What is a scrolling window manager? Definition, scrolling vs tiling, and every option
Scrolling (or scrollable tiling) window managers put windows on an endless horizontal strip you scroll through, instead of a grid that reflows. Here's the definition, how it compares with tiling and floating, where it came from, and which one to use on Linux, Windows or macOS.
updated october 2026 · 10 min read
definition
A scrolling window manager (also called scrollable tiling) arranges windows side by side in columns on an endless horizontal strip that extends past the screen's edges. Opening a window adds a column next to the focused one and never resizes the others. You move between windows by scrolling the strip with keys, a trackpad or a mouse.
The idea in one picture
Picture a camera panning across a long desk. Every window has a fixed place on the desk, and your monitor is a viewport onto part of it. When you want a different window, the camera slides over; nothing on the desk moves or shrinks. That's the whole model, and two properties follow from it:
Windows keep their size. A window is as wide as you made it, whether the strip holds two windows or twenty.
New windows never cause reflow. Opening an app inserts a column next to the one you're in. Nothing else moves.
niri's README puts it in one line: windows are arranged in columns on an infinite strip going to the right, and "opening a new window never causes existing windows to resize."
Scrolling vs tiling vs floating
All three are ways of deciding where windows go. The difference is who decides, and what happens when you run out of screen:
Floating (stacking)
Tiling (grid / BSP)
Scrolling (strip)
Who places windows
You, by hand
The window manager
The window manager
Overlap
Windows overlap freely
Never
Never
Where windows live
Anywhere on screen
Inside the visible screen, always
On a strip that continues past the edges
Open a new window
It lands on top of others
Every window on screen gets smaller
A new column appears; nothing else resizes
Ten windows open
A pile you dig through
Ten small tiles, or spread over workspaces
Ten comfortable columns, a scroll apart
Navigate
Click, Alt/⌘-Tab
Focus left/right/up/down in the grid
Scroll the strip (keys, trackpad, wheel)
Best at
Casual use, overlapping palettes
Seeing many windows at once
Focused work on 1–2 windows with the rest close by
Scrolling is best understood as tiling without the fixed-size constraint. A classic tiler has to fit everything into the visible screen, so every new window takes space from the others. Drop that rule and the layout grows sideways instead of subdividing. You lose "see everything at once" and gain layouts that never change behind your back. For in-depth Mac comparisons see vs yabai, vs AeroSpace and, for snapping tools, vs Rectangle.
Every notable scrolling window manager, by OS
Checked against each project's repository on 6 October 2026. Versions change quickly in this space, so the links go to the official pages.
Also in the family: papersway (scrollable tiling on top of sway/i3, listed in niri's README) and Nehir (a scrolling-only fork of OmniWM for macOS). Cardboard was an early scrollable Wayland compositor but has been inactive since 2023. The Hyprland plugin hyprscroller is archived now that Hyprland has a built-in layout.
Try it right here — this is a working model of ChainYourMac, not a video.
SafariFileEditViewWindowHelpThu 9:41
Safari
chainyourmac.com
Terminal
~/project ❯ git status On branch main nothing to commit ~/project ❯ cargo test running 42 tests test result: ok ~/project ❯
Code
Notes
Chat
Music
Mail
Design
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.
Notarized by Apple
Signed with Developer ID
No account, no telemetry in the app
Only needs the Accessibility permission
Automatic updates
A short history
The model was popularised by PaperWM, a GNOME Shell extension whose GitHub repository dates from 2017. The name nods to the "paper" metaphor of windows on a continuous roll. For years it was a much-loved niche tool among GNOME users, and it still tracks current GNOME releases.
In 2023 niri arrived: a from-scratch Wayland compositor in Rust, with scrollable tiling as its core idea. Its first release was in November 2023 and v0.1.0 followed in January 2024. Its README says it is "heavily inspired by PaperWM", and that one motivation was separating monitors properly, which a GNOME extension has to fight the Shell to do. niri's polish turned "scrolling window manager" from one extension's quirk into a category. Karousel brought the idea to KDE the same year (see niri vs PaperWM for how the two originals differ).
From 2025 the idea spread to mainstream tilers. komorebi on Windows added a scrolling layout in September 2025, Hyprland made scrolling a built-in layout in v0.54 (February 2026), and sway users got the scroll fork. macOS got there through Hammerspoon scripts (PaperWM.spoon) and native apps: ChainYourMac, which began with the line "niri wasn't for Mac, so I made one", and the open-source OmniWM for macOS 26 Tahoe.
The core interactions
Every scrolling window manager is built from the same small set of verbs:
Focus left / right walks the strip, and the focused column slides into view.
Move left / right reorders columns without resizing anything.
Preset widths cycle a column through sizes you chose (a third, a half, two thirds), which replaces fiddly edge-dragging.
Maximize / center gives the focused column the whole width, or pulls it to the middle.
Consume / expel stacks windows into one column, or pops them back out. Some implementations also show a column as tabs.
Scroll gestures: a horizontal trackpad swipe drags the strip, which is where the "scrolling" feels most literal.
There's no layout tree and no split directions to plan. The strip is the whole data structure. If you know niri's binds, here's how they map to a Mac.
Why people prefer it, and who it's not for
No reflow. In a grid tiler, opening a terminal can shrink your editor mid-thought. On a strip, layouts are stable by construction.
Spatial memory. The strip has a geography: notes on the far left, editor in the middle, browser to the right.
Laptop-friendly. On a 13-inch screen a grid of five windows means five unusable windows. A strip shows one or two comfortable ones and keeps the rest a swipe away (small screens).
Ultrawide-friendly. Three or four columns side by side on a 34" or 49" monitor, none stretched absurdly wide (ultrawides).
Honestly, if your work depends on seeing six windows at once in a fixed dashboard (monitoring, trading, support queues), a grid tiler serves you better. Scrolling optimises for focused work with fast access to the rest, not for maximum simultaneous visibility.
Which one should you use?
On Linux
Building your own Wayland desktop: niri. It's the reference implementation.
Happy on GNOME: PaperWM. On KDE Plasma: Karousel.
Already on Hyprland or sway: switch Hyprland to its scrolling layout, or try the scroll fork of sway, and keep the rest of your setup.
On Windows
komorebi's scrolling layout is the established option. Check its license if you'll use it at work.
On macOS
macOS 13 Ventura to 15 Sequoia:ChainYourMac if you want a native app with GUI settings and trackpad scrolling; PaperWM.spoon if you enjoy Lua and Hammerspoon.
macOS 26 Tahoe: all of the above, plus the free OmniWM.
A window manager that arranges windows side by side in columns on a strip that extends past the edges of the screen. Opening a window adds a column without resizing the others, and you move between windows by scrolling the strip with the keyboard, a trackpad or a mouse. It's also called scrollable tiling.
Is a scrolling window manager the same as a tiling window manager?
It's a kind of tiling window manager with one big difference. Both place windows automatically without overlap, but a classic tiler (grid, BSP, master-stack) fits every window inside the visible screen, so each new window shrinks the others. A scrolling window manager lets the layout grow sideways past the screen, so windows keep their size.
Which was the first scrolling window manager?
PaperWM, a GNOME Shell extension whose GitHub repository dates from 2017, is the best-known early implementation and the one niri's README credits as its inspiration. niri followed in 2023 and made the term mainstream on Linux.
Is there a scrolling window manager for Windows?
Yes: komorebi added a scrolling layout in v0.1.38 (September 2025). komorebi is free for personal use; using it at work needs a paid commercial license. We didn't find a scrolling layout in GlazeWM.
What's the best scrolling window manager for Linux?
On a Wayland setup you build yourself, niri. On GNOME, PaperWM. On KDE Plasma, Karousel. If you already use Hyprland, its built-in scrolling layout; if you use sway, the scroll fork. See the table above.
Does scrollable tiling work with multiple monitors?
Yes, in most implementations each display gets its own independent strip — niri and ChainYourMac both work this way. Karousel's README notes it doesn't support multiple screens yet.
Why do people prefer scrolling over grid tiling?
Windows never change size behind your back, the left-to-right strip matches spatial memory, and it works well on both small laptop screens (one or two comfortable windows instead of five cramped ones) and ultrawide monitors.