Tiling

Summary

This note is a quick reference for Sway tiling and layout shortcuts, window focus/movement, and tmux shortcuts that complement a keyboard-first workflow.

Focus

ShortcutPurpose
Mod + H / Mod + ←focus left
Mod + J / Mod + ↓focus down
Mod + K / Mod + ↑focus up
Mod + L / Mod + →focus right
Mod + Afocus parent container
Mod + Spacetoggle focus between tiling and floating areas

Move window

ShortcutPurpose
Mod + Shift + H / Mod + Shift + ←move window left
Mod + Shift + J / Mod + Shift + ↓move window down
Mod + Shift + K / Mod + Shift + ↑move window up
Mod + Shift + L / Mod + Shift + →move window right

Layout

ShortcutPurpose
Mod + Etoggle split direction (horizontal ↔ vertical)
Mod + Wswitch current container to tabbed layout
Mod + Sswitch current container to stacking layout
Mod + Bsplit next window horizontally (side by side)
Mod + Vsplit next window vertically (one above the other)
Mod + Ftoggle fullscreen
Mod + Shift + Spacetoggle floating mode for focused window
Mod + Renter resize mode (use arrow keys or H/J/K/L, then Enter or Esc)

Workspaces

ShortcutPurpose
Mod + 1–9, 0switch to workspace
Mod + Shift + 1–9, 0move focused window to workspace

Notes

  • Mod + W = tabbed (windows as tabs at top) — easy to confuse with Mod + E (toggle split)
  • Mod + E and Mod + W are both layout commands, neither opens an app
  • To get back to normal tiling from tabbed/stacking: press Mod + E
  • Resize mode: after Mod + R, use arrows or H/J/K/L to resize, then Enter or Esc to exit

tmux basics

Default prefix

Ctrl + B means: press Ctrl + B, release it, then press the next key.

Sessions

ShortcutDescription
tmux new -s namecreate a new session called name
tmux lslist active sessions
tmux attach -t nameattach to an existing session
tmux kill-session -t namedestroy a session
Prefix + Ddetach from session
Prefix + Slist sessions interactively
Prefix + $rename current session

Windows

ShortcutDescription
Prefix + Ccreate a new window
Prefix + ,rename current window
Prefix + Nnext window
Prefix + Pprevious window
Prefix + 0-9jump to a window by number
Prefix + Wopen interactive window list
Prefix + &close current window

Panes

ShortcutDescription
Prefix + %vertical split
Prefix + "horizontal split
Prefix + arrowsmove between panes
Prefix + Zzoom or unzoom pane
Prefix + Xclose pane
Prefix + Ocycle to next pane
Prefix + Qshow pane numbers
Prefix + {swap pane left
Prefix + }swap pane right
Prefix + Spacecycle pane layouts
Prefix + Alt + arrowsresize pane

Copy mode and helpers

ShortcutDescription
Prefix + [enter copy / scroll mode
Qexit copy mode
Prefix + ]paste copied text
tmux source ~/.tmux.confreload config
tmux list-keyslist all tmux bindings
Prefix + ?open help
Prefix + Tdisplay clock