TileOrg vs AeroSpace: Config-File Tiling or Project Switching

The short answer

Pick AeroSpace if you want i3-style automatic tiling and virtual workspaces, all defined in a text file, and you are fine with a public beta. Pick TileOrg if you want to group the windows of each project by hand, switch between those groups with one hotkey, and see which coding agent is waiting on you. AeroSpace is free. TileOrg is $29 once.

What AeroSpace is

AeroSpace is an open source tiling window manager by Nikita Bobko, released under the MIT license. Its README calls it "i3 inspired." Windows sit in a tree, and new windows get tiled automatically. You get four layouts: horizontal and vertical tiles, plus horizontal and vertical accordion.

The interesting part is workspaces. AeroSpace ignores native macOS Spaces and runs its own. When a workspace is not active, AeroSpace parks its windows off screen in a bottom corner, then brings them back when you switch. The default config binds ⌥1 to ⌥9 and ⌥A to ⌥Z to workspaces, so switching is instant and needs no Mission Control animation.

Everything lives in ~/.aerospace.toml. There is no settings window. You can write on-window-detected rules that send an app to a workspace when its window appears, for example every Alacritty window to workspace T. It has a CLI with man pages, it handles multiple monitors i3-style, and it does not require disabling SIP.

Two caveats from the project itself. It is labeled "Public Beta" with breaking changes possible until 1.0. And it is not notarized by Apple, which the README asks you to acknowledge. The recommended install is brew install --cask nikitabobko/tap/aerospace, and it runs on macOS 13 or later.

How TileOrg works

TileOrg does not tile anything automatically. You create a named project, then use the window picker (⌃⌥Space) to assign the specific windows that belong to it. That might be one terminal, one editor window and two browser windows. You arrange them into panes once: single, horizontal split, vertical split or grid, up to 4 windows per pane. Then ⌃⌥1 to ⌃⌥9 switches projects, and ⌃⇧1 to ⌃⇧6 switches panes inside one.

Assignments survive a reboot. After a restart TileOrg re-matches windows to their projects. It uses the Accessibility API only, needs no SIP changes, is notarized by Apple, and runs on macOS 14 or later.

The other difference is agent detection. Every 3 seconds TileOrg checks the process tree under each terminal window for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, aider and opencode. Each agent is tied to its project, its status shows in the menu bar, and ⌃⌥A jumps to the one that has waited longest.

Side by side

Feature	AeroSpace	TileOrg
Price	Free, MIT license	$29 one-time, 3 devices
Tiling	Automatic, tree-based	Manual panes per project
Grouping	Virtual workspaces, rules by app	Named projects of specific windows
Setup	TOML config file, CLI	Window picker and hotkeys
SIP changes	Not required	Not required
Release status	Public beta, not notarized	Notarized by Apple
macOS	13 or later	14 or later
Coding agent tracking	No	Yes

Who should pick AeroSpace

If you came from i3 or sway on Linux and want every window tiled without thinking about it, AeroSpace is the better tool, and it costs nothing. Same if you keep your setup in dotfiles and like the idea of rebuilding your whole window setup on a new Mac by copying one file. Its workspace switching is fast, and it avoids the native Spaces animation entirely. I would not try to talk an i3 user out of it.

Who should pick TileOrg

AeroSpace groups windows by app rules or by where you moved them. That works when one app means one context. It gets messy when you have three terminals and two VS Code windows, each for a different repo. TileOrg's unit is the project, so terminal 2 and VS Code window 2 belong to "api-migration" and nothing else does. If you run coding agents in several of those terminals, TileOrg also tells you which one stopped and is waiting for input. And if you would rather not edit a TOML file, there is nothing to configure beyond the picker.

Can you use both?

I would not. AeroSpace tiles every window it manages and moves windows off screen when you leave a workspace. TileOrg also positions windows when you switch projects. Two tools placing the same windows will fight. Choose the model that fits how you work: automatic tiling by workspace, or hand-made layouts by project.

If automatic tiling is what you want, also read TileOrg vs yabai and TileOrg vs Amethyst. For the full field, see the guide to the best macOS window managers, and if you run several agents at once, the parallel Claude Code setup.