🥋 WinJitsu

WinJitsu is a slick, animated window management tool for Linux (X11). It allows you to effortlessly snap your active windows to various positions on your screen with smooth animations, making your workflow feel more organic and responsive. ✨

🚀 Features

• Smooth Animations: Windows glide to their new positions instead of just jumping there. 🌬️
• Grid Snapping: Position windows easily to the North, South, East, West, corners, or center. 🧭
• Multi-Monitor Support: Move windows between displays with ease. 🖥️ ➡️ 🖥️
• Fullscreen Toggling: Smart fullscreen with configurable padding, and restore to each window's home position. ↔️
• Background Daemon: A small daemon answers hotkeys instantly and collapses key-repeat bursts into one action. ⚡
• Config File: Persist your preferences in ~/.config/winjitsu/config.ini. ⚙️
• CLI Overrides: Override config values when starting the daemon — no file editing needed. 🎛️

🛠️ Requirements

Make sure you have the following installed on your system:

• Python 3.10+ 🐍
• xdotool (for window manipulation)
• python-xlib / python3-xlib (for screen detection via RandR)

Installing Dependencies

🐧 Arch‑based distributions (Arch Linux, EndeavourOS, Manjaro, etc.)

sudo pacman -S python xdotool python-xlib

🐧 Debian‑based distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.)

sudo apt install python3 xdotool python3-xlib

🐧 Fedora‑based distributions (Fedora, CentOS, etc.)

sudo dnf install python3 xdotool python3-xlib

📦 Installation

🏹 On Arch‑based systems

WinJitsu is available in the AUR. You can install it using your favorite AUR helper (e.g., yay):

yay -S winjitsu

🐍 From PyPI

pip install WinJitsu

xdotool still has to come from your distribution (see Requirements above).

Building and Installing Wheel

To install WinJitsu as a package, you can build a wheel and install it. This uses the standard pyproject.toml configuration to build the package. This allows you to run winjitsu from anywhere.

1. Install build tools:

   pip install build
   

2. Build the package:

   python3 -m build
   

3. Install the wheel:

   pip install dist/winjitsu-*-py3-none-any.whl --force-reinstall
   

4. Run WinJitsu:

   winjitsu --help
   

Manual Installation (From Source)

Clone the repository and install using pip:

git clone https://github.com/Evilchuck666/WinJitsu.git
cd WinJitsu
pip install .

🎮 Usage

Run the command with an action argument to control the active window:

winjitsu [ACTION] [OPTIONS]

⚠️ WinJitsu requires the daemon to be running. Start it once with winjitsu --daemon before using any action.

Available Actions

The home position is where a window was before WinJitsu first moved it. It is kept per window in ~/.cache/winjitsu/state.db and reset whenever the daemon starts or you move the window yourself.

⚙️ Configuration

WinJitsu can be configured via a file or directly from the command line. CLI flags always take priority over the config file. 🏆

Config File

The config file lives at ~/.config/winjitsu/config.ini (respects $XDG_CONFIG_HOME).

winjitsu --write-config     # 📝 Save current settings to the config file
winjitsu --see-config       # 👀 Show the active config file path and values
winjitsu --read-config PATH # 📂 Use a different config file for this run

Available Options

Examples

winjitsu --daemon --steps 10                    # Start daemon with snappy animation 💨
winjitsu --daemon --padding 8                   # Start daemon with a cozy fullscreen gap 🖼️
winjitsu --write-config --steps 15 --padding 4  # Save these as your defaults 💾

⚡ Daemon Mode

Running WinJitsu as a background daemon makes hotkey responses feel instant and prevents duplicate actions from key repeat. 🚀

winjitsu --daemon           # Start the daemon in the background
winjitsu --reload-daemon    # Restart the daemon 🔄

When the daemon is running, any winjitsu [ACTION] command is sent to it over a Unix socket. The daemon waits a short delay (configurable with --delay-ms) and only runs the last action of a rapid burst, so key repeat collapses into a single, clean move. ✨

💡 Tip: Start the daemon on login and bind your hotkeys to winjitsu [ACTION] — you'll barely notice the tool is even there.

🎹 Binding Keys

For the best experience, bind these commands to keyboard shortcuts in your window manager configuration (e.g., i3, creating custom shortcuts in GNOME/KDE).

Example:

• Super + Up -> winjitsu N
• Super + Right -> winjitsu E

Happy tiling! 🎉

⚖️ License

This project is licensed under the GPLv3 License – see the LICENSE file for details.