, and macOS draws its windows with its own window server, which no third-party app can replace. So Karousel can't be installed on a Mac, now or later.
Mac window managers work differently. They're ordinary apps that move other apps' windows through macOS's Accessibility API while Apple keeps drawing everything. That's enough to rebuild Karousel's layout, but not compositor tricks like animations that bend or blur windows.
ChainYourMac is a scrolling window manager for Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 13 Ventura or later. It's a SwiftUI app with a Rust engine, notarized by Apple, and it doesn't need any SIP changes. You set it up in a settings window rather than a config file. Each display has its own strip with its own focus and scroll position, which covers the multi-monitor case Karousel doesn't handle yet. It's paid ($19.99 one time) and closed source.
OmniWM is free and open source, with Niri-style scrolling plus a Dwindle BSP layout. It needs macOS 26 Tahoe on Apple silicon and uses its own workspaces rather than macOS Spaces. Full comparison: OmniWM vs ChainYourMac.
PaperWM.spoon brings PaperWM's layout to macOS as a Hammerspoon Spoon. It's free (MIT) and configured in Lua. Setup guide: PaperWM.spoon setup.
Karousel's defaults use Meta with A/D/W/S. On a Mac the ⌘ key belongs to apps, so ChainYourMac's defaults use ⌃⌥ with H/J/K/L or the arrows instead. Every ChainYourMac shortcut can be rebound in its Shortcuts screen, so you can rebuild Karousel's layout of keys if you prefer.
| Action | Karousel default | ChainYourMac default |
|---|---|---|
| Focus left / right | Meta+A / Meta+D | ⌃⌥H / ⌃⌥L (or ⌃⌥← / ⌃⌥→) |
| Focus up / down | Meta+W / Meta+S | ⌃⌥K / ⌃⌥J (or ⌃⌥↑ / ⌃⌥↓) |
| Focus first / last | Meta+Home / Meta+End | ⌃⌥⌘← / ⌃⌥⌘→ |
| Focus column N | Meta+[N] | ⌃⌥1 … 9 |
| Move window | Meta+Shift+A/D/W/S | ⌃⌥⇧ + the same keys |
| Move a window into the column beside it | Meta+Shift+A / D (moves into and out of columns) | ⌃⌥] / ⌃⌥[ to stack into the left / right column |
| Take a window out of its column | Meta+Shift+A / D | ⌃⌥⇧] / ⌃⌥⇧[ to pop out to the right / left |
| Show only the active window of a column | Meta+X (stacked layout) | ⌃⌥⇧T (tabbed column) |
| Cycle preset widths | Meta+R | ⌃⌥R |
| Wider / narrower | Meta+Ctrl++ / Meta+Ctrl+- | ⌃⌥= / ⌃⌥− |
| Center the focused window | Meta+Alt+Return | ⌃⌥C |
| Toggle floating | Meta+Space | ⌃⌥T |
| Multiple screens | Not supported (per its README) | One strip per display; ⌃⌥N sends a window to the next one |
| Configured in | KDE System Settings (KWin shortcuts) | A settings window; a TOML file exists but you never have to edit it |
Karousel has no direct equivalent in ChainYourMac for "equalize widths of visible columns" or for its scroll-only commands that move the view without changing focus. In ChainYourMac, moving focus scrolls the strip for you, and a three- or four-finger trackpad swipe moves the strip directly.
Want to see how it feels before deciding? Try the live demo on this page. It's a working model of ChainYourMac, not a video.
No. Karousel is a script for KWin, the window manager of KDE Plasma, so it needs a KDE desktop. macOS has its own window server that no other window manager can replace. On a Mac you use an app that recreates the scrolling layout instead.
A scrolling window manager: windows sit in columns on a strip that runs past the edge of the screen, just like in Karousel. On macOS the options are ChainYourMac (native app, macOS 13 or later), OmniWM (free, needs macOS 26 Tahoe) and PaperWM.spoon (free, runs on Hammerspoon). They're compared in the best scrolling window managers for Mac.
Not at the moment. Its README lists "Doesn't support multiple screens" as a limitation, along with windows on all desktops and windows on multiple activities. On a Mac, ChainYourMac gives each display its own strip, with its own focus and scroll position.
Yes, it's the same idea. Niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor, PaperWM is a GNOME Shell extension, and Karousel brings scrollable tiling to KDE Plasma as a KWin script. Niri's README lists Karousel among the projects that tile scrollably elsewhere. More: what a scrolling window manager is.
No. ChainYourMac only needs the Accessibility permission, the same one every Mac window manager asks for. OmniWM and PaperWM.spoon don't need SIP changes either.