IPC Command Reference

Complete list of commands accepted by the tarmac IPC server.

Action commands

These commands perform an action and return a success/error response with no data.

focus

Move focus to a neighboring window.

tarmacctl focus left|right|up|down

swap

Swap the focused window with its neighbor.

tarmacctl swap left|right|up|down

resize

Adjust the split ratio of the nearest divider.

tarmacctl resize left|right|up|down

close

Close the focused window.

tarmacctl close

equalize

Reset all split ratios in the active workspace to 50/50.

tarmacctl equalize

toggle-floating

Toggle the focused window between tiled and floating.

tarmacctl toggle-floating

workspace

Switch to a numbered workspace.

tarmacctl workspace 1    # workspace 1-10
tarmacctl workspace next # cycle forward
tarmacctl workspace prev # cycle backward

move-to-workspace

Move the focused window to a numbered workspace.

tarmacctl move-to-workspace 3

toggle-special

Toggle a named special workspace's visibility.

tarmacctl toggle-special term

move-to-special

Move the focused window to a named special workspace.

tarmacctl move-to-special term

focus-monitor

Focus the next or previous monitor.

tarmacctl focus-monitor next
tarmacctl focus-monitor prev

move-to-monitor

Move the focused window to the next or previous monitor.

tarmacctl move-to-monitor next
tarmacctl move-to-monitor prev

reload

Hot reload the configuration file.

tarmacctl reload

exec

Execute a shell command.

tarmacctl exec "open -a Safari"

Query commands

These commands return JSON data about the current state.

get-workspaces

Get all workspaces with their window count and assignment.

tarmacctl get-workspaces

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    { "id": 1, "monitor": 0, "windows": 3, "focused": true },
    { "id": 2, "monitor": 0, "windows": 1, "focused": false }
  ]
}

get-focused

Get details about the focused window.

tarmacctl get-focused

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "window_id": 1234,
    "app_name": "Firefox",
    "app_bundle": "org.mozilla.firefox",
    "title": "GitHub",
    "floating": false
  }
}

get-windows

Get all managed windows.

tarmacctl get-windows

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    { "window_id": 1234, "app_name": "Firefox", "title": "GitHub", "workspace": 1, "floating": false },
    { "window_id": 5678, "app_name": "WezTerm", "title": "~", "workspace": 1, "floating": false }
  ]
}

get-monitors

Get monitor list with geometry.

tarmacctl get-monitors

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    { "index": 0, "x": 0, "y": 0, "width": 2560, "height": 1440, "focused": true }
  ]
}

get-tree

Get the BSP layout tree for a workspace. Optionally specify a workspace number (defaults to the active workspace).

tarmacctl get-tree        # active workspace
tarmacctl get-tree 2      # workspace 2

Response includes the tree structure with split directions, ratios, and window IDs at leaf nodes.

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