Ignoring launcher window

[jbriales]

(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.

[jbriales]

Following up on this, I found there is a special type of window (hacked) in Electron to behave as similarly as possible to those "panel" apps like Spotlight or Alfred: electron/electron#34388

I dove a bit with debug_output on on what's happening on Yabai behind the scenes here for different "panel-like" windows and found some interesting stuff:

• For Spotlight and Alfred, which behave seamlessly UI-wise, there is no event or message ever triggered within yabai's out.log
• E.g. for ChatGPT, which has a panel-like window via shortcut, it is detected by yabai but it didn't trigger any window-related event (created or destroyed). This app however sometimes stops showing up when I invoke it via shortcut and I need to restart it. Not sure if that's related to yabai or not, but worth noticing it's not seamless.
• For my Electron-based panel-like window, it's visually and behaviorally good, but it triggers (undesired) window-related events in yabai (logs below).

Example log for ChatGPT panel creation/destruction.

window_manager_create_and_add_window:61893 ChatGPT -  (AXWindow:AXSystemDialog:1)
window_manager_create_and_add_window ignoring incorrectly marked window ChatGPT 61893
window info: 
{
	"id":61893,
	"pid":5894,
	"app":"ChatGPT",
	"title":"",
	"scratchpad":"",
	"frame":{
		"x":1078.0000,
		"y":1328.0000,
		"w":404.0000,
		"h":48.0000
	},
	"role":"AXWindow",
	"subrole":"AXSystemDialog",
	"root-window":true,
	"display":1,
	"space":8,
	"level":3,
	"sub-level":0,
	"layer":"above",
	"sub-layer":"normal",
	"opacity":1.0000,
	"split-type":"none",
	"split-child":"none",
	"stack-index":0,
	"can-move":true,
	"can-resize":false,
	"has-focus":false,
	"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":true,
	"is-grabbed":false
}
EVENT_HANDLER_WINDOW_DESTROYED: ChatGPT 61893

Electron's panel-window logs

window_manager_create_and_add_window:104425 Electron - Launcher (AXWindow:AXStandardWindow:1)
event_signal_flush: transmitting window_created to 2 subscriber(s)
EVENT_HANDLER_MOUSE_DOWN: 1367.31, 1020.96
EVENT_HANDLER_MOUSE_UP: 1367.31, 1020.96
window_manager_create_and_add_window:104425 Electron - Launcher (AXWindow:AXStandardWindow:1)
EVENT_HANDLER_DAEMON_MESSAGE: query --windows scratchpad,is-visible,is-floating,id
EVENT_HANDLER_DAEMON_MESSAGE: query --windows id,pid,app,title,has-focus,stack-index,scratchpad,is-floating,is-visible,is-sticky --space
EVENT_HANDLER_WINDOW_DESTROYED: Electron 104425
event_signal_flush: transmitting window_destroyed to 2 subscriber(s)
EVENT_HANDLER_WINDOW_DESTROYED: Electron 104425

Window data for Electron's launcher window (looks like a completely normal window :/)

{
        "id":109120,
        "pid":29983,
        "app":"Electron",
        "title":"Launcher",
        "scratchpad":"",
        "frame":{
                "x":1080.0000,
                "y":542.0000,
                "w":400.0000,
                "h":300.0000
        },
        "role":"AXWindow",
        "subrole":"AXStandardWindow",
        "root-window":true,
        "display":1,
        "space":8,
        "level":3,
        "sub-level":0,
        "layer":"above",
        "sub-layer":"normal",
        "opacity":1.0000,
        "split-type":"none",
        "split-child":"none",
        "stack-index":0,
        "can-move":true,
        "can-resize":false,
        "has-focus":false,
        "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":true,
        "is-grabbed":false
}

Any ideas based on this on how to make the Electron's panel fully transparent to yabai?