Roost Support
Stuck or curious? Email hello@papermint.studio and a human reads every message, usually within a day.
Getting started5
- Install. Download Roost, open the .dmg and drag Roost to Applications. It needs macOS 15 or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel.
- Accessibility. macOS asks before any app can move another app's windows. The welcome opens System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility; turn on Roost there and the welcome moves on by itself.
- Try the shortcuts. The welcome opens a practice window: snap it left, right and full with the keys, then drag it away and let go to watch it come home. You can open it again from Shortcuts or Settings.
- Nothing to save. Roost remembers the screens you're on the first time it sees them, and keeps up as you move windows. Each set of screens shows in the sidebar under Screen setups; rename one from its … menu.
- Closing the window. Roost keeps working from the menu bar when you close its window. To quit it, use Roost › Quit Roost or Quit Roost in the menu bar panel.
Putting windows back7
- When it happens. When you dock or undock, when you rearrange your screens in System Settings, and when your Mac or its displays wake. A change of Dock size or menu bar doesn't count.
- After sleep. Waking on the same screens puts windows back as they were before your Mac slept. Arriving at a different set of screens puts back that setup's layout.
- By hand. Put windows back on the screen-setup page, in the menu bar panel or in the Desk menu.
- Undo. A small card shows what moved, with Undo for 30 seconds and Details for any window that couldn't be placed (not open, on another Space, or full screen).
- Windows that open late. If an app starts slowly after you dock, its window is still put in place when it appears, for about 20 seconds.
- Identical monitors. Roost tells displays apart by their serial numbers where macOS reports them, and by where they sit in the arrangement when it doesn't.
- Keep up as I move windows (on by default, in Settings) makes the layout simply where your windows are. Turn it off to keep a fixed layout: the screen-setup page then shows Remember now to save where windows are.
The screen-setup page6
- Your screens, drawn. Each display appears as the device it is: a MacBook with its notch and base, a monitor on its stand, in their real arrangement, with every window like a macOS window.
- Move and resize. Drag a window to move it; drag any edge or corner to resize it, with its size showing. For the screens you're on, the real window moves too, so there is nothing to save. Hold ⌥ to place it without snapping.
- Drop zones. Drag a window to a screen's left or right edge for a half, a corner for a quarter, or the top edge to fill the screen. Double-click a window to fill the screen, and again to put it back. Arrow keys nudge the selected window by 10 points, or 1 with ⌥.
- A window's details. Click a window to see how Roost recognises it (by its exact title, words in its title, or any window of the app), its exact frame in points, which screen it goes on, and whether to keep it minimised.
- Preview. Preview dims your screens and draws each window where Put windows back would put it, with an arrow from where it is now and a tick on the ones already in place. Put windows back in its bar (or Return) does it; Esc or a click closes it.
- History. The History tab lists earlier layouts of these screens, newest first. Go back makes one the layout again and keeps the current one in the list.
Arrange now4
- One click. Side by side, Grid, Main + side or Cascade, from the bar above the screens, the menu bar panel or the Desk menu, arranges the windows open on each screen.
- Front to back. The window you're using gets the first place: the left column, the top-left cell, the big main window, or the front of the cascade. More than four windows side by side become a grid.
- Left alone. Minimised and full-screen windows, windows on other Spaces, and apps set to Float or Ignore in App rules.
- Undo. The card after an arrangement has Undo, and so does the Desk menu.
Shortcuts5
- Snap the window you're using with ⌃⌥ and a key: ← → ↑ ↓ for the halves, ↩ to fill the screen, C to centre, D F G for the thirds, E T for two thirds, and U I J K for the quarters.
- Several windows. Side by side, three columns, a centre window with two beside it, and 2 × 2 or 3 × 2 grids arrange the frontmost windows on the same screen; give them shortcuts on the Shortcuts page.
- Change them. Click a shortcut on the Shortcuts page and press the new keys; Esc cancels and Delete clears. Start every shortcut with switches them all to ⌃⌥, ⌃⌥⌘, ⌥⌘ or ⌃⌘, and says what each one clashes with.
- Taken keys. If macOS or another app already uses a shortcut, Roost says so in red, and the Setup check in Settings lists it.
- Gap. Gap between windows on the Shortcuts page leaves space round snapped windows.
Moves5
- Focus (⌃⌥Z) fills the screen with the window you're using. Press it again and it goes back exactly where it was. Also in the menu bar panel, first in Arrange now.
- Swap (⌃⌥⇧ and an arrow) trades places with the window on that side, and each takes the other's size. Of the windows that way, the one in front wins, so a window hidden behind others is never picked.
- Next display (⌃⌥N) carries the window to your next display, in the same place and size in proportion. ⌃⌥← on a window already in the left half sends it to the display on the left, as its right half; ⌃⌥→ works the same way.
- The whole screen. ⌃⌥1 to ⌃⌥4 run Side by side, Grid, Main + side and Cascade, as in Arrange now.
- Change them on the Moves page, like any shortcut. They follow Start every shortcut with. A small card in the middle of the screen says what moved; switch it off at the bottom of the Moves page.
Automatic6
- Three switches on the Automatic page, each off until you turn it on. While something is parked or hidden, the page and the menu bar panel say so, with the way back.
- Park on undock. When you unplug, the windows that were on the monitor are minimised instead of piling onto the MacBook. Plug in again and Roost puts them back in place. Choose which screen setups park under Park on undock for. Windows you minimised yourself stay minimised, and apps in App rules are never parked. Bring here in the menu bar brings parked windows back onto the screens you have.
- Glued neighbours. Drag the edge two windows share and the window beside it follows, keeping the gap; a column of windows beside the edge follows together. Hold ⌥ while you drag to resize just one. A neighbour is left alone if it would get thinner than about 120 points.
- Safe sharing. Apps on the Private apps list hide while any app shares or records your screen (Zoom, Meet, Teams, a screen recorder), and come back when it stops. Add apps with Add app; click one to take it off.
- By hand. ⌃⌥P hides your private apps, and pressing it again brings them back, for a share Roost can't see.
- If they never come back. If something on your Mac records the screen all the time, sharing never looks finished to Roost. Use ⌃⌥P instead and switch Safe sharing off. Seeing a share relies on a part of macOS Apple doesn't document; if a future macOS takes it away, the Automatic page says so and the key still works.
Workspaces3
- A set of apps. Make one with + beside Workspaces in the sidebar, add its apps (and a file, folder or web address for each, if you like), and give it a shortcut.
- Its layout. Arrange the apps, then press Capture layout; each screen setup keeps its own layout for the workspace. A workspace's layout can be edited on its page like a screen setup's.
- Opening it. Its shortcut, the Open workspace button, the menu bar panel, or the switcher (⌃⌥W, type to search). Roost opens apps that aren't running, and can hide or quit the others (other apps can ask to save first; Finder stays).
App rules3
- Float an app and Roost never moves its windows when putting windows back or arranging. Ignore it and Roost leaves it out entirely.
- Built in. A few are there from the start for windows that shouldn't move, like system panels; they can be switched but not removed.
- Minimum sizes. When an app won't let a window be as small as its layout asks, Roost notes the smallest size and shows it on the rule.
When something's off6
- Setup check. The top of Settings lists what Roost needs, each with its fix: Accessibility, open at login, shortcuts that are taken, these screens, Stage Manager, a pause, and whether Roost is in Applications.
- Lost windows. Bring back lost windows in Settings, the menu bar panel or the Desk menu moves every window that ended up off screen onto the main display.
- Stage Manager. It arranges windows its own way, so Roost pauses putting windows back while it's on. Turn off Pause while Stage Manager is on in Settings to restore anyway.
- Pause. Pause for 1 hour or Until tomorrow stops Roost moving windows for a while.
- Diagnostics. Settings › Diagnostics saves a zip of recent logs to your Desktop, with window titles hidden, to send us when something goes wrong.
- Your data. Screen setups, history, workspaces and rules are small files in Roost's folder (Application Support/Roost), with ten backups of each. Show in Finder in Settings opens it.
Buying and licences7
- Try it first. Every feature works for 7 days from the first launch, long enough to dock, undock and wake a few times.
- Pay once. $7.99 for one Mac, or $14.99 for up to three, with every future update included. Buy from Settings › Licence, the sidebar's Buy, or the screen at the end of the trial; the payment is handled by Dodo Payments.
- After the trial Roost stops putting windows back, arranging and snapping until it's bought. Your screen setups, workspaces and history are all kept.
- Activating. After checkout Roost opens with your key filled in; press Activate. Or paste the key from the Dodo Payments email into Settings › Licence.
- Moving to a new Mac. Press Deactivate… in Settings on the old Mac, or remove it at console.papermint.studio, then activate on the new one. Reinstalling on the same Mac doesn't use another place.
- All your licences are at console.papermint.studio (also Roost › Manage Licences…): your keys, the Macs each is on, and your receipts.
- Offline is fine. Roost checks its licence about once a day when it's online, and keeps working for 30 days without a connection.
Updates3
- Automatic. Roost checks once a day for a new version and installs it inside the app when you choose; it restarts in a few seconds with your layouts intact.
- Check now from Roost › Check for Updates… or Settings › Updates.
- Signed updates. Every update is signed by us and notarized by Apple, and Roost refuses anything that isn't.