OSX App-Spaces Manager

Run Apps and Spaces(Desktops) related tasks in OSX. If you want to open to open specific app in a specific space via command line, that's a good place to start.

Installation

npm install -g osx-app-spaces-manager

Configuration

1. Set up spaces shortcuts

There is no direct API for switching spaces in OSX, so we have to use hack to switch spaces via shortcuts. Go to:

System Prefereces → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Mission Control

And make sure you've got shortcuts there.

!Keyboard

2. Create configuration file

Create .osx-app-spaces-config.js in your home dir. You can use coffeescript as well for that. File should export a config object i.e:

config = {
  essentialApps: [...],
  ensureKillApps: [...],
  ensureRunningApps: [...],
  spaceActions: {...},
  spaceKeys: [...]
};
 
module.exports = config; ``` Notice `spaceKeys`, it's the array with keys for
switching to spaces from first to the last. As per screenshot it will be equal
to:
 
```js
{
  spaceKeys: [
    [ 'g', { using: ['command down', 'control down'] } ],
    [ 'c', { using: ['command down', 'control down'] } ],
    [ 'r', { using: ['command down', 'control down'] } ],
    [ 'h', { using: ['command down', 'control down'] } ],
    ...
  ]

Note, because arrays in JS start with 0, Space 0 is same as Desktop 1 in OSX.

You can use command down, ‌control down, ‌option down, ‌shift down as key modifiers(it comes from AppleScript/System Events Dictionary/keystroke).

Ok, the next thing you would want to setup is spaceActions. spaceActions are actions you would want to do for each specific space. It, is an object containing functions for each space in format:

{ spaceActions: 3: function(options, done) { done(); }, 4: function(options, done) { // OSX Desktop 5 done(); } }

options right now doesn't contain anyhing. And done should be called when you finish doing your actions on specific space. Thus you can have nested callbacks inside. You can define as many spaceActions as you want, and skip defining if you don't want any actions for specific space

About rest options(essentialApps, ensureKillApps, ensureRunningApps), written lower in the page.

Usage

Run the action for specific space:

osx-app-spaces-manager -s=3

Run all the actions for all spaces in order. For example this way you can prepare your working enivronment on startup: open editor, browser, else. Usually it takes time to finish the action, so you probalbly will need to play with delays to avoid glitches:

osx-app-spaces-manager -i

Run shell command on each space, for example set up wallpaper:

osx-app-spaces-manager --each-space="wallpaper '$HOME/.wallpaper.png'"

Kill all non essential apps(essentialApps) which has got windows and all the apps from the list ensureKillApps:

osx-app-spaces-manager -k

Run the applications from the list ensureRunningApps:

osx-app-spaces-manager -r