cowrearrange(1)
cowrearrange(1) cowrearrange - rearrange windows on a given desk cowrearrange(1)

cowrearrange - tile or cascade the windows on a given desk

cowrearrange tile [-o output] [-d desk] [--rows N] [--cols N] [-r|-R] [-i] [-m] [-x SELECTOR ...]
cowrearrange cascade [-o output] [-d desk] [--dx N] [--dy N] [-r|-R] [-i] [-m] [-x SELECTOR ...]

cowrearrange arranges the windows on a desk into a tile (grid) or cascade layout.

Two subcommands are supported:

tile

Fill the area with a grid of non-overlapping windows, one per window. By default the grid is approximately square; a partially-filled last row stretches its cells to use the full width. -r (default for tile) resizes each window to fill its cell; -R preserves the current window sizes and only repositions.

cascade

Stack the windows diagonally with a fixed pixel step between consecutive windows. The default step is taken from the first window's title-bar thickness plus border width so each cascaded window's titlebar peeks out below the previous one. -R (default for cascade) preserves each window's current size; -r resizes every window to the same dimensions so the last cascaded window's bottom-right edge meets the bottom-right of the workarea.

By default only the current output's desk is rearranged.

-o output

Target an output name or selector. Selectors are @N, @current, @next, and @prev, with the same meaning as in cow(1). Defaults to @current.

-d desk

Target the desk number desk (0-indexed) on the chosen output. Defaults to the current desk.

--rows N

tile only: fix the number of rows. When only --rows is given, the number of columns is computed from the window count and N. Combine with --cols to specify the grid exactly.

--cols N

tile only: fix the number of columns. When only --cols is given, rows are computed from the window count and N.

--dx N

cascade only: horizontal pixel step between successive windows. Default: first window's title_thickness + border_width.

--dy N

cascade only: vertical pixel step between successive windows. Default: first window's title_thickness + border_width.

-r

Resize windows to fit the layout. Default for tile. Resized windows are also marked tiled so clients that normally resize in increments can honour the exact layout geometry.

-R

Place only, do not resize. Default for cascade.

-i

Include maximised and shaded windows. By default these are skipped because their geometry is owned by the maximise / shade state and a plain move would silently break the invariant.

-m, --maximize

Mark each window maximised while retaining its original geometry. Unmaximising the window restores it to its previous geometry.

-x SELECTOR, --exclude SELECTOR

Exclude any window matching SELECTOR from the candidate set. Repeatable: a window is dropped if it matches the selector on any -x occurrence. SELECTOR follows the same window-selector syntax cow uses for -t on its own commands:

%app_id -- exact match against the window's app_id.
#id -- exact match against the river window id (the value reported as "id" by moocow show -a window).
/text/ -- title substring match. Trailing / optional; /foo and /foo/ behave identically.

If a container member is excluded by app_id or title, the rest of the container's members are NOT pulled in as a substitute -- containers still count as a single layout entity, and excluding the active member excludes the container.

# Tile the current desk into an approximately square grid.
cowrearrange tile

# Tile windows and retain the resulting geometry as their maximised state.
cowrearrange tile -m

# Tile into exactly three columns, preserving window sizes.
cowrearrange tile --cols 3 -R

# Cascade the current desk's windows, resizing them all to the same
# size so the last window's bottom-right lines up with the workarea.
cowrearrange cascade -r

# Cascade only on the right-hand monitor.
cowrearrange cascade -o DP-2

# Tile desk 2 on DP-1, including maximised / shaded windows.
cowrearrange tile -o DP-1 -d 2 -i

# Tile the current desk but leave the firefox window alone.
cowrearrange tile -x %firefox

# Cascade everything except Slack and any window with "Preferences"
# in its title.
cowrearrange cascade --exclude %Slack --exclude /Preferences/

cow(1), moocow(1), cowpager(1), cowident(1)

Thomas Adam <thomas@xteddy.org>

2026-08-30 0.2-34-ge7151ab