threefinger

Swipe with three fingers on the Mac trackpad to change tabs.

Left/right posts Ctrl-Shift-Tab / Ctrl-Tab. Works in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and most tabbed apps.

Keep Mission Control and App Exposé on three fingers and you get a full set:

Three fingers	Does
← / →	Previous / next tab
↑	All windows
↓	Windows for this app

Setup

1. Install and allow threefinger when Settings asks (Accessibility + Input Monitoring — for threefinger, not Terminal):

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/firedev/threefinger/master/install.sh | bash
   threefinger --check --open

   Or: brew install firedev/tap/threefinger && brew services start threefinger

2. In Trackpad → More Gestures, set Swipe between full-screen applications to Swipe Left or Right with Four Fingers so macOS doesn’t steal the horizontal swipe. Swipe between pages → Off is optional.

Then swipe.

More: firedev.com/projects/threefinger

Config

Edit ~/.config/threefinger.json (Karabiner-style). By default, left/right change tabs; you can map any shortcut. Restart after editing:

brew services restart threefinger
# or, if you used the curl installer:
launchctl kickstart -k gui/$UID/com.firedev.threefinger

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/firedev/threefinger && cd threefinger
make install

Uninstall

# curl install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/firedev/threefinger/master/uninstall.sh | bash

# Homebrew
brew uninstall threefinger

# from a clone
make uninstall

Use either Homebrew or the curl installer — not both. Two daemons will fight over the same swipe.

After every upgrade, remove threefinger from Accessibility (−) and add the new binary again. Toggling the switch is not enough.

License

MIT. Tiny Swift tool on MultitouchSupport — a one-feature BetterTouchTool replacement.