Rook 0.1.7

What changed

• Closing a pane gives its space back to the pane it came from. Splitting a pane up or left and then closing the new pane now restores the layout exactly. Before, the space could go to the pane on the other side.
• Resizing small panes works properly. After several splits, panes smaller than 10% could grow when you tried to shrink them, and eventually end up with a negative size. They now stay at a sensible size.

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.7_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications, replacing any older version. Your workspaces and settings are kept.

3. Rook isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS warns on the first launch that it can't verify the app. Open Rook once, dismiss the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

   Or skip the warning by clearing the quarantine flag from a terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

Rook 0.1.6

What changed

• Smoother on high-refresh displays. On macOS 13–15 (Ventura through Sequoia), Rook now draws at your display's full refresh rate (120 Hz ProMotion, 144 Hz+ external monitors) instead of being capped at 60 fps. Typing and scrolling feel more responsive as a result. On macOS 26 and later, this was already the case.

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.6_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications, replacing any older version. Your workspaces and settings are kept.

3. Rook isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS warns on the first launch that it can't verify the app. Open Rook once, dismiss the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

   Or skip the warning by clearing the quarantine flag from a terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

Rook 0.1.5

What changed

• GPU rendering. Terminals now draw with WebGL, which makes heavy output and scrolling smoother. If your GPU has trouble, Rook falls back to the regular renderer on its own.
• New setting: GPU acceleration (Auto / On / Off) in Settings. Leave it on Auto unless you see rendering glitches.
• Faster output, especially with many panes. Output now goes straight to the pane that owns it, in larger chunks, so busy panes no longer slow down the others.

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.5_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications, replacing any older version. Your workspaces and settings are kept.

3. Rook isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS warns on the first launch that it can't verify the app. Open Rook once, dismiss the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

   Or skip the warning by clearing the quarantine flag from a terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

Rook 0.1.4

What changed

• Deleting workspaces works reliably. Clicking the trash icon now opens a clear confirm row, Delete name? Its shells will close., with Cancel and Delete. From the keyboard, select a workspace in the switcher (⌘E) and press ⌘⌫, then Enter to confirm or Esc to cancel.
• A bigger, clearer shortcut sheet (⌘/). Shortcuts are grouped into Panes, Tabs & workspaces and App, with each key shown as a keycap.

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.4_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications, replacing any older version. Your workspaces and settings are kept.

3. Rook isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS warns on the first launch that it can't verify the app. Open Rook once, dismiss the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

   Or skip the warning by clearing the quarantine flag from a terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

Rook 0.1.3

Fixes typed text appearing twice and shells behaving oddly when Rook is opened from Finder or the Dock.

What changed

• Each pane now gets a proper terminal environment. Apps opened from Finder inherit almost no environment, so zsh had no TERM or UTF-8 locale, couldn't measure the prompt, and redrew what you typed. Rook now sets TERM, COLORTERM, TERM_PROGRAM, and LANG when no locale is set.
• Shells start as login shells, like in Terminal and iTerm2, so your .zprofile runs and Homebrew and other tools are on your PATH.

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.3_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications, replacing any older version. Your workspaces and settings are kept.

3. Rook isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS warns on the first launch that it can't verify the app. Open Rook once, dismiss the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

   Or skip the warning by clearing the quarantine flag from a terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

Rook 0.1.2

Fixes "Rook is damaged and can't be opened" when opening a downloaded copy. The 0.1.0 and 0.1.1 disk images weren't fully code-signed; this release signs the whole app bundle.

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.2_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications, replacing any older version. Your workspaces and settings are kept.

3. Rook isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS warns on the first launch that it can't verify the app. Open Rook once, dismiss the warning, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

   Or skip the warning by clearing the quarantine flag from a terminal:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

Rook 0.1.1

Rook now has its own app icon: a gold rook on a dark tile, with a terminal cursor set into it. Nothing else changed since 0.1.0.

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.1_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications, replacing the old version if you have one. Your workspaces and settings are kept.

3. Rook isn't notarized yet, so macOS blocks the first launch. Right-click Rook in Applications and choose Open, or run:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

If the Dock still shows the old icon, it's macOS's icon cache; it refreshes after a restart, or run killall Dock.

Rook 0.1.0

The first release of Rook, a minimal, keyboard-driven terminal for macOS.

Highlights

• Split panes in any direction, with vim-key navigation and resizing, and draggable dividers
• Tabs and workspaces, switched with ⌘E; background workspaces keep their shells running
• Session restore: workspaces, tabs, splits and each pane's folder come back on launch
• Shell integration: folder in tab titles, git branch in the status line, failed commands marked in place, new splits and tabs open where you are
• Themes: Nara, Tokyo Night, Rosé Pine and Catppuccin Mocha
• Fonts: JetBrains Mono, Geist Mono, Fira Code, IBM Plex Mono and SF Mono, with separate terminal and interface sizes

Install

1. Download Rook_0.1.0_aarch64.dmg below. It's for Apple silicon Macs.

2. Open it and drag Rook into Applications.

3. Rook isn't notarized yet, so macOS blocks the first launch. Right-click Rook in Applications and choose Open, or run:

   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Rook.app

Every pane runs zsh, and your existing .zshrc is loaded as usual. Press ⌘/ in the app for all shortcuts.