Rift nearly unusable on multiple monitors

[ChristinWhite]

I'm absolutely loving Rift, it's so much more flexible than any other of the other macOS dynamic window managers with few tradeoffs.

However, one of the tradeoffs I just discovered when connecting a second display is that its multi-display support seems to be in a really rough place right now.

Unpredictable UX

When I start Rift with multiple displays it feels clunky and unpredictable. Every time I switch workspaces I don't know which display it will switch to, whether or not the windows assigned to that workspace will be visible or not or whether the unfocused display will also switch workspaces. I really miss Aerospace's single display spaces that can be assigned to one display or another.

Uncontrollable Window Flickering

The bigger problem, is that within a few workspace switches, or especially if I try to use rift-cli execute display move-window, Rift freaks out completely and has to be killed and restarted.

Config

[settings]
animate = false
animation_duration = 0.3
animation_fps = 100.3

# Space activation behavior
default_disable = false

# Mouse/Focus behavior
focus_follows_mouse = false
mouse_follows_focus = true
mouse_hides_on_focus = true

# Prevent certain apps from stealing focus/causing workspace switches
auto_focus_blacklist = []

# Run commands on start
run_on_start = []

# Hot Reloading
hot_reload = true

[settings.layout]
mode = "traditional"

# these settings only apply when layout mode == "master_stack"
[settings.layout.master_stack]
master_ratio = 0.7
master_count = 1
master_side = "left"
new_window_placement = "master"

# these settings only apply when layout mode == "scrolling"
[settings.layout.scrolling]
column_width_ratio = 0.6
min_column_width_ratio = 0.3
max_column_width_ratio = 1
alignment = "center"
focus_navigation_style = "niri"
animate = false

[settings.layout.scrolling.gestures]
enabled = false
invert_horizontal = false
fingers = 3
propagate_to_workspace_swipe = false

[settings.layout.stack]
stack_offset = 20.0

# Default stacking orientation when creating a new stack.
default_orientation = "perpendicular"

# Gap configuration
[settings.layout.gaps]

[settings.layout.gaps.outer]
top = 8
left = 8
bottom = 8
right = 8

[settings.layout.gaps.inner]
horizontal = 8
vertical = 8

[settings.ui.menu_bar]
enabled = true
show_empty = false
mode = "active"
active_label = "name"
display_style = "label"

[settings.ui.stack_line]
enabled = false
horiz_placement = "top"
vert_placement = "left"
thickness = 20.0
spacing = 1.0

# experimental mission control
[settings.ui.mission_control]
enabled = true
fade_enabled = false
fade_duration_ms = 180.0

# Trackpad gestures
[settings.gestures]
enabled = false
invert_horizontal_swipe = false
swipe_vertical_tolerance = 0.4
skip_empty = true
fingers = 3
distance_pct = 0.08
haptics_enabled = true
haptic_pattern = "level_change"

# Window snapping / drag-swap behavior
[settings.window_snapping]
drag_swap_fraction = 0.3

# Virtual workspaces
[virtual_workspaces]
enabled = true
default_workspace_count = 26
auto_assign_windows = true
preserve_focus_per_workspace = true
workspace_auto_back_and_forth = false
reapply_app_rules_on_title_change = false

# Workspace-specific rules
workspace_rules = [
	{ workspace = "󰭹 Chat", layout = "scrolling" },
	{ workspace = " Social", layout = "scrolling" },
]

# Default workspace to activate on startup (0-based index).
default_workspace = 0

# Workspace names (indexed order). If fewer than default_workspace_count are provided,
workspace_names = [
	"󰹑 Workspace 1", # 0
	"󰹑 Workspace 2", # 1 
	"󰹑 Workspace 3", # 2 
	"󰹑 Workspace 4", # 3 
	"󰹑 Workspace 5", # 4 
	"󰹑 Workspace 6", # 5 
	"󰹑 Workspace 7", # 6 
	"󰹑 Workspace 8", # 7 
	"󰹑 Workspace 9", # 8 
	" AI",          # 9 
	"󰀹 Browser",     # 10 
	"󰭹 Chat",        # 11 
	" Development", # 12 
	"󱧶 Files",       # 13 
	" Gaming",      # 14 
	" Inboxes",     # 15
	" Library",     # 16
	" Media",       # 17
	" Office",      # 18
	"󱞏 PKM",         # 19
	" Read",        # 20
	" Social",      # 21
	" Terminal",    # 22
	" Utility",     # 23
	" VM",          # 24
	"󰖟 Web",         # 25
]

# App rules (automatic assignment)
app_rules = [
	# Unmanaged
	{ app_id = "com.IdeaPunch.ColorSlurp", manage = false },
	{ app_id = "io.github.keycastr", manage = false },
	{ app_id = "com.chabomakers.Antinote", manage = false },

	# Floating
	{ app_id = "com.apple.systempreferences", floating = true },

	# AI
	{ app_id = "com.wearedevx.alter", workspace = " AI" },
	{ app_id = "com.wlly.janome.transcribex-setapp", workspace = " AI" },

	# Browser
	{ app_id = "cc.anybox.Anybox", workspace = "󰀹 Browser" },
	{ app_id = "net.imput.helium", title_substring = "QuicKey", floating = true },
	{ app_id = "net.imput.helium", workspace = "󰀹 Browser" },

	# Chat
	{ app_id = "org.equicord.equibop", workspace = "󰭹 Chat" },
	{ app_id = "com.apple.MobileSMS", workspace = "󰭹 Chat" },

	# Development

	# Files
	{ app_id = "com.jinghaoshe.qspace.pro", workspace = "󱧶 Files" },

	# Gaming
	{ app_id = "com.steam.steam", workspace = "󰓩 Gaming" },

	# Inboxes
	{ app_id = "com.apple.mail", workspace = "󰙯 Inboxes" },
	{ app_id = "com.fastmail.mac.Fastmail", workspace = "󰙯 Inboxes" },

	# Library
	{ app_id = "tw.ogdesign.eagle", workspace = " Library" },

	# Media
	{ app_id = "com.demusapp.app", workspace = " Media" },
	{ app_id = "com.microsoft.edgemac", workspace = " Media" },

	# Office

	# PKM
	{ app_id = "com.agiletortoise.Drafts-OSX", workspace = "󱞏 PKM" },
	{ app_id = "md.obsidian", workspace = "󱞏 PKM" },

	# Read
	{ app_id = "io.readwise.read", workspace = " Read" },
	{ app_id = "com.pentlandFirth.Unwatched", workspace = " Read" },

	# Social

	# Terminal
	{ app_id = "com.mitchellh.ghostty", workspace = " Terminal" },
	{ app_id = "com.github.wez.wezterm", workspace = " Terminal" },

	# Utility
	{ app_id = "com.peterborgapps.LingonX9", workspace = " Utility" },

	# VM

	# Web

]

[modifier_combinations]

[keys]

Note that I'm controlling Rift entirely via the CLI with Kanata and Hammerspoon bindings.

I'm not sure if it makes any difference but this is using Sidecar with my iPad as a second display, I can try second normal display later this week when back to my normal setup.

System

macOS Tahoe 26.3 (25D125)
Rift 0.4.0-alpha.3
Installed via: acsandmann/tap/rift

[acsandmann]

that is definitely not ideal... what is your display configuration(edit: by this i mean arrangement)? if you are able to run it as such RUST_LOG=debug rift, i would be curious to see the logs since this issue should have been resolved

[ChristinWhite]

I wondered if this might have been related to #70 but wasn't sure.

Arrangement is: two screens, my MacBook Pro on the left, an iPad Air 5th-gen on the right

query displays

[
  {
    "active_space_ids": [
      1
    ],
    "frame": {
      "origin": {
        "x": 0.0,
        "y": 45.0
      },
      "size": {
        "height": 1285.0,
        "width": 2048.0
      }
    },
    "inactive_space_ids": [],
    "is_active_context": false,
    "is_active_space": true,
    "name": "Built-in Display",
    "screen_id": 1,
    "space": 1,
    "uuid": "37D8832A-2D66-02CA-B9F7-8F30A301B230"
  },
  {
    "active_space_ids": [
      334
    ],
    "frame": {
      "origin": {
        "x": 2048.0,
        "y": 249.0
      },
      "size": {
        "height": 1081.0,
        "width": 1600.0
      }
    },
    "inactive_space_ids": [],
    "is_active_context": true,
    "is_active_space": true,
    "name": "Sidecar Display (AirPlay)",
    "screen_id": 5,
    "space": 334,
    "uuid": "0508FAD5-6F18-4452-846F-4A4B5D11EF19"
  }
]

RUST_LOG.txt

[Swoorup]

My issue is that rift doesn't allow using other monitor. If you grab a window from the main display and move it to another monitor, switching workspace will grab the window right back to the previous display and previous workspace.

What we need is a way to declare workspaces per monitor.

[brianwk]

The multi monitor support varies depending on the layout used. If you use traditional or bsp it works a lot better on multiple monitor setup.

[ChristinWhite]

The majority of my workspaces are traditional, I think @Swoorup explained what I was missing on the behavior on multiple monitors with it just pushing the current workspace to my second display when I switch to a different one. Where it was getting confusing is if I then tried to go back to the previous workspace on my primary display while it was open on the secondary display and expected that to return the windows to my primary.

While this is probably usable, if the flickering issue can be resolved, I don't think it's the ideal workflow, at least for me.

I think the ideal approach for my workflow would be to have workspaces belong to a single display (by default) and switching to that workspace would switch whatever display owns that workspace. I very much liked this setup on Aerospace.

It might be interesting to have selective support for multiple display workspaces where switching to it would switch all the displays it spans. Workspace rules seem like a good place to set these up and you could have a command like execute workspace expand --direction and execute workspace isolate. This might not work well if you have three or more displays though or when adding/removing a display if you're using a laptop and multiple setups.

I'd be curious to hear @acsandmann's thoughts on the workflow and if he intends to change or extend the current UX.

[alexgorbatchev]

I think it would be extremely useful to be able to disable workspaces for individual monitors. In some configurations, like mine per se, I cannot really have workspaces on monitors other than the main one simply because when windows are hidden on one monitor, they try to appear on the other one, which causes conflicts.

Here is what my monitor layout looks like:

[LG HDR 4K]          [DELL U3415W]    [Laptop]
3200x1769            1440x3409        1728x1083
(0, -1769)           (3200, -1668)    (4640, -1518)
                     (portrait)

[MAG321UP OLED]
3200x1769
(0, 31)

[acsandmann]

rift now intelligently chooses the hide corner so as long as one bottom corner does not have a display right under it things should be fine

[acsandmann]

https://nikitabobko.github.io/AeroSpace/guide#proper-monitor-arrangement

[jondeibel]

rift now intelligently chooses the hide corner so as long as one bottom corner does not have a display right under it things should be fine

This is absolutely lovely, thank you! It would be a super lovely UX on top of your fix if rift somehow yelled about a "bad" corner. I had to do some googling around to arrive at this issue to learn that my monitor arrangement was bad, and that is what was breaking it rather than a bug with the program.

[nickyhuyskens]

I was trying to use rift as it supports the niri scrolling layout. However enabling that with 2 monitors is also giving the same freaking out as shown in the video above

[brad-thomson]

I am having issues as well. Niri scrolling makes the flickering/scrolling behavior appear. I have checked to see if I have any "bad corners" and I don't.

I am also confused by how the monitors are assigned workspaces. I can never tell where I window is going to show up, or which of my assigned workspaces are where. I'm using named workspaces with app rules to assign certain apps to each one.

In aerospace each workspace can be assigned to a particular display and it stays there until I move it, so I can have terminal on display 1 and chat apps on display 2 etc. When I switch to terminal it autofocuses that app in display one. With rift if I'm on monitor two and want to switch to my workspace with the terminal, it seems to open that workspace on the second monitor and so now I have monitor one and monitor two both showing the same worksapce. With rift it seems like each display is it's own separate system that manages the workspaces separately. So I can't have workspace 1 on monitor 1 and workspace 2 on monitor 2 etc etc. Since Monitor one was workspace 1,2,3 etc all assigned to it and then Monitor two has workspace 1,2,3 assigned to it separately. Hopefully that makes sense.

I would love to use rift but have gone back to aerospace for now until stable. The flickering is the biggest killer as shown in orriginal issue. But the workspace switching/confusing is difficult as well.

[flschulz]

I unfortunately also have issues with multiple monitors. I'm currently using two monitors (one in horizontal and one in vertical setup). With AeroSpace everything is working as expected, but with rift I unfortunately also have problems with wild flickering. I can only solve the situation by killing rift and afterwards restarting it.
I would really like to switch to rift, as I like some things more than in AeroSpace, but the problem is that as soon as my Mac goes to sleep and wakes up afterwards, I always get this wild flickering.

Can that be related to a too low DISPLAY_CHURN_QUIET_NS value of 3 seconds? I'm also using the latest release.

[dagrlx]

This is also related to issue #269

It's a problem I've seen that has been difficult to solve.