I've been using Magnet for years, no complaints. Then I picked up a Mac Mini to run OpenClaw agents 24/7. Didn't want to sign in with my Apple ID on that machine, so I set it up without the App Store.
And that's when I realized — Magnet is App Store only. No DMG, no Homebrew, nothing. Can't use it without signing in.
I tried going without a window manager for two days. Couldn't do it. So I just built one.
Nudge
Nudge is a free, open-source macOS window manager. Pure Swift/AppKit, under 1MB, zero dependencies.
Started with keyboard shortcuts — snap left half, right half, quarters, that kind of thing. Then I added drag-to-edge snapping because I kept reaching for it out of habit. Then multi-monitor support because I realized I'd need it on my main setup too. Ended up with 19 layouts and it covers everything I used Magnet for.
What it does
- 19 snap layouts — halves, quarters, thirds, two-thirds, maximize, center, restore
- Keyboard shortcuts — fully remappable through the settings panel
- Drag-to-edge snapping — drag a window to a screen edge, see a preview overlay, release to snap
- Multi-monitor — press the same shortcut twice, window moves to the next display with mirrored position
Here's what it looks like in action:
Every shortcut uses Ctrl+Option as the base modifier. Arrow keys for halves, U/I/J/K for quarters, D/F/G for thirds.
Why not just use Rectangle?
Rectangle is a solid app. If you're happy with it, you probably don't need Nudge.
But I wanted something minimal. Rectangle pulls in dependencies and ships around 15MB. Nudge is 17 Swift files, under 1MB, no external dependencies at all. The entire codebase is readable in an afternoon.
| Nudge | Magnet | Rectangle | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $9.99 | Free |
| Open Source | Yes (MIT) | No | Yes |
| App Size | <1MB | ~5MB | ~15MB |
| Drag-to-Edge | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-Monitor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| App Store Required | No | Yes | No |
Technical bits
The whole thing is Swift and AppKit. Hotkeys use Carbon's RegisterEventHotKey — still the most reliable way to register global shortcuts on macOS. Drag detection uses a CGEvent tap listening for mouse drags near screen edges. Window manipulation is through the Accessibility API (AXUIElement).
One fun problem I ran into: some Electron apps (like Claude desktop) don't properly expose their windows through the Accessibility API. The app reports 0 windows even though you can see the window on screen. Fixed it by falling back to CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo and matching windows by PID and bounds.
Another issue: Chrome enables AXEnhancedUserInterface which causes animated window moves when you set position/size via AX. Disabling that flag before each move fixes it. Rectangle uses the same workaround.
Install
Homebrew:
brew tap mikusnuz/tap
brew install nudge-run
Or grab the DMG from GitHub Releases.
Build from source:
git clone https://github.com/mikusnuz/nudge.git
cd nudge
brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate
open Nudge.xcodeproj
On first launch, macOS will ask for Accessibility permissions. That's the only permission it needs.
Now I use it on all my Macs. The whole source is on GitHub under MIT. If you find any bugs, open an issue.
Website: nudge.run
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