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Workspaces

A Workspace is a sidebar of its own: its own Sources, its own Layouts, its own Monitors. The pop-up at the top of the sidebar switches between them, and the sidebar shows one at a time.

Groups already file related items into folders. Workspaces sit a level above that, for when the folders themselves start to crowd each other - a staging network and a production network that each have a full set of groups, or two clients whose infrastructure should never appear in the same list.

Switching

Pick a Workspace from the pop-up at the top of the sidebar. The Sources, Layouts and Monitors sections fill with that Workspace's items, and so does the 'Favorites' tab.

Nothing starts or stops. Every Stream that was running keeps running, in the Workspace you left as much as the one you arrived in, and the widgets, Shortcuts actions, the Apple TV companion and the MCP Server all keep seeing every Stream regardless of which Workspace is on screen. Switching changes what the sidebar lists, and nothing else.

Each Workspace remembers what you had selected, so coming back lands you on the row you left.

Which Workspace is showing is remembered per Mac. Your Workspaces themselves sync across your Macs with iCloud Sync; what each Mac is looking at does not.

Creating a Workspace

Three ways, all opening the same sheet:

The sheet asks for:

A new Workspace starts empty, and the sidebar stays where it is. Switch to it from the pop-up when you want to fill it.

Renaming a Workspace

Switch to it, then choose 'Edit Workspace…' from the pop-up. The same sheet reopens for its name and icon.

To rename one without switching to it, open 'Manage Workspaces…' and double-click its name in the list.

Streams that follow the switch

Switching changes what the sidebar lists and nothing else, unless a Workspace is told otherwise. Two checkboxes let one manage its own Streams. They are in 'New Workspace…' and 'Edit Workspace…', and under the list in 'Manage Workspaces…', where they apply to whichever Workspace is selected:

The pair is what lets a staging Workspace look after itself: it comes up when you go there and goes quiet when you leave, while production carries on untouched. Each is off by default and they are independent - a Workspace can stop on the way out without starting on the way in.

Nothing stored changes when they fire. 'Auto-stream at startup' on each Stream is left exactly as it was, so the next launch behaves as it always did.

Duplicating a Workspace

Choose 'Duplicate Workspace' from the pop-up, or select one in 'Manage Workspaces…' and press the duplicate button. Starting from a Workspace that already works and deleting what you don't need is usually quicker than building one from nothing.

The copy is a real copy, not a second view of the same thing: its own Sources with their own Streams, its own Layouts and Monitors, and the folders they sit in. Inside the copy everything points at the copy, so a copied Layout shows the copied Streams and a copied Monitor watches the copied Sources. Each copied Source carries its own credentials, so it connects exactly as the original does.

The copy starts quiet. Copied Streams keep every setting, 'Auto-stream at startup' included, but none of them connect when the copy appears - duplicating would otherwise open a second set of tails against the very same hosts. They come up as configured the next time you open LogRaker, or straight away with 'Start All Auto-streams'.

A reference that pointed outside the Workspace keeps pointing where it did - only what was copied gets rewired. The copy also opens folded the way the original is, rather than with every folder unfolded.

Starting and stopping a whole Workspace

Two commands in the pop-up, both acting on the Workspace you are in:

Neither reaches into another Workspace. To have one look after itself while you work elsewhere, give it 'Stop all Streams when switching away' and it goes quiet as you leave.

This is the same act as Start or Stop on a single Stream: nothing stored changes, each Stream's 'Auto-stream at startup' is untouched, and the next launch behaves as it always did. The 'Manage Workspaces…' list shows how many of each Workspace's Streams are running, so you can see at a glance whether one you are not in is still tailing.

Importing from a configuration file

File ▸ 'Import Workspaces…' opens a saved configuration file and lists the Workspaces inside it with what each one holds. Tick the ones you want and they arrive as new Workspaces.

This is the additive counterpart to 'Restore Configuration…', which replaces everything you have. An import replaces nothing: every Source, Stream, Layout and Monitor comes in as a new copy under a new Workspace, and nothing already in your sidebar is renamed, moved or removed. A Workspace whose name is already taken arrives as a copy, the way a duplicate does.

Each imported Source brings its own credentials, taken from the entry the file recorded, so it connects as the original did. A Source whose password or key has never reached this Mac needs it entered once, the same as after restoring on a new Mac.

The import starts quiet, like a duplicate: the arriving Streams keep every setting, 'Auto-stream at startup' included, but none of them connect as they appear - the file names hosts, not copies of them, so importing would otherwise double the tails against those hosts. They come up as configured the next time you open LogRaker, or straight away with 'Start All Auto-streams'.

An imported Workspace is self-contained. If one of its Layouts pointed at a Stream in a Workspace you did not tick, that pane arrives empty rather than attaching itself to something already here.

A file saved before Workspaces existed holds one unnamed set; it appears as a single entry named after the file.

Managing the list

The pop-up's 'Manage Workspaces…' opens the list of every Workspace and what each one holds.

The list opens on the Workspace you are in.

Moving items between Workspaces

Right-click a row in the sidebar and choose 'Move to Workspace', then the destination. It works on:

Items inside a container move with it. A Source filed in a Source Group follows that group, and a Stream follows its Source, so 'Move to Workspace' appears on the group, or on a Source that is not in one. To move a single Source out of a group and into another Workspace, take it out of the group first with 'Move to Group' ▸ 'None'.

The item is gone from the sidebar the moment it moves, because it now lives somewhere else. ⌘Z brings it back.

With only one Workspace there is nowhere to move anything, so the menu item is absent until you make a second one.

Deleting a Workspace

Switch to it and choose 'Delete Workspace' from the pop-up, or select it in 'Manage Workspaces…' and press −.

A Workspace is only deleted once it is empty, so while it still holds anything the command and the − button are both greyed out, and resting the pointer on either says why. Move its contents somewhere else with 'Move to Workspace', or delete them, and the command comes back. Deciding where a Workspace's contents should land is your call, not something the app should guess.

The last Workspace is greyed out for the same reason: there is always one to be in.

What belongs to a Workspace

Sources, Layouts and Monitors, with everything they contain. A few things are deliberately shared across all of them:

A Monitor can also keep watching a Stream that has since moved to another Workspace. The match feed carries on; only the sidebar row moved.

Save / Restore Configuration

Workspaces are part of File ▸ 'Save Configuration…' and File ▸ 'Restore Configuration…': their names, icons and membership all come back. A file written before Workspaces existed restores into your first Workspace.

Shortcuts

Two actions in the Shortcuts app: 'Switch Workspace' shows one in the sidebar, and 'Get Current Workspace' reports the one on screen along with how many Sources, Layouts and Monitors it holds. See Automation with Shortcuts & Siri.