SkyLightWindow

A powerful macOS framework that enables views to be displayed above all other windows using private SkyLight APIs.

Preview

Features

🚀 Always on Top: Display windows above all other applications, even fullscreen apps
🎯 SwiftUI Integration: Simple .moveToSky() modifier for any SwiftUI view
🔒 System-Level Positioning: Uses SkyLight framework for maximum window level control
🖥️ Multi-Screen Support: Works seamlessly across multiple displays
🎨 Transparent Windows: Support for transparent backgrounds and custom styling

Installation

SwiftPM

Add the following to your Package.swift file:

dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/Lakr233/SkyLightWindow", from: "1.0.0"),
]

To enable the OpenSwiftUI package trait, use:

dependencies: [
    .package(
        url: "https://github.com/Lakr233/SkyLightWindow",
        from: "1.0.0",
        traits: ["OpenSwiftUI"]
    ),
]

This uses OpenSwiftUI-spm binary package. Import OpenSwiftUI instead of SwiftUI in your app. At the time of writing, OpenSwiftUI's macOS binary support requires macOS 15.0 or newer.

Xcode

In Xcode, add the package dependency and enable the OpenSwiftUI trait in the package settings.

To enable trait in your Xcode project, Xcode 26.4+ is required.

OpenSwiftUI trait

Platform compatibility for default trait:

macOS 11.0+
Swift Compiler 5.9+

Platform compatibility for OpenSwiftUI trait:

macOS 15.0+
Swift Compiler 6.1+

Usage

SwiftUI Integration

Import the framework

import SwiftUI
import SkyLightWindow

Apply the modifier to any view

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        Text("This view is always on top!")
            .moveToSky()
    }
}

OpenSwiftUI Integration

Usage is identical to the SwiftUI integration above. Import OpenSwiftUI instead of SwiftUI:

import OpenSwiftUI
import SkyLightWindow

struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        Text("This view is always on top!")
            .moveToSky()
    }
}

AppKit Usage

You can also create topmost windows programmatically:

import SkyLightWindow

let screen = NSScreen.main!
let view = AnyView(Text("Overlay Content"))
let controller = SkyLightOperator.shared.delegateView(view, toScreen: screen)

// or you can just delegate a window

How It Works

SkyLightWindow uses macOS's private SkyLight framework to:

Create a special space at the highest system level
Move target windows to this space
Ensure windows remain visible above all other content

The framework handles:

Connection to the SkyLight service
Space creation and management
Window delegation and positioning
SwiftUI integration through view modifiers

Important Notes

⚠️ Privacy & Security: This framework uses private APIs but works without special entitlements and is available to the Mac App Store.

⚠️ System Compatibility: The default SwiftUI integration supports macOS 11.0 or newer. The OpenSwiftUI trait requires macOS 15.0 or newer. Private APIs can change between system updates.

Example

cd Example
open MoveToSky.xcworkspace

The Example directory contains two Xcode projects that share the same example sources:

MoveToSky.xcodeproj uses the default SwiftUI integration.
MoveToSkyOpenSwiftUI.xcodeproj enables the OpenSwiftUI trait and requires Xcode 26.4 or newer.

Open the project for the integration you want to test.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Sponsor

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