A Spaces setup for streamers

Keep OBS on one Space, the game or the thing you are showing on another, chat and tools further out, and switch between them from a Stream Deck without the slide animation. Spacepal's Streamer template creates those four Spaces in one click, and its instant switching means viewers see a cut instead of a swoosh.

Start with the Streamer template

Open Settings, Profiles, Templates and apply Streamer, or run open "spacepal://template/Streamer". It fills your first four desktops (on the menu bar display, in order):

Desktop	Name	Opens when empty
1	Stream	OBS, if installed
2	Game	Nothing
3	Chat	Nothing
4	Tools	Nothing

Each Space also gets an icon and color. Add your own apps in Settings, Spaces: the game launcher on Game, Discord or your chat pop-out on Chat, and audio or overlay tools on Tools. If you have fewer than four desktops, Spacepal tells you how many to add.

Switching on stream

No slide animation. The default "Instant" switching method (Settings, General, Switching) jumps straight to the Space, so a display capture shows a clean cut.
Number shortcuts. ⌃⌥1 to ⌃⌥4 go straight to Stream, Game, Chat and Tools. Pressing the current Space's shortcut again goes back to the last one, which is handy for a quick look at OBS.
Stay where you are. Turn on Space Lock in Settings, Windows so a chat notification or a Dock click does not pull you, and your viewers, to another Space.

One Stream Deck key per Space

The most reliable way is the Stream Deck Hotkey action set to Spacepal's shortcut, for example ⌃⌥2 for Game. Spacepal sees it like a key you pressed. Add keys for ⌃⌥` (last Space) and ⌥Tab (overview) too. Opening a spacepal:// link from a key may also work. See Stream Deck for the full setup.

Keep your screen clean for viewers

Spacepal can show small things on screen that you may not want on a display capture. Check these in Settings, Appearance before you go live:

Show the Space name (When switching) shows the name briefly after each switch. Turn it off, or move it, if it would appear in your capture.
Sound and Speak the Space name are off by default. Leave them off if your microphone or desktop audio is being captured.
Show the Space name on the desktop and the Floating Space toolbar are off by default.

If you capture a single window in OBS instead of the whole display, none of these appear in the stream.

Automations for going live

In a Space's editor, "Run Shortcut" when you enter or leave can turn a Focus on or off. A shortcut that turns on Do Not Disturb when you enter Stream, and off when you leave it, keeps notifications off the screen while you are live. Shortcuts is also the easiest way to change volume or audio output. The direct version can run a shell command instead.

Moving windows between scenes

To send the front window to another Space, press ⌃⌥⇧ plus its number, or right-click a Space in the overview and choose "Move Front Window Here". This works on every supported macOS version. Rules that move background windows on their own, such as "Apps that belong here", use a direct WindowServer move that works on macOS 14.0 to 14.4 and on 26.4 and later; on other versions those windows stay where they are.

Profiles for different shows

If you run different kinds of streams, save each set of Spaces as a profile (Settings, Profiles), such as "Gaming" and "Coding", and switch with spacepal://profile/Gaming from a Stream Deck key or a Shortcut.

Written by Dan Bayer, developer of Spacepal. Last updated 2026-10-27.