Integrate Aersoapce tiling manager in sketchybar

[bassamsdata]

Hello,

I've started using a new performant tiling manager called Aerospace, and I'm replacing Amethyst with it. However, I haven't been able to fully integrate it into SketchyBar. I'm using Lua and was able to display the workspaces, but I haven't been able to get them to update.

If anyone has Aerospace configured and could share their config, it would be greatly appreciated.

thank you

here is my config:

local colors = require("colors")
local settings = require("settings")
local app_icons = require("icons")

local function lines(str)
	local result = {}
	for line in str:gmatch("[^\n]+") do
		table.insert(result, line)
	end
	return result
end

local function icons_for_apps(app_names)
	local icon_line = {}
	for _, app in pairs(app_names) do
		local lookup = app_icons[app]
		local icon = ((lookup == nil) and app_icons["Default"] or lookup):gsub("iterm", "terminal")
		table.insert(icon_line, icon)
	end
	return icon_line
end


sbar.exec("aerospace list-windows --all --format '%{workspace} %{app-name}'", function(all_workspaces)
	local aerospaces = lines(all_workspaces)

	local spaces = {}

	for i, sid in pairs(aerospaces) do
		local space_name = "space." .. sid
		local space = sbar.add("item", space_name, {
			icon = {
				font = { family = settings.font.numbers },
				string = sid,
				padding_left = 15,
				padding_right = 8,
				color = colors.white,
				highlight_color = colors.red,
			},
			label = {
				padding_right = 20,
				color = colors.grey,
				highlight_color = colors.white,
				font = "sketchybar-app-font:Regular:16.0",
				y_offset = -1,
			},
			padding_right = 1,
			padding_left = 1,
			background = {
				color = colors.bg1,
				border_width = 1,
				height = 26,
				border_color = colors.black,
			},
			popup = { background = { border_width = 5, border_color = colors.black } },
		})
		if sid ~= nil then
			spaces[sid] = space
		end

		space:subscribe("aerospace_workspace_change", function(env)
			selected = env.FOCUSED_WORKSPACE == sid
			space:set({ background = { drawing = selected } })
		end)

		space:subscribe("space_windows_change", function(env)
			-- run window change events only on first item, since aerospace places everyting on a single space and this events get's triggered for every item
			local is_first = env.NAME == "space.1"
			if is_first == true then
				icons_for_apps(spaces)
			end
		end)
	end
	icons_for_apps(spaces)
end)

[FelixKratz]

Here is a minimal snippet that shows all aerospace workspaces in lua:

local colors = require("colors")

function parse_string_to_table(s)
  local result = {}
  for line in s:gmatch("([^\n]+)") do
    table.insert(result, line)
  end
  return result
end

local file = io.popen("aerospace list-workspaces --all")
local result = file:read("*a")
file:close()

local workspaces = parse_string_to_table(result)
for i, workspace in ipairs(workspaces) do
  local space = sbar.add("item", "space." .. i, {
    icon = {
      string = workspace,
      color = colors.white,
      highlight_color = colors.red,
    },
    label = { drawing = false },
    padding_left = 1,
    padding_right = 1,
  })

  space:subscribe("aerospace_workspace_change", function(env)
    local selected = env.FOCUSED_WORKSPACE == workspace
    space:set({
      icon = { highlight = selected, },
      label = { highlight = selected },
      background = { border_color = selected and colors.white or colors.bg2 }
    })
  end)
end

Using shell scripts is also possible and nicely detailed here: https://nikitabobko.github.io/AeroSpace/goodness#show-aerospace-workspaces-in-sketchybar

Dont forget to add the event to aerospace.toml:

# Notify Sketchybar about workspace change
exec-on-workspace-change = ['/bin/bash', '-c',
    'sketchybar --trigger aerospace_workspace_change FOCUSED_WORKSPACE=$AEROSPACE_FOCUSED_WORKSPACE'
]

Displaying the current window application icons for each aerospace workspace is not robustly possible, because some events for that are missing, see: nikitabobko/AeroSpace#316

[jackplus-xyz]

I believe the problem is that the sbar.exec(query_workspaces, function(workspaces_and_monitors) function is asynchronous. Which means the front_app will be added to the bar first while it’s executing the query_workspaces, resulting in it being placed on the left side.

To address this issue, I implemented a workaround by adding the workspaces first and then initializing them later. This ensures that the workspaces are not added after the front_app. I suppose you could achieve the same effect by adding the workspaces first and then executing the query to retrieve all the workspaces in the desired monitor.

[xbunax]

I believe the problem is that the sbar.exec(query_workspaces, function(workspaces_and_monitors) function is asynchronous. Which means the front_app will be added to the bar first while it’s executing the query_workspaces, resulting in it being placed on the left side.

To address this issue, I implemented a workaround by adding the workspaces first and then initializing them later. This ensures that the workspaces are not added after the front_app. I suppose you could achieve the same effect by adding the workspaces first and then executing the query to retrieve all the workspaces in the desired monitor.

I try to modify the script to this , but there still some problem that sketchybar monitor id is different from aerospace monitor id when I set the External display as my main display. So I set a lua table to map monitor id to deal with this . However, I think this way is very ugly :)

-- items/aerospace.lua
local colors = require("colors")
local settings = require("settings")
local app_icons = require("helpers.app_icons")

local max_workspaces = 10
local query_workspaces = "aerospace list-workspaces --all --format '%{workspace}%{monitor-id}' --json"
local query_monitor = "aerospace list-monitors --count"
local workspace_monitor = {}

-- Add padding to the left
sbar.add("item", {
	icon = {
		color = colors.white,
		highlight_color = colors.red,
		drawing = false,
	},
	label = {
		color = colors.grey,
		highlight_color = colors.white,
		drawing = false,
	},
	background = {
		color = colors.bg1,
		border_width = 1,
		height = 28,
		border_color = colors.black,
		corner_radius = 9,
		drawing = false,
	},
	padding_left = 6,
	padding_right = 0,
})

local workspaces = {}

local function updateWindows(workspace_index)
	local get_windows =
		string.format("aerospace list-windows --workspace %s --format '%%{app-name}' --json", workspace_index)
	sbar.exec(get_windows, function(open_windows)
		local icon_line = ""
		local no_app = true
		for i, open_window in ipairs(open_windows) do
			no_app = false
			local app = open_window["app-name"]
			local lookup = app_icons[app]
			local icon = ((lookup == nil) and app_icons["default"] or lookup)
			icon_line = icon_line .. " " .. icon
		end
		sbar.animate("tanh", 10, function()
			if no_app then
				workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
					icon = { drawing = false },
					label = { drawing = false },
					background = { drawing = false },
					padding_right = 0,
					padding_left = 0,
				})
				return
			end

			workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
				icon = { drawing = true },
				label = { drawing = true, string = icon_line },
				background = { drawing = true },
				padding_right = 1,
				padding_left = 1,
			})
		end)
	end)
end

local function updateWorkspaceMonitor(workspace_index)
	sbar.exec(query_workspaces, function(workspaces_and_monitors)
		sbar.exec(query_monitor, function(monitor_number)
			local monitor_id_map = {}
			if tonumber(monitor_number) ~= 1 then
				monitor_id_map = { [1] = 2, [2] = 1 } -- sketchybar monitor id is different from aerospace monitor id which is need to map monitor id
			else
				monitor_id_map = { [1] = 1, [2] = 2 }
			end
			for _, entry in ipairs(workspaces_and_monitors) do
				local space_index = tonumber(entry.workspace)
				local monitor_id = math.floor(entry["monitor-id"])
				workspace_monitor[space_index] = monitor_id_map[monitor_id]
			end
			workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
				display = workspace_monitor[workspace_index],
			})
			workspaces[tonumber(focused_workspace)]:set({
				icon = { highlight = true },
				label = { highlight = true },
				background = { border_width = 2 },
			})
		end)
	end)
end

for workspace_index = 1, max_workspaces do
	local workspace = sbar.add("item", {
		icon = {
			color = colors.white,
			highlight_color = colors.red,
			drawing = false,
			font = { family = settings.font.numbers },
			string = workspace_index,
			padding_left = 10,
			padding_right = 5,
		},
		label = {
			padding_right = 12,
			color = colors.grey,
			highlight_color = colors.white,
			font = "sketchybar-app-font:Regular:16.0",
			y_offset = -1,
		},
		padding_right = 2,
		padding_left = 2,
		background = {
			color = colors.bg1,
			border_width = 1,
			height = 28,
			border_color = colors.bg2,
		},
		click_script = "aerospace workspace " .. workspace_index,
	})

	workspaces[workspace_index] = workspace

	workspace:subscribe("aerospace_workspace_change", function(env)
		local focused_workspace = tonumber(env.FOCUSED_WORKSPACE)
		local is_focused = focused_workspace == workspace_index

		sbar.animate("tanh", 10, function()
			workspace:set({
				icon = { highlight = is_focused },
				label = { highlight = is_focused },
				background = {
					border_width = is_focused and 2 or 0,
				},
			})
		end)
	end)

	workspace:subscribe("aerospace_focus_change", function()
		updateWindows(workspace_index)
	end)

	workspace:subscribe("display_change", function()
		updateWindows(workspace_index)
		updateWorkspaceMonitor(workspace_index)
	end)

	-- initial setup
	updateWindows(workspace_index)
	updateWorkspaceMonitor(workspace_index)
	sbar.exec("aerospace list-workspaces --focused", function(focused_workspace)
		workspaces[tonumber(focused_workspace)]:set({
			icon = { highlight = true },
			label = { highlight = true },
			background = { border_width = 2 },
		})
	end)
end

[leonnardo]

I was poking around with your config because I'm having same issue: aerospace monitor id doesn't match sketchybar monitor id
However, I just figure out that from possible values for format in aerospace list-workspaces: workspace|monitor-id|monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id|monitor-name|right-padding|newline|tab, this monitor-appkit-nsscreens-screens-idis the monitor id skechybar uses!

I'm using 2 screens, laptop + external, with main external, and this was the result of aerospace list-workspaces --all --format '%{workspace}%{monitor-id}%{monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id}' --json:

[
  {
    "monitor-id" : 2,
    "workspace" : "1",
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1
  },
  {
    "monitor-id" : 2,
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1,
    "workspace" : "2"
  },
  {
    "workspace" : "3",
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1,
    "monitor-id" : 2
  },
  {
    "workspace" : "4",
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1,
    "monitor-id" : 2
  },
  {
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2,
    "monitor-id" : 1,
    "workspace" : "5"
  },
  {
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2,
    "monitor-id" : 1,
    "workspace" : "6"
  },
  {
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2,
    "workspace" : "7",
    "monitor-id" : 1
  },
  {
    "monitor-id" : 1,
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2,
    "workspace" : "8"
  }
]

However, when I changed the external display to be the secondary display, I got:

[
  {
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1,
    "workspace" : "1",
    "monitor-id" : 1
  },
  {
    "workspace" : "2",
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1,
    "monitor-id" : 1
  },
  {
    "workspace" : "3",
    "monitor-id" : 1,
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1
  },
  {
    "monitor-id" : 1,
    "workspace" : "4",
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 1
  },
  {
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2,
    "workspace" : "5",
    "monitor-id" : 2
  },
  {
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2,
    "workspace" : "6",
    "monitor-id" : 2
  },
  {
    "workspace" : "7",
    "monitor-id" : 2,
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2
  },
  {
    "workspace" : "8",
    "monitor-id" : 2,
    "monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id" : 2
  }
]

This output format eliminates the workaround need 😃

[xbunax]

I have polish the script. Now it can show the visible, focused workspaces and multi-monitors dynamically that even don't contain the apps.

-- items/aerospace.lua
local colors = require("colors")
local settings = require("settings")
local app_icons = require("helpers.app_icons")

local max_workspaces = 10
local query_workspaces =
	"aerospace list-workspaces --all --format '%{workspace}%{monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id}' --json"
local workspace_monitor = {}

-- Add padding to the left
sbar.add("item", {
	icon = {
		color = colors.white,
		highlight_color = colors.red,
		drawing = false,
	},
	label = {
		color = colors.grey,
		highlight_color = colors.white,
		drawing = false,
	},
	background = {
		color = colors.with_alpha(colors.bg1, colors.transparency),
		border_width = 1,
		height = 28,
		border_color = colors.black,
		corner_radius = 9,
		drawing = false,
	},
	padding_left = 6,
	padding_right = 0,
})

local workspaces = {}

local function updateWindows(workspace_index)
	local get_windows =
		string.format("aerospace list-windows --workspace %s --format '%%{app-name}' --json", workspace_index)
	local query_visible_workspaces =
		"aerospace list-workspaces --visible --monitor all --format '%{workspace}%{monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id}' --json"
	local get_focus_workspaces = "aerospace list-workspaces --focused"
	sbar.exec(get_windows, function(open_windows)
		sbar.exec(get_focus_workspaces, function(focused_workspaces)
			sbar.exec(query_visible_workspaces, function(visible_workspaces)
				local icon_line = ""
				local no_app = true
				for i, open_window in ipairs(open_windows) do
					no_app = false
					local app = open_window["app-name"]
					local lookup = app_icons[app]
					local icon = ((lookup == nil) and app_icons["Default"] or lookup)
					icon_line = icon_line .. " " .. icon
				end

				sbar.animate("tanh", 10, function()
					for i, visible_workspace in ipairs(visible_workspaces) do
						if no_app and workspace_index == tonumber(visible_workspace["workspace"]) then
							local monitor_id = visible_workspace["monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id"]
							icon_line = " —"
							workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
								icon = { drawing = true },
								label = {
									string = icon_line,
									drawing = true,
									-- padding_right = 20,
									font = "sketchybar-app-font:Regular:16.0",
									y_offset = -1,
								},
								background = { drawing = true },
								padding_right = 1,
								padding_left = 1,
								display = monitor_id,
							})
							return
						end
					end
					if no_app and workspace_index ~= tonumber(focused_workspaces) then
						workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
							icon = { drawing = false },
							label = { drawing = false },
							background = { drawing = false },
							padding_right = 0,
							padding_left = 0,
						})
						return
					end
					if no_app and workspace_index == tonumber(focused_workspaces) then
						icon_line = " —"
						workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
							icon = { drawing = true },
							label = {
								string = icon_line,
								drawing = true,
								-- padding_right = 20,
								font = "sketchybar-app-font:Regular:16.0",
								y_offset = -1,
							},
							background = { drawing = true },
							padding_right = 1,
							padding_left = 1,
						})
					end

					workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
						icon = { drawing = true },
						label = { drawing = true, string = icon_line },
						background = { drawing = true },
						padding_right = 1,
						padding_left = 1,
					})
				end)
			end)
		end)
	end)
end

local function updateWorkspaceMonitor(workspace_index)
	sbar.exec(query_workspaces, function(workspaces_and_monitors)
		for _, entry in ipairs(workspaces_and_monitors) do
			local space_index = tonumber(entry.workspace)
			local monitor_id = math.floor(entry["monitor-appkit-nsscreen-screens-id"])
			workspace_monitor[space_index] = monitor_id
		end
		workspaces[workspace_index]:set({
			display = workspace_monitor[workspace_index],
		})
	end)
end

for workspace_index = 1, max_workspaces do
	local workspace = sbar.add("item", {
		icon = {
			color = colors.white,
			-- highlight_color = colors.red,
			highlight_color = colors.aerospace_icon_highlight_color,
			drawing = false,
			font = { family = settings.font.numbers },
			string = workspace_index,
			padding_left = 10,
			padding_right = 5,
		},
		label = {
			padding_right = 10,
			-- color = colors.grey,
			color = colors.aerospace_label_color,
			highlight_color = colors.aerospace_label_highlight_color,
			font = "sketchybar-app-font:Regular:16.0",
			y_offset = -1,
		},
		padding_right = 2,
		padding_left = 2,
		background = {
			color = colors.bg3,
			border_width = 1,
			height = 28,
			border_color = colors.bg2,
		},
		click_script = "aerospace workspace " .. workspace_index,
	})

	workspaces[workspace_index] = workspace

	workspace:subscribe("aerospace_workspace_change", function(env)
		local focused_workspace = tonumber(env.FOCUSED_WORKSPACE)
		local is_focused = focused_workspace == workspace_index

		sbar.animate("tanh", 10, function()
			workspace:set({
				icon = { highlight = is_focused },
				label = { highlight = is_focused },
				background = {
					border_width = is_focused and 2 or 1,
				},
				blur_radius = 30,
			})
		end)
	end)

	workspace:subscribe("aerospace_focus_change", function()
		updateWindows(workspace_index)
	end)

	workspace:subscribe("display_change", function()
		updateWorkspaceMonitor(workspace_index)
		updateWindows(workspace_index)
	end)

	-- initial setup
	updateWorkspaceMonitor(workspace_index)
	updateWindows(workspace_index)
	sbar.exec("aerospace list-workspaces --focused", function(focused_workspace)
		workspaces[tonumber(focused_workspace)]:set({
			icon = { highlight = true },
			label = { highlight = true },
			background = { border_width = 2 },
		})
	end)
end

[ianeblack]

the code above doesn't work for me. are there extra steps?