PaperWM for Mac: PaperWM.spoon vs a native app

Why people want PaperWM on macOS

PaperWM is a GNOME Shell extension that replaces grid tiling with something calmer: every window sits on a horizontal strip that extends past the edge of the screen, and you scroll through it. Windows keep the size you gave them. Opening a new app never reshuffles your layout.

Once that idea clicks, grid-based tiling feels chaotic — and macOS users started looking for the same thing. The problem: PaperWM is built on GNOME internals, so it can never run on macOS. What exists instead are recreations of the model.

Option 1: PaperWM.spoon (Hammerspoon)

PaperWM.spoon is a free, open-source Lua script that runs inside Hammerspoon, the macOS automation toolkit. It faithfully recreates the scrolling layout: windows tile onto a strip, you slide focus left and right with keybindings, and off-screen windows park beyond the display edge.

Being a script has real trade-offs, though. You install and maintain Hammerspoon itself, configure everything in init.lua, and debug by reading a Lua console. It does include trackpad swipe scrolling and mouse-wheel scrolling, and companion Spoons add extras. Its README is candid about the limits of the script layer: off-screen windows sit in a visible margin at the screen edges, windows dragged between Spaces are hard to detect, and multiple displays should be arranged vertically. It's a tinkerer's tool, and proudly so — our PaperWM.spoon setup guide walks through it.

Option 2: Glidro (native app)

Glidro is a native macOS app built around the same scrolling model: an endless horizontal strip where new windows open beside the focused window by default and existing column widths remain stable. The difference is the execution layer — a native SwiftUI app with the Glidro Engine instead of a scripting layer:

• A trackpad swipe with adjustable sensitivity — three or four fingers sideways, then the strip glides to the nearest window, with motion synced to your display's refresh rate.
• A GUI for everything — width presets, focus behavior, and shortcut recording are all settings panels, not config files.
• Per-display strips and Spaces — each monitor and each macOS Space keeps its own independent layout.
• Window stacking — pile related windows into one column on the strip and scroll them together.

PaperWM.spoon vs Glidro

Which one should you pick?

Choose PaperWM.spoon if…

• you already use Hammerspoon and like configuring your tools in code;
• free and open source is a hard requirement;
• you want everything open source and scriptable in Lua.

Choose Glidro if…

• you want the PaperWM workflow to feel like a built-in part of macOS, with gestures and native settings;
• you'd rather click a settings panel than maintain a Lua file;
• you use multiple monitors or Spaces and want each to keep its own strip;
• you value having product support when something's weird with your setup.

Both are honest takes on the same great idea. The question is whether you want a project or a product.

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