macOS CLI tool to configure multi-display resolutions and arrangements

I recently launched some macOS Shortcuts in Lunar (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lunar.fyi&#x2F;#shortcuts" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lunar.fyi&#x2F;#shortcuts</a>) that can arrange monitors in pre-defined layouts like:<p><pre><code> 2 Screens Vertically ■̳̲ 2 Screens Horizontally ⫍⃮݄⫎⃯ 4 Screens in a 3-above-1 configuration ⫍⃮■̳̻⫎⃯ 3 Screens in a 2-above-1 configuration ⫍‗⫎ 3 Screens Horizontally ⫍⃮▬̲⫎⃯ </code></pre> It&#x27;s not the same as DisplayPlacer but for a lot of people this could be enough. They are free and can be used without a Lunar Pro license.<p>For those having trouble with monitors being swapped around by the OS, there&#x27;s also a <i>Swap screen positions</i> action in Shortcuts that you can bind to a hotkey to quickly fix this. It even swaps rotations, which is especially useful for those using portrait monitors (one at 90° and one at 270°).

The one feature I really want for window management on macOS is the ability to split fullscreen applications horizontally, for my vertical monitor. macOS lets you split a fullscreen app vertically so you can have two on the same screen, but when a monitor is oriented vertically you can still only split the screen vertically, not horizontally. Sigh.

I really liked the display settings built-in to MacOS, very straightforward.<p>Unfortunately, with Ventura, they now hid the arrangement in a separate options window that takes extra clicks to reach. A step backwards :&#x2F;

I was stoked to see this, unfortunately, this has gone 4 years without a release (last released in 2019)<p>The issue log has several issues where Ventura users mention it not working at all, on M1 architectures. Can anyone on an M1 or M2 confirm this works for them? I&#x27;m still on Intel.

Great timing. Today I discovered that the iMac 24&quot; screen can&#x27;t be rotated. I have it on a VESA mount, so I can rotate it physically, but screen rotation settings are inaccessible (even with the Option key) via system settings. When I attempt rotation via displayplacer (tool in OP), it just complains that it &quot;could not find res&quot;. There&#x27;s a surprising lack of good search results on this. Seems to be related to the iMac overheating, but that&#x27;s information coming from a random forum post that I found, not from Apple.<p>Edit: found Display Rotation Menu via DisplayPlacer Github issues, which is so far the only tool that worked for me.

This hasn&#x27;t been updated in a while. What I really want from this kind of tool is the ability to take a snapshot of my ALL display settings, and just click something on my desktop or bind a keyboard shortcut, or run a command which will restore it - exactly how it should be. This would include, exact screen positioning, refresh rate, resolutions etc.<p>I don&#x27;t know what triggers it, but MacOS is really bad at changing these settings if you use multiple displays through the week (e.g. different coworking spaces).

Not calling it displaycer is a missed opportunity.

The problem that I have with my M1 is that I have 2 HP monitors with USB-C connectors and when I plug the USB&#x2F;C Thunderbolt cable in to the monitor, often its not recognized and I often need to power off the machine, the monitor and or switch the ports in some combination, I really wish I could just have a manual probe I could run reliably to tell macOS,the monitor that they are connected. Any ideas?

Does this somehow make settings more persistent than the System Pref^H^H^H^H Settings panel? Ventura has this infuriating bug where every single time it goes to sleep it forgets everything about the monitors I have plugged into my Thunderbolt dock - resolution, arrangement, refresh rate, everything. It is driving me bonkers.

It reminds of seemingly abandoned &quot;mas&quot;[1] tool that allows using command line to install and update applications without launching AppStore.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mas-cli&#x2F;mas">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mas-cli&#x2F;mas</a>

There was a two-three year period where macOS would incessantly forget my display arrangement and orientation.<p>An Alfred action to run the displayplacer command and then after a second to activate my &#x27;default&#x27; Moom window layout made for a great workaround.

I have used cscreen [1][2] for a while to switch resolutions beyond what macOS offers via its GUI. You can install it via `brew install cscreen`.<p>It seems like displayplacer is the spiritual and de facto successor to screen. [3]<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pyehouse.com&#x2F;cscreen&#x2F;#comments" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pyehouse.com&#x2F;cscreen&#x2F;#comments</a> [2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apple.stackexchange.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;73696" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apple.stackexchange.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;73696</a> [3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apple.stackexchange.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;173875" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apple.stackexchange.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;173875</a>

I have a setup where I share a screen between two computers (a macOS productivity machine and a Windows gaming laptop &#x2F; x86 VM lab). I did look at a lot of tools to be able to disable one of the screens in macOS so I wouldn&#x27;t need to fiddle with cables, and I remember that this one didn&#x27;t work.<p>I use mirror-displays[1] (alongside Bunch, which also turns on VBAN Talkie for audio) now. Mirroring a screen is the only way to approximate disabled screens.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fcanas&#x2F;mirror-displays">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fcanas&#x2F;mirror-displays</a>

Related to this does anyone know a way to turn off displays in MacOS? I have 2 screens connected to an M1 Mac Mini.

I had a rather expensive monitor that would sometimes refuse to wake up. I ended up scripting an Alfred keystroke to use AppleScript and System Preferences to toggle the resolution, which would wake up the screen. This would be easier, as I could simply SSH in from another machine.

I don&#x27;t suppose it exposes commands to switch a Universal Controlled device from extended screen mode to remote keyboard-mouse control?<p>I have to reset this setting in Settings -&gt; Display every few hours when the connection gets disrupted between my two macs for unknown reasons...

displayplacer is an awesome tool that I&#x27;ve mentioned on HN a number of times before. I have my displayplacer command setup to be run by Alfred so that when I connect my monitors I can just invoke Alfred, type &quot;disp&quot;, and hit enter.<p>The next step would be to have it auto-run when monitors were attached but this works well enough for me. displayplacer for monitor alignment, phoenix for window management, and my own hacked together mousejump for jumping over the monitor gaps make for an awesome experience.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;kasper&#x2F;phoenix">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;kasper&#x2F;phoenix</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;joshstrange&#x2F;mousejump">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;joshstrange&#x2F;mousejump</a>

Would love if these tools also had the ability to save application window settings too.

I use Display Maid, and it is pretty OK for my simple needs: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;funk-isoft.com&#x2F;display-maid.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;funk-isoft.com&#x2F;display-maid.html</a>

I’ve used hammerspoon for part of this functionality. Anyone else?

I really think this needs some screenshots.

The description could be better. Would love this tool with a GUI

Missed opportunity to call it displaycer

Is there one for windows?