Blog post: https://typester.dev/blog/2026/01/18/yashiki-window-manager
Happy to answer any questions!
I also don't know what the "river/awesome philosophy" is, so therefore I don't know what this WM does that makes it different than something like Rectangle for example.
And truth be told, I'm not going to look it up. I am only adding this comment because I'm sure there will be a ton of other people that fall into the same category as me.
Good luck though, super cool to see that you built this in a weekend!
I am currently focusing heavily on core functionality and API stability. Once things settle down a bit, adding screenshots and a demo video is next on my to-do list.
To answer your question simply: 1. Rectangle is a "manual" tool—you press keys to move windows. Yashiki is "automatic"—it resizes and arranges windows for you instantly as you open them. 2. The "River philosophy" means it uses Tags instead of fixed Workspaces. Think of it like assigning labels to windows rather than putting them in separate rooms.
I'll make sure to clarify this in the README with visuals soon.
The concept is best explained in the River documentation: https://codeberg.org/river/wiki-classic/src/branch/main/page...
As far as I know, not many WMs adopt this paradigm (mostly dwm, awesome, and river), and Yashiki is likely the only one on macOS.
But I see your point. I'll upload some screenshots tomorrow, though a proper video demo might take a bit longer. Thanks for the comment!