i3wm

Your tiling window manager guide

Cheatsheet Keybindings, containers, concepts, and desktop settings
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Concepts Deep dive into the container tree model with SVG diagrams
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Practice Interactive exercises — manipulate the tree and learn by doing
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i3 Docs Official i3 user guide and reference

Survival kit

$mod+ReturnOpen terminal
$mod+dApp launcher (Rofi)
$mod+Shift+qClose window
$mod+h/j/k/lFocus left/down/up/right
$mod+1-0Switch workspace
$mod+wTab siblings
$mod+eUntab / toggle H/V
$mod+vNext window opens below
$mod+Shift+fFlatten workspace
$mod+Shift+pFix polybar (if missing)
$mod+Ctrl+kFix keyboard layout (if Alt+Shift broken)
$mod+oMove current workspace to the other monitor
$mod+Shift+oGather all workspaces to current monitor
autows 2–6 pinned to external (HDMI-1 / DP-1), ws 1 stays on laptop — see i3 config workspace … output block
$mod+Shift+vToggle AWS VPN window: sticky-visible ↔ hidden in scratchpad
polybar VPN iconSame toggle as $mod+Shift+v. Green = connected, gray = disconnected, red = service down.
i3treeShow container tree (terminal)