Columns

With its default split_type auto, yabai splits the focused window along its longer side, so windows spiral. A profile's Columns lines them up side by side instead:

yabai's spiral Four columns
Four windows in yabai's spiral The same four windows as columns
  • New windows split the focused one sideways (split_type vertical for the space), and yabai keeps the columns equal (auto_balance), unless focus sizing sizes them.
  • Beyond the columns, a new window becomes a row under the focused tile (the default), or joins its stack.
  • Re-arrange this space as columns in the launcher lays out the windows already there: the first tiles as columns in their order, the rest as rows; stacks move whole.

Apps with a minimum size keep it: a window that won't get narrower than its column overlaps its neighbour.