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Quilt needs macOS 26 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon.

1. Install. Download Quilt, open the disk image and drag Quilt into your Applications folder. Open it. Quilt lives in the menu bar: there is no Dock icon to look for.
2. Activate. Setup starts with an Activate step. Paste the license key from your purchase email and press Activate. No key yet? Buy Quilt.
3. Allow Accessibility. macOS asks once. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Accessibility, and switch Quilt on. Quilt uses this to move and resize windows, and for nothing else. Setup moves on by itself as soon as you allow it.
4. Pick a layout. Choose Grid, Columns, Rows or Side, and how many windows share a screen. You can change both at any time from the menu bar.
5. Start tiling. Nothing moves until you press the last button. Then open two or three windows: they find their places.

Want Quilt to start with your Mac? Switch on Open Quilt when I log in, in Settings, General.

Where it lives. Keep Quilt in your Applications folder: it can update itself there. If you open it from the disk image or from Downloads, Quilt offers to move itself into Applications. If you quit Quilt from its menu, it disappears from the menu bar. Open it again from Applications, Launchpad or Spotlight (press ⌘Space and type Quilt).

Layouts

A layout is the shape your screen is divided into. Quilt has four, for one to five windows on a screen.

Choose how many windows share a screen with ⌃⌥ and a number from 1 to 5, or from the menu bar panel. Windows that are already open rearrange at once.

Set the gap between windows from 0 to 24 points in Settings, General. In Grid and Side the first window is the big one: press ⌃⌥= or ⌃⌥− to step it between half, 60% and two-thirds of the screen.

Opening and closing windows

• A new window takes the next free tile. If you prefer, Settings can send a new window to the big tile instead (Settings, General, A new window).
• Close a window and the others grow to use the room. No gap is left behind.
• Arrange everything again with ⌃⌥. if you have pulled things around and want a fresh start.
• Pause Quilt with ⌃⌥T. Press it again to resume.

Stacks

When there are more windows than tiles, the extras share a tile instead of floating over the others. A small pill on the tile shows how many windows are in it. Click it, or press ⌃⌥], to bring the next window forward; ⌃⌥[ goes back.

Prefer extra windows to float? In Settings, General, set When a screen is full to Float in the middle. You can also turn the pill off in Settings, Focus, under On each window.

Moving and resizing

• Swap two windows: drag a window by its title bar onto another tile, or press ⌃⌥ and an arrow key.
• Resize: drag the edge between two windows and the others make room. Or use ⌃⌥= and ⌃⌥− to give the big window more or less room (half, 60% or two-thirds of the screen), and ⌃⌥0 to make everything equal again.
• Make a window the big one with ⌃⌥Return.
• Let one window float (untouched by Quilt) with ⌃⌥F; press it again to tile it.
• The hover bar is an optional bar over each window with Big, Fill and Float buttons. Switch it on in Settings, Focus, under On each window.

Focus, Dim and Clean screen

• Focus (⌃⌥Z) fills the screen with one window. The same key puts everything back.
• Dim (⌃⌥D) darkens every other window so the one you are using stands out. Settings, Focus, sets how dark.
• Clean screen (⌃⌥E) turns a screen into a plain background behind the window you are using, handy for sharing or presenting. Press it again and everything returns. Your other screens are not touched.
• Mark the window you are in with a border on it, or with borders on every window, in Settings, Focus. Or choose Nothing.
• Switch by resting the pointer on a window, with a short wait you choose, if you want the window under the pointer to become active without a click.

Several screens

Each screen keeps its own layout, its own number of windows, its own main-window size and its own dragged sizes: a laptop can use Columns while the monitor uses Grid. Turn on Same layout on every screen in Settings, General, if you would rather they match. ⌃⌥N sends the window you are using to the next screen.

Quilt can pause while Stage Manager is on, and picks up again when you turn it off.

All shortcuts

Every shortcut starts with ⌃⌥ (Control and Option) and then one key. You can change the starting keys and any single shortcut in Settings, Keyboard: click it, then press the keys you want. ⌃⌥/ shows this list on your screen with your own keys.

Shortcuts are listed as ⌃⌥ plus the key. If another app already uses a combination, Settings tells you so when you try to set it.

Settings

Click the Quilt icon in the menu bar, then Settings.

Your license

• Where. Settings, About, License. Paste the key and press Activate. The first time, the Activate step in setup does the same.
• How many Macs. A Quilt key works on one Mac; a Quilt for two Macs key works on two.
• A new Mac. On the old Mac open Settings, About, License and press Deactivate. That gives the seat back. Then enter the same key on the new Mac.
• Checks. About once a week Quilt checks your key with our payment provider, Dodo Payments. If it cannot reach Dodo, Quilt keeps working. Only Dodo saying the key no longer counts, for example after a refund, takes a license away.
• Lost your key? Write to support@quiltmac.com from the address you bought with.
• Refunds. Purchases are final, with two exceptions: Quilt cannot run on your Mac, or you were charged twice or by mistake. See the refund policy.

There is no free trial. Quilt opens without a license, but it only starts arranging windows once a key is activated.

Updates

Quilt looks for updates once a day and asks before installing one. To look now, open Settings, About, and press Check for updates. Updates come from quiltmac.com and are signed, so Quilt can check they are ours.

When something is off

Quilt does not move any windows

• Check Accessibility: System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility, and Quilt switched on. If it was off, switch it on and open Quilt again.
• Check that tiling is on (⌃⌥T turns it on and off) and that the license is active in Settings, About.
• Windows that are minimised or in full screen are left alone.

One app will not tile

• Dialogs and windows that cannot be resized are left to float. That is on purpose.
• Quilt may have been told to leave the app alone. Look in Settings, Apps.

I asked for more tiles than I got

Some apps will not shrink below a minimum size. Quilt gives them the room they need and says why a screen holds fewer tiles than you asked for. Quilt remembers these apps in Settings, Apps.

A window is covering a stack pill

The pill belongs to the window on top of its tile. If another window covers that spot, the pill hides until it is clear again.

Still stuck?

Open Settings, About, and use Something not working. It prepares a problem report on your Mac: your versions, your layout settings and Quilt’s own recent log. You see all of it first, and it leaves only if you email it to support@quiltmac.com. It holds no window titles, documents, file names or personal names.

Privacy

Quilt needs one permission, Accessibility. It reads each window’s position, size and app name so it can arrange them, and a window’s title only while the window switcher is on screen. It never reads what is inside a window and never stores titles. There is no account and no analytics.

The app contacts the network for two things: to activate and check your license with Dodo Payments, and to look for updates on quiltmac.com. Read the full privacy policy.