Yabar · Spaces, stacks and tabs for yabai, in the menu bar

The menu bar

Every space, at a glance.

Focused, on another display, occupied or empty; a dot for a stack, a bar for a window that wants you. Click one to go there; right-click for every window on every space.

Labels that survive yabai restarts and follow a space when macOS reorders them.
No yabai? The spaces come from macOS until it is back.

Stacks

See what's in a stack.

yabai shows only the window on top. Yabar marks the rest beside it, never over it: it asks yabai for just enough room, and gives it back when the stack goes.

i3-style tabs across the top of a stack — **Tabs**i3's tabbed layout: icon and title, across the top.

App icons down the side of a stack — **Icons**The apps, down the side facing the screen.

Slim pills beside a stack — **Pills**Just enough to count them.

Keys

One set of keys, stacks and tiles.

Along a stack, the keys step through its windows; past the end, on to the next tile, then the next display. Back into a stack, you land where you left it. The way i3 does it, from skhd.

lcmd - h : yabar focus west
lcmd - j : yabar focus south
lcmd - k : yabar focus north
lcmd - l : yabar focus east
lcmd + shift - space : yabar launcher
lcmd - 0 : yabar focus attention

A stack with tabs, the first one focused

Launcher

Any window, on any space.

Windows, stacks, scratchpads, apps, and Yabar's and yabai's commands, with badges for the space, the stack and who wants you. Enter goes there; ⌘Enter opens a new copy; > runs yabai.

Yabar's launcher listing windows with their space and stack, a stack, an app and commands

Layouts, per display

Columns, and room for what you're on.

Three or four columns instead of yabai's spiral, extra windows as rows or stacks, and the focused column given the golden share. Set it for the laptop's screen, the big monitor, or one labelled space.

Four windows in yabai's spiral — yabai's spiral

The same windows as four columns — Four columns

The focused column with the golden share — Focus sizing, golden ratio

Auto-stackAt most so many tiles; a new window beyond goes into the focused stack.

ProfilesLayout, padding, gap, columns and indicators per display or labelled space.

Scratchpadsyabai's own, set up in Yabar and shown with one key.

Well behaved

Stays out of your yabai.

No permissionsTitles, frames and focus come from yabai: no Accessibility, no Screen Recording.

Your .yabairc winsOnly per-space settings, all labelled, all put back on quit, kill or the next launch.

Native and smallSwift, talks to yabai's socket directly; signed, notarized, updates itself.

Questions

What does it need?

An Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 15 or later, and yabai. yabai's scripting addition is optional: without it, clicking a space focuses one of its windows instead, and scratchpads are off.

Does it replace stackline or SpaceId?

Both, natively: stack indicators without Hammerspoon, and the spaces in the menu bar, signed and notarized.

Will it change my yabai setup?

Only per space and only while it runs: padding and gap for the indicators, and what your profiles ask. Everything carries a yabar- label and goes back to your .yabairc's values when Yabar quits.

How do I bind keys?

The cask puts yabar on your PATH; bind yabar focus, yabar launcher and yabar scratchpad in skhd. See Keys.

Is it free?

Yes, MIT licensed, on GitHub.

Spaces, stacks and tabs for yabai.