BackPlace

BackPlace is a native macOS menu bar utility written in Swift and SwiftUI. It captures window layouts and restores them after monitor reconnects, sleep/wake cycles, or manual workspace switching.

Features

• MenuBarExtra app with save, restore, layouts, and settings actions
• Accessibility permission onboarding
• First-run welcome window and reusable tutorial/help window
• Local JSON layout storage with named layouts
• Display change and wake detection
• Window capture and restore via Accessibility APIs
• Quartz-based window discovery to improve matching
• Named layout management and ignored apps settings
• GitHub release update checks with in-app download flow
• Ko-fi support button and support/feedback settings area
• Feedback composer with GitHub issue submission support
• Optional app relaunch during restore retries
• Debug-friendly diagnostics through os.Logger

Architecture

• PermissionsService
• ScreenWatcher
• WorkspaceWatcher
• WindowDiscoveryService
• LayoutStore
• RestoreEngine
• UpdateService
• FeedbackService

Build

This repository is structured as a Swift package that can be opened directly in Xcode.

Command-line build in this environment uses the full Xcode toolchain explicitly:

HOME=/tmp/backplace-home \
CLANG_MODULE_CACHE_PATH=/tmp/backplace-modulecache \
SWIFTPM_MODULECACHE_OVERRIDE=/tmp/backplace-swiftpmcache \
DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer \
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/swift build --disable-sandbox

Run tests with:

HOME=/tmp/backplace-home \
CLANG_MODULE_CACHE_PATH=/tmp/backplace-modulecache \
SWIFTPM_MODULECACHE_OVERRIDE=/tmp/backplace-swiftpmcache \
DEVELOPER_DIR=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer \
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/swift test --disable-sandbox

Notes

• The MVP does not attempt to reassign Spaces or Desktops.
• Launch at login requires a normal bundled app build. It is included in the codepath, but macOS will reject registration from a non-bundled development run.
• Automatic update checks read from the GitHub releases feed for MoonTheRipper/BackPlace.
• Feedback can submit directly to GitHub issues without an end-user GitHub account when either of these is configured in the app build:
  • Environment variable: BACKPLACE_GITHUB_FEEDBACK_TOKEN
  • Environment variable: BACKPLACE_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT
  • Info.plist string key: BackPlaceGitHubFeedbackToken
  • Info.plist string key: BackPlaceFeedbackEndpoint
• If no direct feedback transport is configured, BackPlace falls back to opening a prefilled GitHub issue draft in the browser.