sway-workspace-extras

This application contains a set of additional Sway commands. Use

sway-workspace-extras --help

to see the supported commands. Currently those are:

• next
• prev
• move-next
• move-prev
• shift

The next section contains more detailed information about them and how they are different than the built-in Sway commands.

The commands are highly influenced by the way I use Sway workspaces. I want to keep the workspaces of the same output next to each other and avoid any intermediate workspaces on a different output. I also don't like the wrap around to the first or last workspace of the built-in commands. Instead I want the possibility to easily create new empty intermediate and trailing workspaces to open windows on them.

The commands might not be useful for you if you have a different workflow than me.

Command Description

next

This command is similar to the workspace next command. It moves the focus to the next workspace on the current output. But there are key differences regarding output handling, wrap around and gaps between workspaces.

The command will never move to a workspace on a different output. It only targets workspaces that are on the same output.

Furthermore it doesn't move to the first workspace if you are currently on the last workspace of the current output and execute the command. Instead it will move to a new empty trailing workspace. This makes opening a window on a fresh workspace fairly simple.

It also move to missing (w.r.t the number) workspaces that are between the first and last workspace on the current output.

prev

This command is similar to the workspace prev command. It moves the focus to the previous workspace on the current output. But it will not move to the last workspaces if you are currently on the first workspace. It will never move to a workspace on a different output but will move the focus to missing workspaces between the first and last one on the current output.

move-next

This command moves the focused container to the next workspace and then also moves the focus to the next workspace. So it is similar to a combination of move container to workspace <num> and workspace next.

Most of the described behavior of the sway-workspace-extras next command also applies to this command. One notable difference is the behavior on the last workspace. This command will not do anything if the last workspace contains only the focused window.

move-prev

This command moves the focused container to the previous workspace and then also moves the focus to the previous workspace. So it is similar to a combination of move container to workspace <num> and workspace prev.

The same described behavior of the sway-workspace-extras prev command also applies to this command.

shift

This command creates a new empty workspace after the current one. It does this by incrementing the workspaces number of the successors. If the next workspace is already empty it does nothing.