# conformal/spectrwm

A small dynamic tiling window manager for X11.

Repository: https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/spectrwm
Language: C
License: ISC
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-07-20T10:14:42+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 93, release rhythm 13, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4857, "days_push": 44, "days_rel": 371, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1405, forks 105 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:38.171712+00:00)

## What it is
spectrwm is a small, dynamic tiling and reparenting window manager for X11, written in C and inspired by xmonad and dwm. It emphasizes sane defaults, simple human-readable configuration, and minimal screen real estate usage for hackers.

## Use cases
- tile windows automatically on X11 without manual placement
- manage multiple monitors with dynamic RandR support
- configure a window manager without learning a programming language
- switch and arrange windows quickly with keyboard-driven workflows
- run a lightweight window manager on Linux, BSD, macOS, or cygwin

## When to choose
- you want a fast, compact tiling window manager with sane defaults
- you prefer plain-text configuration over a DSL or scripting language
- you need multi-head Xinerama/RandR support with keyboard and mouse navigation

## When to avoid
- you need a Wayland compositor rather than an X11 window manager
- you want a full desktop environment with panels and integrated apps
- you prefer highly scriptable window managers like xmonad or awesomewm

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: gui
- domain: desktop-applications, operating-systems, developer-tools
- platform: bsd, windows, cross-platform
- tags: x11, tiling-window-manager, dynamic-tiling, window-manager, c, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- conformal/spectrwm (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:38.171712+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:38:46.885079+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:38.171712+00:00, sha 2c48e9c13a84)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.