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yabai

yabai Keybindings

yabai is a tiling window manager for macOS that works alongside skhd (Simple Hotkey Daemon) for keybindings. yabai itself does not bind keys -- skhd maps hotkeys to yabai -m commands. Configuration lives in ~/.yabairc (yabai) and ~/.skhdrc (skhd).

The Most Important Shortcuts

These are community-standard skhd bindings. Alt is typically used as the modifier.

  • Open Terminal (Alt+Enter): Launch the default terminal.
  • Close Window (Alt+Shift+Q): Close the focused window.
  • Toggle Float (Alt+Shift+Space): Toggle the focused window between tiling and floating.
  • Toggle Fullscreen (Alt+F): Toggle native macOS fullscreen for the focused window.
  • Toggle Zoom (Alt+Shift+F): Toggle zoom-fullscreen (fills the space without entering macOS fullscreen).
  • Restart yabai (Alt+Shift+R): Restart yabai to apply configuration changes.

Focus

  • Focus West (Alt+H): Focus the window to the left.
  • Focus South (Alt+J): Focus the window below.
  • Focus North (Alt+K): Focus the window above.
  • Focus East (Alt+L): Focus the window to the right.

Moving Windows

  • Swap West (Alt+Shift+H): Swap the focused window with the one to the left.
  • Swap South (Alt+Shift+J): Swap with the window below.
  • Swap North (Alt+Shift+K): Swap with the window above.
  • Swap East (Alt+Shift+L): Swap with the window to the right.
  • Warp Window (Alt+Ctrl+H/J/K/L): Re-insert the focused window at the given position in the tree.

Layout

  • Toggle BSP Layout (Alt+B): Switch to BSP (binary space partitioning) tiling layout.
  • Toggle Stack Layout (Alt+S): Switch to stacking layout.
  • Toggle Float Layout (Alt+D): Switch to floating layout.
  • Rotate Tree Clockwise (Alt+R): Rotate the window tree 90 degrees clockwise.
  • Rotate Tree Counter-Clockwise (Alt+Shift+R): Rotate the window tree 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
  • Mirror X-Axis (Alt+X): Flip the layout along the x-axis.
  • Mirror Y-Axis (Alt+Y): Flip the layout along the y-axis.
  • Balance Windows (Alt+0): Equalize the size of all windows in the space.

Spaces (Workspaces)

  • Focus Space (Alt+1-9): Focus space 1 through 9.
  • Move Window to Space (Alt+Shift+1-9): Move the focused window to space 1 through 9.
  • Create Space (Alt+Shift+N): Create a new space.
  • Destroy Space (Alt+Shift+W): Destroy the current space.

Resizing

  • Resize Left (Alt+Ctrl+H): Grow window to the left.
  • Resize Down (Alt+Ctrl+J): Grow window downward.
  • Resize Up (Alt+Ctrl+K): Grow window upward.
  • Resize Right (Alt+Ctrl+L): Grow window to the right.

Displays (Monitors)

  • Focus Display (Alt+Comma/Period): Focus the previous/next display.
  • Move Window to Display (Alt+Shift+Comma/Period): Move the focused window to the previous/next display.

Customization

  • yabai Config: ~/.yabairc
  • skhd Config: ~/.skhdrc
  • Example skhd Bindings: 
    # Focus windows
alt - h : yabai -m window --focus west
alt - j : yabai -m window --focus south
alt - k : yabai -m window --focus north
alt - l : yabai -m window --focus east

# Move windows
shift + alt - h : yabai -m window --swap west
shift + alt - j : yabai -m window --swap south

# Switch spaces
alt - 1 : yabai -m space --focus 1
alt - 2 : yabai -m space --focus 2

# Float / unfloat
shift + alt - space : yabai -m window --toggle float
  • Gaps & Padding: 
    yabai -m config top_padding    10
yabai -m config bottom_padding 10
yabai -m config left_padding   10
yabai -m config right_padding  10
yabai -m config window_gap     10
  • Window Rules: 
    yabai -m rule --add app="System Preferences" manage=off
yabai -m rule --add app="Calculator" manage=off
yabai -m rule --add app="Finder" title="Info" manage=off