FlashSpace

Who It's For

FlashSpace is for users who find macOS's native Spaces too slow, unreliable, or limited for keyboard-driven workflows. Native space switching involves animations, occasional crashes on display changes, and no reliable external API. FlashSpace replaces this entirely with its own workspace layer — it manages workspaces by showing and hiding app windows rather than switching Mission Control Spaces, which makes transitions feel instant and eliminates animation lag. It's particularly popular among AeroSpace users who want a fast workspace layer alongside their tiling window manager.

How It Works

Each FlashSpace workspace is a named collection of assigned apps. Activating a workspace shows those apps' windows and hides all others — no Space switching, no animation, just immediate visibility changes. Window positions can be defined per-app per-workspace, so activating a workspace also arranges windows how you left them. Floating apps (menu bar utilities, system tools) can be exempted from hiding. A flashspace CLI lets you control workspaces from scripts, making it composable with other tools. Workspace previews give a visual map of what's in each workspace.

Compared to Similar Tools

Compared to native macOS Spaces, FlashSpace has no animations, no crashes on display changes, and a scriptable CLI. Compared to SpaceAtlas (which navigates native Spaces directionally), FlashSpace doesn't use native Spaces at all — it's a completely independent workspace layer. Compared to Spencer ($20), FlashSpace is free and faster but doesn't use native Spaces, so the native Space switcher in Mission Control won't reflect FlashSpace workspaces.

Requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later
• Accessibility permission required
• Free and open-source (MIT license)

Getting Started

brew install flashspace

Launch FlashSpace and configure workspaces in Preferences: create a workspace, assign apps to it, and set a keyboard shortcut. Full documentation at github.com/wojciech-kulik/FlashSpace.