Yabai: [request/question] similar behaviour to flashfocus

[ghyatzo]

Hello,
I was wondering if something on the lines of Flashfocus could be implemented in yabai.
Or otherwise, if is there a way to make the Mac os compositor (quartz?) behave similarly.

[koekeishiya]

You can implement this at a user-level assuming that the scripting-addition is installed (necessary to modify opacity).

Hook something like the following script to the window_focused signal.

# window_alpha_fade wid opacity duration

wid=$YABAI_WINDOW_ID
dur=0.1
aOut=0.2
aIn=1.0
echo "window_alpha_fade $wid $aOut $dur" | nc -U /tmp/yabai-sa_$USER.socket
sleep $dur
echo "window_alpha_fade $wid $aIn $dur" | nc -U /tmp/yabai-sa_$USER.socket

PS: untested, may not work exactly as is, but you get the gist

[ghyatzo]

What's the difference between nc-ing the string to the socket and going the "yabai -m config" way?
Is yabai -m just a wrapper?

[dominiklohmann]

You can use nc to communicate with the scripting addition directly in order to use it in ways that are not exposed through yabai -m.

[ghyatzo]

Ok, I wrongly assumed that window_alpha_fade was a method usable with yabai -m (now I guess that window_alpha_fade is used by window_opacity_duration).
Is there a way to know which submethods are accessible via nc?

[koekeishiya]

You can find the implementation here: https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai/blob/master/src/osax/payload.m#L820

This is not a part of the yabai API and is very much internals that could be subject to change at any point if I deem it necessary, or whatever.

[ghyatzo]

Alright, thank you very much for the insights.

[ghyatzo]

Hello, sorry if i reopened this but i'm having trouble passing the variable $YABAI_WINDOW_ID to an external script.
as of now i'm doing
action="/path/to/script.sh $YABAI_WINDOW_ID" and in the script i have a line for debugging
wid=$1; echo $wid | terminal-notifier
but it just return an empty string.

I modified the script that you wrote down and it works as intended (tested with hardcoded window id) but as soon as i try to pass in the variable i get and empty notification from the debug string.

Is this the intended way to work with the event's arguments in an external script and i'm just bad at shell scripts?

[dominiklohmann]

Use single quotes instead of double quotes. You're not evaluating the variable $YABAI_WINDOW_ID in your action, but rather in your config file.

[ghyatzo]

It works, thanks again. Damn quotes get me everytime.