How To Use A Tiling Window Manager On MacOs | Yabai Ultimate Guide

[@FedericoReghini]

Amazing video like always!!🙇👏 for anyone that may encounter in the same error (v 5.0.4 ) : Error: Formula `yabai` has not implemented #plist, #service or installed a locatable service file instead of brew services start yabai brew services restart yabai use yabai --start-service yabai --restart-service Same with skhd.

[@catalinagranadosbeltran3458]

Thanks!!!!

[@joseanmartinez]

Thanks for pointing this out! Looks like this has changed from when I originally released the video.

[@malekmansouri6673]

For Error: The `yabai` formula has not implemented #plist, #service or installed a locatable service file. replace "brew services start yabai" with with "yabai --start-service".

[@victorguerra5119]

@@malekmansouri6673 worked, thanks.

[@JoshShindler]

I'm on v5.0.6. I followed this instruction, and yabai starts, but nothing happens, the windows still aren't tiled. I copied both dotfiles. How can I figure out what is going wrong?

[@dekooks1543]

Just a heads up for people watching this in 2024. yabai / shkd no longer use brew to start their respective services. The commands to run should be "yabai --start-service" and "shkd --start-service" instead. Hope this helps.

[@dteja92]

you sir, are a hero!

[@3ckortreat]

I disabled SIP but still workspace shortcuts doesn't work for me, does anyone know why?

[@adytiaisanda]

@@3ckortreat same here. somebody please help us

[@3ckortreat]

@@adytiaisanda there is a command you need to write in terminal, -sa something it solved for me

[@skidkadda]

skhd -install-service installs a launchctl service. It might not start. Copy the entire path to the service then remove it. Load it by running launchctl load and launchctl start

[@benfrainuk]

As you’re interested in productivity, you might prefer getting used to ‘ctrl+L’ to clear the terminal instead of typing ‘clear’ (it will also keep the scroll back for you which might be handy)

[@mikefdorst]

I was about to leave the exact same comment. I will add that in addition to this, I have this alias: alias cls="clear; printf '\e[3J'" which clears scrollback as well, which is handy if you have a really long compile error and you don't want to hunt for the top of it.

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome, thanks for the tip!

[@heartdyedpurple]

@@mikefdorstyou can also do command-k to clear and clear the scroll back

[@MrMagnezone18]

@@heartdyedpurple As I understand in iTerm2 cmd-k is used to clear the buffer

[@FusionHyperion]

or just allias to "c"

[@kkeith29]

I was just looking into tiling managers for Mac after seeing a lot of people use i3. Tried Amethyst but didn't like I couldn't control it programmically. Thank you for showing me Yabai. It solved my main issues with MacOS spaces which won't focus on a display when using the shortcuts if it already is visible. After trying several configurations for key maps with Yabai, I was able to make a Vim style keybinding which allows for different namespaces using SKHD modes. This allowed me to keep my leader keys similar (space for nvim, ctrl + space for tmux, and alt + space for yabai). So far it has worked great. Now I can do (alt + space > f > j) to "focus down" or (alt + space > g > t) to "goto terminal". Using Yabai's ability to label spaces has also been beneficial in making my config more clear.

[@ellory610]

Great video. im a long time linux user, and I definitely appreciate how you explicit you are about the configurations. Been a mess to figure out how to configure window managers, etc. But you make it clear!

[@NicolasRuizX]

One of the things I miss about my old Linux setup is i3-gaps, and since I switched to Macbook 2 years ago It still feels so slow just moving around, too many unnecessary animations. I've tried magnet and amethyst and is not the same It's like the tiling system of Gnome on Linux. Seeing this video I got my hopes again of getting my setup just like I used to have. I will definitely will try this, thanks!!

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome!

[@wthrajat]

Did this work well for you? Also you found any alternative to i3-gaps?

[@nik-kyo]

A tiling window manager and the related shortcuts was the last piece for me to be as productive with a mac, thanks!

[@ryandennler3155]

This with Magnet and Karabiner custom maps based on application allow for a pretty damn robust window management environment and then of course tmux inside of terminal completes everything... Still getting used to the shortcuts, but definitely really nice. Thanks for sharing

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!

[@rusty9060]

Why magnet instead of rectangle tho? Any particular reason?

[@JessePerry]

I used Yabai shortly after it came out, but then put it down a couple of years ago. Your video inspired me to pick it back up again. Thanks!

[@maxreuv]

Excellent! I am currently using Amethyst but this setup you showed seems way more flexible. Thank you!

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome! I tried Amethyst too, but ended up liking this better!

[@sspaeti]

Thanks so much for making this, and even at perfect timing. I've been using Amethyst for a while now, but they are so buggy lately that I wanted to try Yabai. Will definitely try it out now!

[@joseanmartinez]

@@sspaeti Awesome! Same here, Amethyst was a bit too buggy for me and this was working a lot better and is a lot more flexible as well.

[@eltongarcia6105]

@@joseanmartinez I am using Yabai but I am always asking myself if I should try Amethyst. A video comparing the two would be awesome so I don`t have to go into the task of install and configure Amethyst just to compare. thanks

[@SuperKornXG]

Great tutorial 🎉 I can finally use yabai effectively now.

I am using yabai for a long time, but this video was first to inspire me to revise my config and add some more advanced thicks. Thanks!

[@JessicaFEREM]

This video was a massive help in getting me to switch from aerospaceWM. if skhd doesn't pick up your keyboard shortcuts, check your config file, seriously I spent half an hour diagnosing a fault that was just be forgetting a colon and the log file in /tmp/ wasn't helpful, it just said "couldn't lock PID" or something to that effect. you can also try force quitting it from activity monitor and relaunching the service.

[@yugioh8810]

I felt a bit lost with this all config at first when i was checking the original repo. but with this video now i have my setup complete and great. thank you a lot for this great video you are a life saver I love you subscribed

[@tempsanity]

Thanks for this video, I based my config on yours before modifying some bits. Couldn't enjoy yabai on Sonoma Beta for a while due to some patch that needed to be introduced, but now I absolutely love my lunarvim/neovim + yabai + sketchybar config - the combo brings so much freshness to macOS and puts me in zen mode while coding, through the combo of vim and keyboard shortcuts in yabai.

[@joseanmartinez]

Sweet! Really happy to hear that.I've been enjoying it a lot too. I'm thinking about putting a video together about sketchy bar once I get around to trying it and setting it up.

[@dannelalbert7111]

Such a great, detailed video. I've been using yabai for a while, but with a suuuuuuuuuuuper basic setup with no hotkeys for anything. This has taken my setup to the next level. Thanks!

[@yesidev4131]

Man your content it's awesome, this week I received my MacBook Pro with m2 pro by the new company I started works, it's the first time work with Mac, and I'm fascinated with this type of programs and the entire develops ecosystem.

[@aaronmcadam]

This is brilliant! I've been using Yabai for a while now but I've still not gotten around to configuring it the way I want to. So this video will help me a lot with that. Thanks!

[@joseanmartinez]

Happy to hear that!

[@vovasava3498]

hey! how are you? I like your videos very much, please don't disappear from youtube :)

[@joseanmartinez]

Hey! Really appreciate that. I’ve been pretty busy with work, hoping to get back to making videos soon.

[@erpelappel]

This is pretty cool. I was using tidy windows since an eternity, but Yabai is even better. Thanks!1!

[@lennypinskiy6598]

This is an excellent video. Thank you so much for making it and introducing me to this fantastic technology!

[@zenbrandon]

Best video for Yabai setup, hands down. My whole environment on my mac is now almost identical to yours haha! Thank you for the amazing and helpful content!

[@dagrlx]

Excellent video, thanks for sharing your knowledge, it helped me a lot to get out of my frustration with the chaotic experience that Mac OS offers in this topic. Not all of us have a vocation to explain, you are blessed to have it.

[@daren021]

Thanks, i 'been using this configuration as programmer with a mac who missed their old i3 linux days and it's been great.

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome! Happy to hear that, thanks for the feedback!

[@0xc0ffee_]

I love this! The keybindings are very sensible. How do you integrate with the creation of new tabs in your terminal emulator? Do you even use that or do you just open a new terminal instance altogether?

[@jorge28624]

I just installed it and I'm loving how good Yabai is

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome!

[@mroyme]

Great video. My work system is a MacBook Pro and I use Arch with Sway on my personal laptop. The systems are so different that the change feels jarring when swapping from one to the other. This should help!

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome!

[@8BitTorrent]

Same here! Glad I found this video, since he does such a good job of explaining every detail of the installation

[@seandougherty3022]

for anyone wanting to disable SIP...it was here and then not depending on your version of mac os, if you upgraded, etc. sonoma has the utility back.... recovery mode->utilities->terminal->/usr/bin/csrutil disable... reboot. do the needful. go back in recovery and enable it: csrutil enable...reboot not entirely sure what is/is not missing without doing this but for those curious, that's how :)

[@ElvisKika]

Thank you for sharing these useful tools. It's always appreciated when there are new opportunities to enhance productivity for better performance. Just a litle update # start yabai yabai --start-service # start skhd skhd --start-service

[@mtd3v]

I just found yabai when configuring my MBP for Rust development. This video is by far, the best resource I could find for an introduction to yabai and skid. Thanks for sharing! Subbed🔔Ding!

[@maurogarcia2012]

Amazing video, as always! Do you know if yabai allows you to customize window borders so it's easier to spot the focused window? Cheers!

[@horrorspidey7033]

Bro, beautiful channel and clear tutorials. Where can we contact you for any video suggestions or doubts? Do you have discord? Great content bro.

[@ser_igel]

another tip for multiple display users: i prefer pressing H or L several times to switch between the desktops, cuz i rarely use more than 2 displays, and to implement this behaviour in yabai you can do alt - h: yabai -m window --focus west || (yabai -m display --focus west && yabai -m window --focus east) in your skhdrc (obv copy it for other keys too) idk if there's a better way cuz with this bind there's a lag when switching between displays, because it needs to wait for an error (could not locate a eastward managed window or smth like that) so it takes about 0.3 seconds longer

[@RameezKhanSA]

Super clear explanation, good pacing, easy to follow along. Thanks!

[@HolaMundoDev]

Que pasó? porque no hay más videos?? son muy buenos!

[@codexous]

also try "yabai --start-service" and "skhd --start-service" if the brew services commands arent working

[@NeedLobotomy123]

absolute savoiur o7

[@SuperRandall420]

Glad I found this video. Coming from linux using i3wm for the past few years. Was hoping there was a decent tiling window manager. It's even looking like I can keep the same keybindings too.

[@anmiasm]

Super clear, great production quality, thanks!

[@flwi]

That was really handy to see it in action. Thanks for that nice intro!

[@joseanmartinez]

Happy to hear that, thanks!

[@thanhdang3453]

Thank you for sharing your great setup (y). For those who concerns disable `System Integrity Protection`: You may not need it. We can workaround, e.g. "Move current window to Space 1, and switch to Space 1 as well." hyper - y : yabai -m window --space 1 && osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"h\" using {command down, control down, option down, shift down}"

[@cillian_scott]

Even myself as a keyboard-only fanatic love the app Swish for window management

[@realbootybabe]

Thanks a lot! This is the basis tutorial of every tilling wm! Great :)

[@IainSimmons]

As a web developer, I find it really disappointing that the only way to disable the animation for switching spaces is to turn on reduced motion, since that will disable animations in all apps and on most websites (if they are properly respecting users' system preferences, which they should be). Other than that, looks like a pretty neat setup. I don't really use enough windows to make the most of this, mostly just a single browser window (I used Arc and it has its own spaces), Alacritty with tmux + nvim for all my text editing, Obsidian for notes and Slack for work comms. Most of those I want full screen and just switch with the regular CMD + Tab (also Raycast). Speaking of which, I'd love to see what kind of things you're doing with Raycast, especially since you can add keybindings to pretty much anything there too

[@joseanmartinez]

Hey! Thanks for the feedback! So I'm pretty sure that the "reduce motion" setting only disables MacOs related animations like opening apps or switching between desktops, but shouldn't disable in-app animations or website animations. I'm also a web developer and haven't encountered this issue. Hope that helps!

[@PioRaschHalvorsen]

@@joseanmartinez If the web developers have done their job with regards to accessibility, and use the prefers-reduced-motion preference in CSS/JS, it will affect web pages as well. Of course, a lot of web pages still don't respect the users' accessibility settings, so YMMV!

[@LoopyLucy95]

I've just switched from a Linux system running Pop! To a macbook air and I was wondering how to do this yesterday, it's like you read my mind.

[@gonove97]

try PopOs

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome! Glad I could help.

[@joseanmartinez]

@@gonove97 I believe you can't run that natively on Apple Silicon Macbooks as of right now.

[@os4764]

Hi, I am running into an issue at the step where you start yabai. When I run this command: brew services start yabai , I get the following error message: Error: Formula `yabai` has not implemented #plist, #service or installed a locatable service file. I googled the error but there are very few answers and none of them helped. Do you have any idea how to fix it? Thank you for the tutorial!

[@Milfaholic69420]

Ran into this same error after upgrading yabai and skhd. Brew would not allow me to start the service. After some time troubleshooting, you need to run the commands: 1. yabai --start-service 2. skhd --start-service I completely uninstalled yabai and skhd using homebrew and then reinstalled it after restarting. It worked afterwards, but the skhdrc config file was still set up to use Homebrew Services. In your skhdrc config, you will want to replace the last three lines with: 1. ctrl + alt - q : yabai --stop-service 2. ctrl + alt - s : yabai --start-service 3. ctrl + alt - r : yabai --restart-service Hopefully this works for you!

[@mariusthenomad]

@@Milfaholic69420 Thank you so much. I ran into the same issue. :)

[@ErmandDurro]

Loved the video. Amazing content. Thank you Josean 😃

[@lironglin4739]

amazing video! May I ask what app you are using to display the keystrokes🤔? It looks nite!

[@themarksmith]

Excellent, excellent video... you explain things very well 10/10!

[@jonnywester3194]

Really very educating and inspirational!! Thank you!

[@ThePandaGuitar]

Great tips. My favorites were the reduce motion and the hyper key

[@gokhan_onal]

Thank you for the info. I have bee looking for a tool like yabai. You saved my time because I already started to think about coding such tool :)

[@TomerKay-c1h]

Thank you so much! Great video!

[@iBrandooon]

this is literally i3WM + tmux + nvim setup on my linux :) exciting its on macOS :)

[@nanthilrodriguez]

Wish these sorts existed when I was getting started.

[@AllenChillax]

Amazing video! Thanks a lot, I've learnt carefully and set my configurations, it works perfectly like what I want now! 😄

[@tuncayerman3889]

one of the great tools, well done! Thanks for sharing.

[@jbmeizo4953]

Very nice tutorial. As information for all who encounter the same problem: With the shortcuts from the video, the @ sign no longer works as usual with the shortcut "Opt + l". Just put the shortcut from the video on another key.

[@joseanmartinez]

Hey! Thanks for the feedback! Happy to hear you found the tutorial helpful. Not sure about the "@" sign, but the "alt" modifier key shortcuts configured with skhd are for the "option" key on the mac's keyboard.

[@jbmeizo4953]

@@joseanmartinez The problem exists under keyboards with a QWERTZ layout. On these keyboards the @ character is created with the combination option or alt + l. Therefore, a conflict arises with the shortcuts from the video on a keyboard with a QWERTZ layout. I just wanted to share this insight in the comments in case more people encounter the same problem.

[@joseanmartinez]

@@jbmeizo4953 Ah I didn't know that! Makes sense, thanks for pointing that out!

[@DanielGonzalez-dx9jo]

I was having this issue a little. instead of changing focus from window to window, it was just typing '@' in my terminal. currently don't have change focus by window working, any tips?

[@jbmeizo4953]

@@DanielGonzalez-dx9jo Is your syntax correct and have you tried to restart Yabai?

[@jakekudur2263]

I was disappointed with my Mac after switching from Ubuntu with i3. But this video gave me hope that I can have windows tilting manager on MacOS as well.

[@ilovepeaceandplaying8917]

amazing video with detailed explanations. Thanks

[@codingleo]

Really good content! Thanks for sharing!

[@vhaiker]

Your keyboard sounds very satisfying 😀

[@daster]

Hello, thanks a lot for the vid. I have a question, I was using the brew services as you showed, but I updated brew and I cant start brew services no more. there is a error saying: Formula 'yabai' has not implemented #plist, #service or installed a locatable service file (the same error appears when I try to start brew services skhd). I would really appreciate your help since I'm new to terminal and I stared using it because I really enjoyed your videos.

[@Milfaholic69420]

Ran into this same error after upgrading yabai and skhd. Brew would not allow me to start the service. After some time troubleshooting, you need to run the commands: 1. yabai --start-service 2. skhd --start-service I completely uninstalled yabai and skhd using homebrew and then reinstalled it after restarting. It worked afterwards, but the skhdrc config file was still set up to use Homebrew Services. In your skhdrc config, you will want to replace the last three lines with: 1. ctrl + alt - q : yabai --stop-service 2. ctrl + alt - s : yabai --start-service 3. ctrl + alt - r : yabai --restart-service Hopefully this works for you!

[@carlosdelgado5632]

thank you so much for this vide, it really help 🚀the productivity

[@tuananhdo1870]

reduce motion setting is gold

[@koushikmajumder1746]

After doing : brew services start yabai I am getting an error : Error: Formula `yabai` has not implemented #plist, #service or installed a locatable service file How to fix it?

[@Milfaholic69420]

Ran into this same error after upgrading yabai and skhd. Brew would not allow me to start the service. After some time troubleshooting, you need to run the commands: 1. yabai --start-service 2. skhd --start-service I completely uninstalled yabai and skhd using homebrew and then reinstalled it after restarting. It worked afterwards, but the skhdrc config file was still set up to use Homebrew Services. In your skhdrc config, you will want to replace the last three lines with: 1. ctrl + alt - q : yabai --stop-service 2. ctrl + alt - s : yabai --start-service 3. ctrl + alt - r : yabai --restart-service Hopefully this works for you!

[@lifeofmrc]

This video was insanely useful - thank you

[@joseanmartinez]

Happy to hear that! Thanks!

[@shahriardhruvo4333]

Why don't you make a follow up video on your 2 months experience in yabai?

[@nick-ukraine]

Thanks for the video, it was interesting for me.

[@dmitry.gashko]

A few year ago I've switched to ArchLinux+i3wm and since then I just cannot use Mac, windows or even something like stock Ubuntu anymore. 1.5 years ago I've bought a Mac and still using only for YT, movies etc. Now I've been thinking about tiling window manager for Mac for a while and hope this would help

[@rafaelfez]

Awesome video man, thanks a lot!

[@kamalkamals]

Great video and helpful, i really like the way how u explain, that's way i subscribe now, keep up!

[@ericandresen680]

Thanks for an awesome video, I am about to het my first MacBook at woork soon and were afraide that the windows handeling on Mac would be the same as it were 10 years ago :O But this tight here looks verry promesing. One question thoguh, i use Hyper/Hyper shift as my Caps Lock key right now, both on Windows and Linux. And you say that it is possible to create the same for Mac and that i can use that for all the sgortcuts shown/configured in this video?

[@aviadhaham5523]

wow man thank you so much for this, this tool is crazy

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback!

[@ryansteiger6960]

This is great, thank you so much 👍 This will take a while for me to get used to 🤯

[@joseanmartinez]

Happy to hear you enjoyed the video! I'm still getting used to it too!

[@noweddev]

10/10 video! Tyvm, instant sub

[@dandange]

Really like your tutorials. I followed the one on iTerm2 and find it really useful. Do you have a video on your product workflow of these tutorials, i.e what tool you use for screen recording and do you do much post editing etc? If you can do a video on this that would be great.

[@lle5159]

Thanks for the video! I also find your screen wallpaper very beautiful. How may I find the same?

[@miquelbotanch6170]

I love it!, but is another step in the looong way to setup everything (brew,tmux,neovim,zsh,karabiner, many others and now yabai and shkd) , but when you got it. It rocks !

[@joseanmartinez]

Definitely! It’s really up to you how far you choose to take things, but it’s pretty cool to be able to if you want to. Thanks!

[@sheaj98]

Can look into using ansible to automate some of this

[@DylanCaponi]

Had to do `yabai --start-service` and `skhd --start-service` and enable accessibility for each during installation for this to work (rather than brew start yabai)

[@phantuananh2163]

Excellent video 🧡

[@jamesee3929]

Thanks for the great tutorial 👍

[@temp2837]

Very useful video, thanks a lot

[@danieldosen5260]

I was just checking out yabai as well - Great video and nice production value! My question after looking at the docs and watching your video - What's the `alt` key on a macos keyboard?

[@joseanmartinez]

Hey! Thanks for the feedback! “Alt” on mac is the equivalent to the “Option” key.

[@yilima]

Awesome stuff, using your config and its amazing. ONE thing that messes up everything and the experience.. TEAMS mini window that pops up as soon as I change screens. Any solutions for that? I tried to add teams to manage=off but no success..

[@briancarmichael6748]

Great video and fan of your page. I was wondering if its possible for settings to reset after a computer restart. I ask because my tiles are re-sizing anymore.

[@ferferrara]

Great content ! Two questions. 1) Which is the app you use to show the keys you type on the keyboard? 2) How do you manage a real fullscreen app like when you watch a video on KZbin in fullscreen? Is there a way to jump directly? Because seems that macOS makes a special space for that situations.

[@parthtakkar9069]

Hey found any solution with regards to full screen window and jump that window directly? If I currently press cmd+f it fullscreens it into a separate window but what I want is for it to occupy the ful space that that particular browser is taking

[@ferferrara]

@@parthtakkar9069 Hey, no solution yet, I'm on the same search.

[@ferferrara]

No one with a solution for Fullscreen spaces?

[@parthtakkar9069]

@@ferferrara Dont think so buddy

[@ambuj.k]

What is that wallpaper? It looks nice!

[@修古丹]

Hello, I'm an audience from Taiwan, and I really enjoy your videos. The screen display and picture quality are excellent, making the overall video experience very enjoyable! I have encountered a problem recently. I really like the "SF Mono" font originally used in Mac's terminal. Previously, I watched your video about "iTerm" and thought it was a great software. However, the only drawback is that when I change the font to "SF Mono" inside iTerm, it still doesn't look quite the same as the original terminal font. The font I'm seeing doesn't match the one you introduced in your iTerm video. However, in your latest video, it seems like the font in "iTerm" has changed to the style I want. So I'm wondering how you adjusted it? Or is it actually the same all along, and it's just my perception? That's my question. If you have some time, I would appreciate a response.

[@AlesRozmarin]

Great video, I'm using similar settings as you, I just add stackline that I can stack windows. If you are using many windows open handy.

[@joseanmartinez]

Awesome, thanks!

[@akashpatel2338]

Awesome! Thanks!

[@crwan88]

Great job sharing the video! 🎉 13:10 I have a question about setting up a tiling window manager with iTerm2 on my MacBook Pro (M1). I was able to successfully set up skhdrc for my browser, email, and default terminal, but when I try to use iTerm2 and, for example, press `shift+option y`, a weird symbol appears on my screen and it doesn't have any effect. Do you have any tips for setting up iTerm2 with a tiling window manager?

[@rijojohn85]

This could be because you have secure keyboard entry enabled. Try Unselecting it from iTerm2 menu.

[@ryanguo13]

This video is good, thank you very much

[@iansecretario1337]

Hey man! Great video.. do you know if yabai can do similar thing like in i3 where the current active window can be centered when pressing a key and put it back when pressed again

[@ondrejhadrava4109]

Banger!

[@EmilioAyala]

excellent video. thank you!

[@nagisupercell]

Wow. This is really cool.

[@RussTeeTrombone]

Mate, what are you using to display keystrokes Looks crisp AF (and fun)

[@iduran]

Thanks for a nice video! Question: any specific source where you got your wallpaper from?

[@joseanmartinez]

Hey! It's a wallpaper pack from Oliur: oliur.gumroad.com/l/gradient-blur

[@iduran]

@@joseanmartinez Nice! Thanks for sharing that.

[@batteryonfire]

Super amazing Video - unfortunately getting the following error - Error: Formula `yabai` has not implemented #plist, #service or installed a locatable service file

[@crowvampire]

Thanks for this video your explanation es super. What app are you using to display your keys at screen?