asmvik / asmvik/yabai

Ignoring launcher window

Open
#2,397 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
C
Stars
29.6k
Forks
750
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

(This may be out of scope but worth asking for any potential hints or tricks)

I'm trying to create a minimal launcher, similar to Spotlight or Alfred, that's written in Electron: https://gist.github.com/jbriales/c8b451973dfc2a60749b904f78a588f4

It seems those launcher windows are fully "transparent" to yabai (they don't get listed as windows at all), but the window created by Electron is listed:

Window query details

```
{
"id":55513,
"pid":25538,
"app":"ylauncher",
"title":"Launcher",
"scratchpad":"",
"frame":{
"x":1080.0000,
"y":650.0000,
"w":400.0000,
"h":300.0000
},
"role":"AXWindow",
"subrole":"AXStandardWindow",
"root-window":true,
"display":1,
"space":3,
"level":0,
"sub-level":0,
"layer":"normal",
"sub-layer":"normal",
"opacity":1.0000,
"split-type":"none",
"split-child":"none",
"stack-index":0,
"can-move":true,
"can-resize":false,
"has-focus":true,
"has-shadow":true,
"has-parent-zoom":false,
"has-fullscreen-zoom":false,
"has-ax-reference":true,
"is-native-fullscreen":false,
"is-visible":true,
"is-minimized":false,
"is-hidden":false,
"is-floating":true,
"is-sticky":false,
"is-grabbed":false
}
```


Is there any special setup in yabai so that those launcher windows get fully ignored? Or is it potentially sth missing on my launcher-app side?

This is important e.g. to avoid noisy signals about focus/front-app changes when opening this quick launcher.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by reproducing the Electron launcher from the linked gist and compare its window query details with the behavior described for Spotlight or Alfred. Investigate how yabai identifies and reports the launcher window; done means the launcher is fully ignored and opening it does not generate noisy focus or front-app signals.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, electron, macos
Domain
desktop, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.