Overview

lattices is an agentic window manager for macOS. It provides a programmable workspace, smart layout management, and managed tmux sessions — all controllable from the CLI or a 35+-method agent API.

The problem

I kept losing track of windows. Terminal here, dev server there, browser somewhere on the second monitor, three other projects buried under it all. Every morning I’d rebuild the same layout. Half my context-switching was just hunting for the right window.

AI agents have it worse. They’re stuck inside a single shell with no way to see what’s on screen, arrange windows, or jump between projects.

The solution

lattices addresses both sides with three layers:

Programmable workspace

The CLI and agent API expose everything: query what’s on screen, search window text, tile layouts, manage sessions. Claude Code skills, MCP servers, or your own scripts can drive your desktop the same way you do. Your workspace becomes infrastructure you can observe and control programmatically.

Smart layout manager

A native menu bar app tracks every window across all your monitors. Tile with hotkeys, organize into switchable layers, snap to grids. It reads your windows too — extracting text from UI elements every 60 seconds and running Vision OCR on background windows every 2 hours. Everything is searchable.

Managed tmux sessions

We make tmux easy. Declare your dev environment in a .lattices.json: which panes, which commands, what layout. lattices builds it, runs it, and keeps it alive. Use your own terminal — sessions survive reboots and you can reattach anytime.

What’s included

Component	Description
CLI	The lattices command. Tile windows, manage sessions, scan screen text, control the workspace from your terminal
Menu bar app	Native macOS companion. Command palette, window tiling, project discovery, screen text indexing
Agent API	WebSocket server on ws://127.0.0.1:9399. 35+ methods, 5 real-time events
Screen scanner	Reads text from visible windows using Accessibility API (60s) and Apple Vision OCR (2h), indexes with FTS5
Node.js client	Zero-dependency daemonCall() helper for scripting

Example

cd ~/my-project && lattices

Agents get the same control programmatically:

import { daemonCall } from '@lattices/cli'
await daemonCall('session.launch', { path: '/Users/you/dev/frontend' })
await daemonCall('window.tile', { session: 'frontend-a1b2c3', position: 'left' })

Who it’s for

• Developers who juggle multiple projects and want faster window management
• People building AI agents that need to observe and control the desktop
• Power users who work across multiple macOS Spaces
• Anyone who wants persistent, auto-configured terminal sessions

Requirements

• macOS 13.0+
• Node.js 18+

Dev dependencies

• Swift 5.9+ — only to build the menu bar app from source
• tmux — needed for persistent terminal sessions (brew install tmux)

Next steps

• Quickstart: install and run your first session in 2 minutes
• Configuration: .lattices.json format and CLI commands
• Screen scanning: AX text extraction, Vision OCR, and full-text search
• Concepts: architecture, glossary, and how it all works
• Agent API: RPC method reference for agents and scripts