{"slug": "yabai", "name": "yabai", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 1, "commenters": 9, "warners": 2, "score": 0.414, "rising": -0.33, "first": "2026-01-17", "latest": "2026-09-16", "why": "I use Yabai, which is pretty good -- and you don't have to completely disable SIP.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 5, "compare": 1, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I use Yabai, which is pretty good -- and you don't have to completely disable SIP.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/asmvik/yabai", "official_url": "https://github.com/asmvik/yabai", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["yabai", "Yabai"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 752004657, "item_id": 47000291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000291", "by": "bwoodward", "date": "2026-02-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Yabai, which is pretty good -- and you don't have to completely disable SIP.", "excerpt": "it isnt perfect, but with BetterTouchTool you can toggle resizing -- e.g. three finger double tap on a trackpad, move your cursor around to resize, double tap again to exit the mode. I use Yabai, which is pretty good -- and you don't have to completely disable SIP. For moving windows around (floating if using Yabai), I just hold HYPER and move my cursor around (Start Moving Windows). Release HYPER and it stops.", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "tiling window management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe \u2013 the saga continues"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795748457, "item_id": 49734278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49734278", "by": "SmasherEpilepti", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I don't use these anymore, because these also were pretty buggy for my use case", "excerpt": "Homebrew/nix: The most obvious one. MacOS just has no good package manager. It's even worse than Windows, which is also pretty bad, but at least on Windows you can install an app and manage it in a central \"Add and Remove Programs\" view, and they've standardized an installer format that cares about and manages versions and upgrades. Middle Click: This is a galling one. Rectangle: Far better than the MacOS's native sn", "context": "uses macOS at work, prefers KDE/Gnome", "use_case": "tiling window management", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}, {"id": 795455888, "item_id": 49715993, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715993", "by": "aleda145", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They are a collection of hacks on the accessibility API, and they will break whenever Apple decides to.", "excerpt": "I really wanted to like using a Macbook. I've given it a go a few times, amazing battery life and great build quality. But I can't get over how it locks you down completely software wise. I wanted a sane WM and tried skhd and yabai. They are a collection of hacks on the accessibility API, and they will break whenever Apple decides to. To me that's unacceptable as a daily driver", "context": "", "use_case": "tiling window management on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Linux"}]}], "who": [{"by": "aleqs", "context": "Linux + dwm daily driver, uses macs for work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49378499", "date": "2026-08-20"}, {"by": "bwoodward", "context": "macOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000291", "date": "2026-02-13"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["tiling window management", "tiling window management on macos", "macos window management", "macos space switching", "macos window manager", "window tiling"], "compared": [{"slug": "aerospace", "name": "AeroSpace", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47708818", "title": "Native Instant Space Switching on macOS", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49732036", "title": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715463", "title": "Leaving Linux", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49374830", "title": "item 49374830", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48323869", "title": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47474967", "title": "HopTab\u2013free,open source macOS app switcher and tiler that replaces Cmd+Tab", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {"compare": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"warn": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 795748457, "item_id": 49734278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49734278", "by": "SmasherEpilepti", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I don't use these anymore, because these also were pretty buggy for my use case", "excerpt": "Homebrew/nix: The most obvious one. MacOS just has no good package manager. It's even worse than Windows, which is also pretty bad, but at least on Windows you can install an app and manage it in a central \"Add and Remove Programs\" view, and they've standardized an installer format that cares about and manages versions and upgrades. Middle Click: This is a galling one. Rectangle: Far better than the MacOS's native sn", "context": "uses macOS at work, prefers KDE/Gnome", "use_case": "tiling window management", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS 27 Golden Gate \u2013 Review"}, {"id": 795455888, "item_id": 49715993, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715993", "by": "aleda145", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They are a collection of hacks on the accessibility API, and they will break whenever Apple decides to.", "excerpt": "I really wanted to like using a Macbook. I've given it a go a few times, amazing battery life and great build quality. But I can't get over how it locks you down completely software wise. I wanted a sane WM and tried skhd and yabai. They are a collection of hacks on the accessibility API, and they will break whenever Apple decides to. To me that's unacceptable as a daily driver", "context": "", "use_case": "tiling window management on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Linux"}, {"id": 790055985, "item_id": 49378499, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49378499", "by": "aleqs", "date": "2026-08-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The experience with both of these has been quite terrible", "excerpt": "Kind of sideways rant about tiling window managers on Marcos in general.. I mostly use Linux + dwm as my daily driver, recently added a mac into the mix (mostly for testing personal cross-platform stuff, I use macs for work mostly), and not being a fan of the macos UI in general decided to set up a tiling window manager - googling showed me AeroSpace and Yabai as the most popular options. The experience with both of ", "context": "Linux + dwm daily driver, uses macs for work", "use_case": "tiling window management on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 773406608, "item_id": 48337913, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48337913", "by": "thefossguy69", "date": "2026-05-30", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to daily drive <https://github.com/asmvik/yabai> for almost a year until a major macOS update broke it", "excerpt": "Interesting. I used to daily drive <https://github.com/asmvik/yabai> for almost a year until a major macOS update broke it and I just didn't have it in me to diagnose the issue. I'll bookmark this for future adventures, thanks!", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS window management", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"}, {"id": 763364000, "item_id": 47710250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710250", "by": "veber-alex", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to use yabai for this but I can't disable SIP anymore on a work laptop.", "excerpt": "Wow, works great. I used to use yabai for this but I can't disable SIP anymore on a work laptop. Also, stuff like this is why I really hate macOS sometimes.", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS space switching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Native Instant Space Switching on macOS"}, {"id": 763362753, "item_id": 47710172, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710172", "by": "xz18r", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I see yabai mentioned, definitely check out Aerospace.", "excerpt": "I see yabai mentioned, definitely check out Aerospace. Ive tried multiple WMs after years of i3 on Linux and this is the best one I found (for me) with quite a margin. It just works (tm) https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace", "context": "", "use_case": "macOS window manager", "switched_from": "", "story": "Native Instant Space Switching on macOS"}, {"id": 759618704, "item_id": 47476169, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47476169", "by": "ggsp", "date": "2026-03-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use yabai and I've been wanting something similar to what you built.", "excerpt": "Very cool to see movement in this space, and congrats on launching! Agree that it looks polished, I also like that you chose to show screenshots from settings on the LP. I use yabai and I've been wanting something similar to what you built. Instead of one desktop per workspace, I'd like to be able to have \"sets of desktops\" per workspace as it were, because not all work I do that involves multiple apps needs them on ", "context": "", "use_case": "window tiling", "switched_from": "", "story": "HopTab\u2013free,open source macOS app switcher and tiler that replaces Cmd+Tab"}, {"id": 752004657, "item_id": 47000291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000291", "by": "bwoodward", "date": "2026-02-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Yabai, which is pretty good -- and you don't have to completely disable SIP.", "excerpt": "it isnt perfect, but with BetterTouchTool you can toggle resizing -- e.g. three finger double tap on a trackpad, move your cursor around to resize, double tap again to exit the mode. I use Yabai, which is pretty good -- and you don't have to completely disable SIP. For moving windows around (floating if using Yabai), I just hold HYPER and move my cursor around (Start Moving Windows). Release HYPER and it stops.", "context": "macOS user", "use_case": "tiling window management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe \u2013 the saga continues"}, {"id": 746566512, "item_id": 46660407, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46660407", "by": "hmokiguess", "date": "2026-01-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have a custom menu bar I wrote that integrates with Yabai", "excerpt": "I love this! I have a custom menu bar I wrote that integrates with Yabai and requires disabling SIP for full functionality, it works similarly to yours, but I love how simple and polished this one is. How are you able to do that without OS permissions?", "context": "", "use_case": "custom macOS menu bar", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: What if your menu bar was a keyboard-controlled command center?"}]}