A lightweight, keyboard-driven auto-tiling extension for GNOME Shell. It started as a fork of System76's pop-shell but has been heavily refactored so it runs lightly on Fedora, Arch, Ubuntu, or any GNOME distro. On top of the original pop-shell core, a bunch of new features have been added that aren't in upstream.
Compatibility: GNOME Shell 48, 49, and 50 (Fedora 42 / 43 / 44). Earlier versions are not supported.
curl -L https://github.com/oliwebd/o-tiling/releases/download/v2.8.8/o-tiling@oliwebd.github.com-v2.8.8.zip -o /tmp/o-tiling.zip && gnome-extensions install --force /tmp/o-tiling.zip && gnome-extensions enable o-tiling@oliwebd.github.comThen log out and back in (Wayland requires a session restart to activate).
-
Download
o-tiling@oliwebd.github.com.zipfrom the GitHub Releases page. -
Install via terminal:
gnome-extensions install --force ~/Downloads/o-tiling@oliwebd.github.com-v2.8.8.zip -
Restart GNOME Shell — Log out and log back in (Wayland).
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Enable the extension:
gnome-extensions enable o-tiling@oliwebd.github.com
These features don't exist in the original pop-shell:
- Aura focus border — A smooth animated border that follows your focused window and automatically picks up your GNOME system accent color (Blue, Teal, Green, etc.).
- Skip Overview on startup — Go straight to the desktop after login, no Activities screen in the way.
- Transparent panel — Optional panel transparency with configurable opacity (0–100%) and a subtle blur-style backdrop mode for readability.
- Theme Consistency — Applies uniform rounded or sharp corner styles to GTK apps and Shell elements without needing the User Themes extension.
- Workspace Switcher Styling (GNOME 48+) — Customizable thumbnail scale, corner radii, and transparent background in the overview.
- Soft enable/disable from the panel — Toggle the entire extension on/off from the panel indicator without losing your settings.
- Auto-tiling engine — Binary tree layout per monitor per workspace, fully recalculated on every window event.
- Stacking / tabbed mode — Stack multiple windows into one tile slot with a tab bar.
- Smart gaps — Outer gaps collapse to zero when only one window is tiled.
- Multi-monitor support — Full hotplug support, workspaces-only-on-primary, dynamic workspaces.
- Keyboard-first — Move, resize, swap, and reorient tiles with
Super+h/j/k/lor arrow keys.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Focus left/right/up/down | Super+Alt+Arrows or Super+h/j/k/l |
| Toggle auto-tiling | Super+t |
| Toggle floating | Super+f |
| Enter management mode | Super+Return |
| Toggle stacking | Super+s |
| Move to upper/lower workspace | Super+Shift+Up/Down |
| Move to left/right monitor | Super+Shift+Ctrl+Left/Right |
All keybindings are editable in the Shortcuts tab of the preferences window.
Some applications (such as GNOME System Monitor, Steam, or certain games) have a "minimum window size" built into their code. If you try to tile these applications into a space that is smaller than their minimum size, the tiling engine will not force them to shrink further.
As a result, the application may overlap other windows or break the visual grid layout.
How to fix this:
- Add to Exceptions: The easiest solution is to open the O-Tiling settings from the top panel menu, go to Floating Window Exceptions, and add the application (e.g.,
gnome-system-monitor). This will tell the tiling engine to ignore the app and let it float normally. - Resize Manually: Alternatively, you can use Adjustment Mode (
Super + Enter) to manually drag the window borders to give the large application the space it needs.
Note
O-tiling does not attempt to automatically "swap" or "force" these windows to fit, as doing so conflicts with GNOME's window manager (Mutter) and can cause crashes or infinite resize loops. This limitation is a known architectural boundary shared with upstream pop-shell.
- Forked from: System76 pop-shell.
- Special Thanks: This project incorporates ideas from the following extensions:
- License: GPLv3 — Extended with Aura border, skip overview, panel transparency, theme consistency, and more.
Happy tiling! Feedback, bug reports, and PRs are welcome on GitHub. 🙏