Omacase

Omarchy for macOS, with macOS allowed to remain macOS.

Omacase is light configuration management, a coherent theming system, and an opinionated application installer/updater for Apple Silicon Macs. OmniWM owns tiling, workspaces, borders, its workspace bar, window rules, and keyboard shortcuts. Omacase supplies a first-run seed and then leaves OmniWM's live settings user-editable.

Supported platform: Apple Silicon, macOS 26 or later, and Homebrew at /opt/homebrew.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://omacase.org/install)"
omacase doctor

The installer enables “Displays have separate Spaces,” which OmniWM requires, and disables Stage Manager so every tile remains visible. Log out and back in once after the first install, then grant OmniWM Accessibility access when macOS asks.

What it manages

Layer	Choice
Window environment	OmniWM — Dwindle default, nine workspaces, borders, workspace bar, overview, quake terminal
Launcher	Spotlight (stock)
Terminal	Ghostty, zsh, Starship, herdr, and a modern CLI set
Editor	Neovim / LazyVim
Applications	Homebrew + Brewfile
Dotfiles	Omacase-owned symlinks from home/
Themes	21 coordinated themes for terminal, CLI, editor, prompt, macOS appearance/accent, and wallpaper
Recovery	Snapshots of managed config, live OmniWM settings, and touched macOS defaults

Omacase seeds ~/.config/omniwm/settings.toml only when it does not exist. After that, OmniWM and the user own the file. omacase install and omacase update do not replace it.

Daily commands

omacase install             idempotent full setup
omacase update              update Omacase, packages, apps, and managed config
omacase doctor              check OmniWM, macOS settings, and permissions
omacase wm                  start and verify OmniWM
omacase keybinds            display the complete key reference
omacase theme [name]        apply a coordinated theme
omacase palette [name]      edit a theme's terminal ANSI palette
omacase wallpaper [...]     list or change the active theme wallpaper
omacase webapp [name]       open a named web app
omacase backup [label]      snapshot managed state and live OmniWM settings
omacase restore [id]        restore a snapshot
omacase migrate             run one-time changeovers
omacase usage [update]      agent usage dashboard — token burn + plan limits (Claude, Codex, Grok)
omacase tools               list every tool Omacase installs, one line each
omacase extras [name]       optional opt-in tweaks: sudo-touchid, mole, usage-tracker (never run by install)
omacase uninstall           remove Omacase-managed config; keep applications

Set OMACASE_DRYRUN=1 before omacase install to preview changes. Set OMACASE_INSTALL_GROK=1 to explicitly allow xAI's unpinned Grok installer; it is skipped by default. Set OMACASE_CHANNEL=dev to make omacase update pull the default branch (maintainer machines); the default stable channel checks out the latest v* release tag. omacase update --check lists pending changes without applying them; omacase update --rollback returns to the previous payload.

Omacase never needs admin rights itself; Homebrew does for some casks (pkg installers, launch daemons, root-owned app bundles). When a run will touch one of those, omacase install/update authenticate once up front and keep that authorization alive for the rest of the run; formulae-only runs never ask. omacase extras sudo-touchid makes that one prompt a Touch ID and shares it across terminals for an hour.

Agent multiplexing

herdr is the agent-aware multiplexer. omacase install wires up the state hooks for every agent CLI it ships — each agent reports idle/working/blocked/done back to herdr, which drives its agent sidebar and herdr agent commands (managed by herdr integration status|install|uninstall <agent>). The reverse direction — the skill that lets agents drive herdr's panes, tabs, and workspaces — is installed and kept fresh by herdr itself on launch, so Omacase stays out of ~/.agents/skills.

The hook step is idempotent and re-runs on omacase update, so a harness installed later is picked up on the next run. Because herdr's server outlives its client, herdr --remote <host> leaves an agent running on a remote machine after the laptop disconnects.

OmniWM shortcuts

Omacase uses OmniWM's native Option-based shortcuts.

Keys	Action
⌥ + Arrow	Focus a window
⌥⇧ + Arrow	Move/join/extract a window, depending on layout context
⌥ + 1…9	Switch workspace
⌥⇧ + 1…9	Move the focused window to a workspace
⌥ + Return	Toggle fullscreen
⌥ + . / ⌥ + ,	Cycle focused size
⌥⇧ + B	Balance sizes
⌥ + `	Toggle OmniWM's quake terminal
⌥⇧ + O	Toggle overview
⌃⌥ + Space	OmniWM command palette
⌥⇧ + L	Toggle the workspace layout

All shortcuts can be changed in OmniWM → Settings → Hotkeys. See KEYBINDS.md for the fuller working set.

Themes and ownership

omacase theme <name> rethemes Ghostty, btop, Neovim, Starship, Claude Code, the macOS Light/Dark appearance and accent, and the wallpaper. It also writes a neutral palette link at ~/.config/omacase/theme.sh for future integrations. It does not rewrite OmniWM's saved settings.

Omarchy-derived colors and wallpapers are downloaded from Basecamp's Omarchy repository and cached under ~/.local/share/omacase. Local themes live in themes/; see docs/ADDING_A_THEME.md.

Boundaries

Omacase does not automate macOS privacy grants. OmniWM needs Accessibility. Input Monitoring is only needed if you opt into OmniWM's single-key system Hyper trigger. Theme appearance sync needs Automation access from your terminal to System Events.

Omacase also leaves native screenshots, Focus modes, media controls, clipboard history, and app switching to macOS.

License

Omacase's original code and assets are MIT licensed. Third-party applications and downloaded artifacts retain their upstream licenses. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.