Windows

Tiling is the default; floating is the layer above each workspace’s strip for dialogs, pickers, and anything you choose with a rule. Whether a window floats is decided when it first maps; the toggle changes it any time (Super+Shift+Space floats the focused window, or puts it back in the strip as a column right of the focused column).

Field	Type	Default	Reload	Meaning
[floating] auto	bool	true	live (future windows)	Float a window when it first maps if it is a dialog, names a parent (transient), or has a fixed size. false turns all three off; [[window_rule]]s still apply.
[floating] modifier	string	"super"	live	The modifier held to drag floating windows: left button anywhere moves, right button resizes from the nearest edge or corner. Worth changing under --nested, where the host often keeps Super for itself.

A floating window centers on its parent (or on the output), stays inside the usable area, and keeps its centre as it resizes. The most recently focused floats on top; Super+Space moves focus between the floating windows and the strip (with a floating window focused, strip-moving actions do nothing). Floating a column takes it out of the strip; the strip underneath is otherwise untouched. A floating window can go fullscreen and comes back floating.

Window rules

Each rule is its own [[window_rule]] table; rules apply in file order (a later matching rule overrides an earlier one per field it sets), checked when a window first maps, after [floating] auto — so a rule always has the last word. Re-applied live by scootctl reload, for windows that map after it.

Field	Type	Meaning
match_app_id	string (glob)	Matches the window’s app id — for an X11 window, its WM_CLASS class (scootctl windows shows both).
match_title	string (glob)	Matches the window’s title.
float	bool	true floats a matching window when it maps; false keeps it in the strip even if auto would float it.
size	[width, height] (logical px)	The size to ask a floating window for when it maps (1..=65535 per axis, clamped to the usable area). No effect on a tiled window.

A rule needs at least one matcher and must set float, size or both; with both matchers, both must match. Matchers are globs over the whole string, case-sensitive: "foot" matches only foot ("*foot*" for anything containing it), ? matches exactly one character. An unusable rule (no matcher, a non-positive size) is skipped with a warning; a reload refuses it by name on every reload that finds it.

[[window_rule]]
match_app_id = "org.gnome.Calculator"
float = true

[[window_rule]]
match_title = "*Picture-in-Picture*"
float = true
size = [640, 360]

# A dialog you would rather have as a column:
[[window_rule]]
match_app_id = "org.gnome.Nautilus"
match_title = "*Properties*"
float = false