Create labelled spaces and move windows on startup

[Just-Insane]

Is there any way to create labelled spaces and move windows to those spaces on startup?

I have a multiple monitor setup and would like to be able to log in and have my apps all open in the correct spaces on the correct monitors.

Currently, I have this in my config file:

yabai -m space --create
yabai -m space 1 --label main
yabai -m space --create
yabai -m space 2 --label code
yabai -m space --create
yabai -m space 3 --label term
yabai -m space --create
yabai -m space 4 --label chat

yabai -m space main --display 1
yabai -m space chat --display 2
yabai -m space code --display 3
yabai -m space term --display 3

yabai -m rule --add app=iTerm space=term
yabai -m rule --add app=Code space=code
yabai -m rule --add app=Safari space=main
yabai -m rule --add app=Firefox space=main
yabai -m rule --add app="News Explorer" space=news
yabai -m rule --add app=Discord space=chat
yabai -m rule --add app=Franz space=chat
yabai -m rule --add app=Ferdi space=chat

I then have another script that runs on space change to close unfocused spaces without windows, which doesn't really do what I want:

#! /usr/bin/env zsh

yabai -m query --spaces --display | jq -re 'map(select(."native-fullscreen" == 0)) | length > 1' && zsh <(yabai -m query --spaces | jq -re 'map(select(."windows" == [] and ."focused" == 0 and ."label" == "" )) | .[]| "yabai -m space \(.index|@sh) --destroy"')

The goal is to create specific spaces on specific monitors and move applications to those spaces.

[johnallen3d]

Sorry, I don't have an answer to your question (though I'm curious, how do you first ensure there aren't any spaces?) but just installed Ferdi based on your config. Thanks for that!

[Just-Insane]

@johnallen3d That's half the problem... I'm not really sure how to ensure there are no spaces (or label the spaces that are there), which is a bit painful because a bunch of spaces get made and then labelled and moved, and then any extra are removed by the script.

Ferdi is pretty awesome, it's the free version of Franz.

[koekeishiya]

The way macOS work you will always have at least one space per monitor.
You can query the space information from yabai in your config and act accordingly, e.g: yabai -m query --spaces will give you information about all existing spaces.

Maybe the solution in #365 could be of some help?

[Just-Insane]

I was able to (seemingly) get this working by doing the following:

python3 ./.config/yabai/yabaictl.py update-spaces

yabai -m space 1 --label main
yabai -m space 2 --label code
yabai -m space 3 --label term
yabai -m space 4 --label chat
yabai -m space 5 --label spotify 

yabai -m space main --display 1
yabai -m space chat --display 2
yabai -m space code --display 3
yabai -m space term --display 3
yabai -m space term --move next
yabai -m space spotify --display 3
yabai -m space spotify --move next
yabai -m space spotify --move next

It's not ideal but seems to work decently. Moving the spaces using next is clunky though. Probably a better way to go about that. This is needed is due to the python script randomly distributing the spaces, and then moving the spaces to the monitor. I didn't see a better way of ordering spaces after a quick search.

[nkezhaya]

@Just-Insane could you share the contents of yabaictl.py?

[Just-Insane]

@whitepaperclip sure, it's here:

#!/usr/local/bin/python3
import json
import subprocess

import click

# these are used to determine display order
setups = {
    "home": [
        "9D6F6199-E480-45B6-B5B5-F6C1D3C40171",
        "F4300722-B985-E97A-DAC9-BC8415D223C6",
        "D8BFD1B0-C53A-5A22-141F-5F889FB85E01",
    ],
    "laptop": [
        "731FF600-A54A-B317-CF0B-C767EC3D5EB2",
    ],
}

ignore_messages = [
    "acting space is already located on the given display.",
    "cannot focus an already focused space.",
]
# TODO: need to handle following errors:
"acting space is the last user-space on the source display and cannot be destroyed."
"acting space is the last user-space on the source display and cannot be moved."


def yabai_message(*msg):
    ret = subprocess.run(["yabai", "-m", *msg], capture_output=True)

    if ret.returncode:
        err_msg = ret.stderr.decode()

        if err_msg.strip() not in ignore_messages:
            raise Exception(err_msg)
        else:
            print(f"While running {msg} we received error: {err_msg}")

    return ret.stdout.decode()


def yabai_query(domain):
    return json.loads(yabai_message("query", "--{}".format(domain)))


class WindowManager:
    spaces = []
    displays = []
    display_order = []
    NUM_SPACES = 10

    def __init__(self):
        self.refresh_state()

    @property
    def num_displays(self):
        return len(self.displays)

    @property
    def num_spaces(self):
        return len(self.spaces)

    @property
    def unlabled_spaces(self):
        return [space for space in self.spaces if space["label"] == ""]

    @property
    def visible_spaces(self):
        return [space for space in self.spaces if space["visible"] > 0]

    def refresh_state(self):
        self.spaces = yabai_query("spaces")
        self.displays = yabai_query("displays")

        for setup in setups.values():
            if set([display["uuid"] for display in self.displays]) == set(setup):
                self.display_order = setup
        if self.display_order == []:
            print("unidentified setup")

    def find_display_index(self, display):
        uuid = self.display_order[display]

        return next(
            display["index"] for display in self.displays if display["uuid"] == uuid
        )

    def find_space_index(self, space):
        return next(
            space["index"] for space in self.spaces if space["label"] == f"s{space}"
        )

    def get_display_for_space(self, space):
        return space % self.num_displays - 1

    def focus_space(self, space):
        yabai_message("space", "--focus", f"s{space}")

    def move_space_to_display(self, space, display):
        display_index = self.find_display_index(display)

        yabai_message(
            "space", f"s{space}", "--display", f"{display_index}",
        )

    def remove_unnecessary_spaces(self):
        if self.num_spaces > self.NUM_SPACES:
            for unlabled_space in self.unlabled_spaces:
                yabai_message("space", f"{unlabled_space['index']}", "--destroy")

    def ensure_spaces(self):
        if self.num_spaces < self.NUM_SPACES:
            for i in range(self.num_spaces, self.NUM_SPACES):
                yabai_message("space", "--create")

    def ensure_labels(self):
        wanted_labels = set(f"s{i}" for i in range(1, self.NUM_SPACES + 1))
        existing_labels = set(space["label"] for space in self.spaces)

        for ix, missing_label in enumerate(sorted(wanted_labels - existing_labels)):
            yabai_message(
                "space",
                f"{self.unlabled_spaces[ix]['index']}",
                "--label",
                missing_label,
            )

    def reorganize_spaces(self):
        focused_spaces = self.visible_spaces

        for space_index in range(1, self.NUM_SPACES + 1):
            self.move_space_to_display(
                space_index, self.get_display_for_space(space_index),
            )

        for space in focused_spaces[: min(self.num_displays, len(focused_spaces))]:
            self.focus_space(space["label"].strip("s"))

    def update_spaces(self):
        self.ensure_spaces()
        self.refresh_state()

        self.ensure_labels()
        self.refresh_state()

        self.reorganize_spaces()

        self.remove_unnecessary_spaces()
        self.refresh_state()


@click.group()
@click.pass_context
def cli(ctx):
    # ensure that ctx.obj exists and is a dict (in case `cli()` is called
    # by means other than the `if` block below
    ctx.ensure_object(dict)

    ctx.obj["wm"] = WindowManager()


@cli.command()
@click.pass_context
def update_spaces(ctx):
    ctx.obj["wm"].update_spaces()


@cli.command()
@click.argument("space")
@click.pass_context
def focus_space(ctx, space):
    ctx.obj["wm"].focus_space(space)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    cli(obj={})% 

It doesn't really work for my use cases due to how it checks for unused spaces and removes them, and how it sends spaces to specific monitors (balanced).

[nkezhaya]

Awesome, thanks!