Comment #3 on issue 347 by quesel: Feature request: Adding new Topics as you go http://code.google.com/p/xmonad/issues/detail?id=347 Ok I have found a partial solution. Maybe one could extend it using this eval function. For the moment I'm able to spawn new topics which spawn a new shell on the fly using X.A.DynamicWorkspaces and the following set of functions: -- Constructor for a prompt data Prom = Prom String instance XPrompt Prom where showXPrompt (Prom x) = x -- Input a name and create a new workspace with that name newWS :: X () newWS = withWindowSet $ \w -> do let wss = W.workspaces w mkXPrompt pr myXPConfig (mkComplFunFromList (map W.tag wss)) newWSWithName where pr = Prom "Workspace name: " -- Create a new workspace with a given name newWSWithName :: String -> X () newWSWithName name = withWindowSet $ \w -> do let wss = W.workspaces w dname = defname name cws = map W.tag $ filter (\ws -> (dname `isPrefixOf` W.tag ws || dname == W.tag ws) && isJust (W.stack ws)) wss num = head $ [0..] \\ catMaybes (map (readMaybe . drop 4) cws) usednames = map W.tag wss new = dname ++ if (dname `elem` cws) then show num else "" when (new `notElem` usednames) $ addWorkspace new windows $ W.view new spawnShell -- TODO replace this by the freshly entered topic action where readMaybe s = case reads s of [(r,_)] -> Just r _ -> Nothing defname "" = "temp" defname s = s -- | Switch to the given topic non greedy. switchTopicNonGreedy :: TopicConfig -> Topic -> X () switchTopicNonGreedy tg topic = removeEmptyWorkspaceAfterExcept myTopicNames (switchTopicNonGreedy' tg topic) switchTopicNonGreedy' :: TopicConfig -> Topic -> X () switchTopicNonGreedy' tg topic = do windows $ W.view topic wins <- gets (W.integrate' . W.stack . W.workspace . W.current . windowset) when (null wins) $ topicAction tg topic -- | Switch to the Nth last focused topic non greedy or failback to the 'defaultTopic'. switchNthLastFocusedNonGreedy ::TopicConfig -> Int -> X () switchNthLastFocusedNonGreedy tg depth = do lastWs <- getLastFocusedTopics switchTopicNonGreedy tg $ (lastWs ++ repeat (defaultTopic tg)) !! depth wsgrid = withWindowSet $ \w -> do let wss = W.workspaces w usednames = map W.tag $ wss newnames = filter (\w -> (show w `notElem` (map show myTopicNames))) usednames gridselect gsConfig (map (\x -> (x,x)) (myTopicNames ++ newnames)) promptedGoto = wsgrid >>= flip whenJust (switchTopicNonGreedy myTopicConfig) So almost what I wanted to achieve. Maybe this is useful for you as well.