focus follows mouse (NO autoraise) in Mac Sierra

Question

I'm aware of the other threads on this topic but they are autoraised-based and/or all the answers point to software that's no longer being developed. I'm just looking for this simple feature: focus follows mouse WITHOUT autoraise for Mac. Zooom2 was able to perform this, but they are no longer developing their software. I'm not using the terminal and need to copy/paste and read between multiple programs with multiple windows, someone please tell you've found a solution to this?

Langouste

Have you found a good solution for this? – Lillian

Answer 1

chunkwm has recently added a setting ffm_disable_autoraise which works well for me on macOS Mojave. To enable only the Focus Follows Mouse feature, follow the install steps then edit ~/.chunkwmrc to comment out undesired plugins and enable FFM

# chunkc core::load border.so
# chunkc core::load tiling.so
chunkc core::load ffm.so

and disable autoraise

chunkc set ffm_disable_autoraise         1

The other available plugins are useful but are not the subject of this question.

Edit 2019-09-12:

chunkwm has been superseded by yabai. To install:

brew tap koekeishiya/formulae
brew install yabai
mkdir -p ~/.config/yabai/
printf 'yabai -m config focus_follows_mouse autofocus' >> ~/.config/yabai/yabairc
brew services start yabai

Carleycarli

Yabai works wonderfully! Thank you for solving my biggest gripe with macOS. – Mandragora

This is a lifesaver – Sylvester

Can this be configured to move focus over to other displays with mouse? – Sylvester

The above configuration works nicely with multiple displays. – Carleycarli

Answer 2

I do miss one thing in Yabai - the ability to focus to a subwindow within a focussed window. That would be gold!

Koester

Focus between applications is controlled by the window manager or Yabai. Focus between panes in an application is controlled by that application. For example, Visual Studio Code has a feature request to add this ability; github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/93772. Contact the developer of the application you have in mind. – Carleycarli

Answer 3

I am using AutoRaise. The modified fork from fredngo works well for me. Check out at https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise/issues/47#issuecomment-1129157693.

Clair