Trackpad Gestures

PRO Feature

Trackpad gestures require FazerWM Pro. On the free tier, all gestures are disabled. The 3-finger and 4-finger swipes and the 2-finger overlay swipe do nothing. A free Pro trial lets you try them.

Supported Gestures

3-finger swipe
Focus / Navigate

4-finger swipe
Move / Resize

Pinch (2 fingers)
Monocle

When a Swipe Fires

A swipe action runs the moment your fingers cross the recognition distance with a clear direction. You do not need to lift your fingers off the trackpad first. If you keep your fingers down and swipe back the other way, the opposite action fires. For example, a 3-finger swipe right followed by a swipe back left returns focus to the previous window, without lifting.

Prerequisites

The 3-finger and 4-finger gestures require that you turn off the macOS system gestures. The Configure Trackpad Gestures step in the First Launch setup wizard helps you. It detects the conflicts automatically. See First Launch. You can also do it manually:

Open System Settings → Trackpad → More Gestures
Turn off the gestures for your chosen finger count (for example, turn off Mission Control for 4-finger swipes)

The Gestures settings tab detects conflicting system gestures automatically. It warns you about them.

💡 Settings GUI

Configure the gestures visually in Settings → Gestures. The UI shows OS gesture conflict warnings. You can pick the gesture type, the finger count, and the modifiers. A Record button records modifier chords.

Gesture Types

Type	Fingers	Description
Swipe up/down/left/right	2, 3, or 4	A multi-finger directional swipe. The 2-finger swipe requires modifier keys.
Pinch	2 (implicit)	A 2-finger pinch gesture. You do not need a finger count in the config.

ℹ️ 2-Finger Gestures

The 2-finger swipes conflict with normal scrolling. So they always require a modifier key (for example, hyper+2-left). The 3-finger and 4-finger gestures work without a modifier.

Modifier Keys

You can combine gestures with keyboard modifiers. This binds different actions to the same swipe:

Modifier	Config Key
Left Shift	`lshift`
Right Shift	`rshift`
Left Control	`lctrl`
Right Control	`rctrl`
Left Option	`loption`
Right Option	`roption`
Left Command	`lcmd`
Right Command	`rcmd`
Hyper chord	`hyper`

Overlay Swipe

When overlaySwipe is enabled, a 2-finger scroll inside the Overview or the Recent Windows Switcher moves between thumbnails. This is similar to the arrow keys. It works with momentum scrolling and axis locking for precise movement.

gestures:
  overlaySwipe: true

Configuration

Configure the gestures in the gestures: section of your config file:

gestures:
  overlaySwipe: true
  bindings:
    # 3-finger: window focus (bare) → display (lcmd) → workspace (hyper) → window ops (lshift)
    focusWindowLeft: 3-left
    focusWindowRight: 3-right
    focusWindowUp: 3-up
    focusWindowDown: 3-down
    focusDisplayLeft: lcmd+3-left
    focusDisplayRight: lcmd+3-right
    focusWorkspaceUp: hyper+3-up
    focusWorkspaceDown: hyper+3-down
    reorderWindowUp: lshift+3-up
    reorderWindowDown: lshift+3-down
    mergeWindowLeft: lshift+3-left
    mergeWindowRight: lshift+3-right
    extractWindowLeft: lshift+loption+3-left
    extractWindowRight: lshift+loption+3-right

    # 4-finger: column move/resize
    moveColumnLeft: 4-left
    moveColumnRight: 4-right
    windowWidthGrow: 4-up
    windowWidthShrink: 4-down
    columnToDisplayLeft: lcmd+loption+4-left
    columnToDisplayRight: lcmd+loption+4-right

    # Pinch
    toggleMonocleMode: hyper+pinch

Binding Format

Gesture bindings use this format: [modifiers+]fingers-direction, or [modifiers+]pinch:

Example	Meaning
`3-left`	3-finger swipe left
`4-up`	4-finger swipe up
`lcmd+3-left`	Left Command + 3-finger swipe left
`hyper+4-right`	Hyper key + 4-finger swipe right
`pinch`	2-finger pinch
`lshift+loption+3-left`	Left Shift + Left Option + 3-finger swipe left

Available Actions

Group	Actions
General	`overview`, `toggleTiledWinVis`
Focus	`focusWindowLeft/Right/Up/Down`, `focusDisplayLeft/Right/Up/Down`
Column	`moveColumnLeft/Right`, `windowWidthShrink/Grow`, `columnToDisplayLeft/Right/Up/Down`, `toggleMonocleMode`, `toggleColumnTabbed`
Window	`reorderWindowUp/Down`, `mergeWindowLeft/Right`, `extractWindowLeft/Right`, `windowToDisplayLeft/Right/Up/Down`, `toggleFocusedLocation`