Possible solution for detecting App Exposé and Windows Exposé signals and spaces reordering

[roelvangils]

I'm writing a little script that listens for an event for when you enter and exit Mission Control (and then does something).

I use this:

yabai -m signal --add event=mission_control_enter \
    action='(do something)'

yabai -m signal --add event=mission_control_exit \
    action='(do something else)'

These work well, but I have two additional requests:

1. I want to distinguish between "App Exposé" mode, which displays windows from the current application only, and "Windows Exposé" mode, which provides an overview of all open windows grouped by application.

2. I am also seeking a method to detect when a space thumbnail is moved (dragged to another position) in "App Exposé" mode. Currently, there is no spaces_reordered event available (although it may be added in the future, @koekeishiya?). Is there an alternative approach?

[koekeishiya]

yabai already knows the difference between app expose, window expose and mission control, but does not propagate that information through the signal (I didn't think it would matter to the user, but I guess I was mistaken). It should be trivial to either add an environment variable to inform how mission control was activated, or create separate signals.

I do not know of any way to track when spaces themselves are reordered, so that problem I can't fix.

[roelvangils]

It should be trivial to either add an environment variable to inform how mission control was activated, or create separate signals.

Ah, that is good to know! May I officially suggest it as a feature request? 🙂

[koekeishiya]

yabai -m signal --add event=mission_control_enter action="echo \$YABAI_MISSION_CONTROL_MODE"
yabai -m signal --add event=mission_control_exit action="echo \$YABAI_MISSION_CONTROL_MODE"

Possible values present when entering and exiting mission-control:

show-front-windows # app expose    / default swipe-down gesture
show-all-windows   # window expose / default swipe-up gesture
show-desktop       # reveal desktop

[roelvangils]

Thanks, that's great! 😁 Now I can fix my script that position my Spaces labels below the thumbnails when in Windows Exposé mode.