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Drawers

macOS has apps and files, but no projects

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Hi HN,Wanted to share Drawers, an app my friend Gonzalo and I (Kieran) have been working on to combat distraction and get people in the flow state. Drawers creates project-scoped workspaces on your Mac, complete with project-specific docks that can contain chats, files, and websites, in addition to apps.We made Drawers because we were concerned about how distracted we were getting when trying to work on the computer. We believe that many productivity solutions (blocklists, pomodoro) treat distraction as a willpower problem, when it is really a structural problem with modern UIs. Projects live across multiple apps, and each app is used for multiple projects. Getting to work requires collecting a specific set of resources across multiple applications, and staying focused requires ignoring all the noise from other projects within shared applications.Drawers addresses this by rearranging the UI around projects. Each project gets its own Drawer, with a project-specific dock containing only the resources for that project. Start working on a project and distractions from other projects will be less accessible, while the resources for the current project are already laid out for you.Drawers is deliberately opinionated, and we are curious to see if this vision resonates with people.Would love to hear feedback if you try it out!

HN · launched May 6, 2026 · 6 upvotes (top 69%) · 0 views

Niche: macos system utilities · 448 launches, 31 in the last 7 days ▼ -30% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags

  • Horizontal
  • Workflow automation
  • Prosumer
  • Not AI
  • Commercial product

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

Could you build this?

Partial The user-facing macOS app can be generated easily, but manipulating macOS Spaces and intercepting window focus across arbitrary third-party applications relies on fragile, private macOS Accessibility and SkyLight APIs.

What it would actually take: The app requires native Swift/AppKit code interfacing with the macOS Accessibility API (AXUIElement) and undocumented CGS/SkyLight framework calls to programmatically inspect, move, and bind specific application windows to individual Mission Control Spaces. It also requires virtual dock implementation with system event tap hooks (CGEventTap) and strict permission management that Apple often restricts.

Discussion

2 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: Arc browser

Concerns raised: Setup process too complicated, Uninstaller changes system settings without permission, Poor onboarding experience

Feature requests: Open source option, Clarify monetization plans

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 434 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #414 of 435 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 189 days after the earliest competitor.

  • rooms · github · 2026-09-23 · 322 upvotes · similarity 0.58
  • Orbit · ph · 2026-10-14 · 3 upvotes · similarity 0.51
  • Zuno · ph · 2026-11-02 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.47
  • Chest · hn · 2026-10-18 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.46
  • WhimsyDesk · ph · 2026-11-01 · 3 upvotes · similarity 0.46
  • boringBar · hn · 2026-04-12 · 520 upvotes · similarity 0.45
  • Halo · ph · 2026-09-30 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.44
  • Clean Start · ph · 2026-11-09 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.43

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