Sketchybar Not Updating Workspace Order Correctly #701

LIEeOoNn · 2025-03-07T19:06:19Z

LIEeOoNn
Mar 7, 2025

I use Aerospace as my wm and want Sketchybar to display:

only non-empty workspaces
the currently focused workspace (even if empty)

I wrote the following config., but I believe my subscriptions aren't working correctly. Every time workspace_manager.sh runs, it should sort and add workspace indicators. This script is triggered by the aerospace_workspace_changeevent, which works perfectly for my space.sh(highlighting the current space). However, for some reason, the workspaces don't reorder correctly. :(

e.g.

lets say I already have non-empty ws "1 2 4" and now open ws 3
desired would be "1 2 3 4" but I will have "1 2 4 3"

My Setup:

aerospace.toml

   exec-on-workspace-change = [
       '/bin/bash', '-c',
       'sketchybar --trigger aerospace_workspace_change && sketchybar --trigger workspace_update'
   ]

sketchybarrc

##### Adding Left Items #####

# Add Aerospace workspace event handler
sketchybar --add event aerospace_workspace_change

# Add workspace manager 
sketchybar --add item workspace_manager left \
           --set workspace_manager \
           icon.padding_left=0 \
           icon.padding_right=0 \
           label.padding_left=0 \
           label.padding_right=0 \
           script="$PLUGIN_DIR/workspace_manager.sh" \
           --subscribe workspace_manager aerospace_workspace_change 
          # here might be the problem

workspace_manager.sh

#!/bin/bash
echo "workspace_manager.sh triggered"
# Get config directory
CONFIG_DIR="${CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.config/sketchybar}"
source "$CONFIG_DIR/colors.sh"

# Get workspace states
NON_EMPTY=($(/opt/homebrew/bin/aerospace list-workspaces --monitor focused --empty no))
FOCUSED=$(/opt/homebrew/bin/aerospace list-workspaces --focused)

# Combine workspaces to show (non-empty + focused)
WORKSPACES_TO_SHOW=($(echo "${NON_EMPTY[@]}"$'\n'"$FOCUSED" | sort -n))

# Get existing space items from SketchyBar
EXISTING=($(sketchybar --query bar | jq -r '.items[] | select(startswith("space."))'))

# Remove workspaces that shouldn't be shown
for existing in "${EXISTING[@]}"; do
    sid=${existing#space.}
    # check if workspace is empty and not focused
    if [[ ! " ${WORKSPACES_TO_SHOW[@]} " =~ " ${sid} " ]]; then
        sketchybar --remove "$existing"
    fi
done

# Add/update workspaces that should be shown
for sid in "${WORKSPACES_TO_SHOW[@]}"; do
    if ! sketchybar --query "space.$sid" &> /dev/null; then
        if [ $sid = "11" ]; then
            LABEL="magic"
            #this is my equivalent to scratchpad in hyprland
        else
            LABEL="$sid"
        fi
        sketchybar --add item "space.$sid" left \
                  --set "space.$sid" \
                  background.color=0x44ffffff \
                  background.corner_radius=4 \
                  background.height=20 \
                  background.drawing=off \
                  label="$LABEL" \
                  click_script="/opt/homebrew/bin/aerospace workspace $sid" \
                  script="$CONFIG_DIR/plugins/space.sh $sid" \
                  update_freq=1 \
                  --subscribe "space.$sid" aerospace_workspace_change workspace_manager
                 # somewhere here should be the error
    fi
done

# Force update
sketchybar --trigger workspace_update

space.sh

#!/bin/sh

# Get config directory
CONFIG_DIR="${CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.config/sketchybar}"
source "$CONFIG_DIR/colors.sh"

# Get workspace ID
if [ -n "$1" ]; then
    WORKSPACE_ID="$1"
else
    WORKSPACE_ID="${NAME#space.}"
fi

# Get focused workspace
FOCUSED=$(/opt/homebrew/bin/aerospace list-workspaces --focused)

# Highlight if focused
if [ "$WORKSPACE_ID" = "$FOCUSED" ]; then
    sketchybar --set $NAME \
        background.color=$MAUVE \
        background.drawing=on \
        background.y_offset=0 \
        label.color=$CRUST
else
    sketchybar --set $NAME \
        background.drawing=off \
        label.color=$TEXT
fi

Issue Summary:

Subscription Issue?
- workspace_manager.sh should update sorted workspace indicators when aerospace_workspace_change is triggered, but it does not reorder them.
- The event works fine for space.sh, which updates workspace highlighting.
Possible Problem Areas:
- The --subscribe workspace_manager aerospace_workspace_change line in sketchybarrc.
- The --subscribe "space.$sid" aerospace_workspace_change workspace_manager line in workspace_manager.sh.

Does anyone know why the workspaces aren’t updating in the correct order?

Answered by jimmer74

Oct 30, 2025

ok, so keeping your if guards to only add/remove changed workspaces, then change:
EXISTING=($(sketchybar --query bar | jq -r '.items[] | select(startswith("space."))'))

to:
EXISTING=($(sketchybar --query bar | jq -r '.items[] | select(startswith("space."))' | sort -n))

finally add:

sketchbar --reorder ${EXISTING[@]}

to the end of workspace manager script. et voila!

(I also removed update_freq=1 as it was messing with my active workspace highlighting... ymmv depending on your set-up)

my complete working set-up:

#!/bin/bash

CONFIG_DIR="${CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.config/sketchybar}"
source "$CONFIG_DIR/colors.sh"
BUILT_IN_ID=$(aerospace list-monitors | grep "Built-in" | awk '{print $1}')

# Buil…

View full answer

jimmer74 · 2025-10-30T05:50:16Z

jimmer74
Oct 30, 2025

Lets say you have an ordered list of workspaces in $WORKSPACES_TO_SHOW:

1: banana
2: orange
3: lemon
4: apple

Then you remove the empty ones (lets say 3: Lemon) in the #Remove workspaces that shouldn't be shown section of code, which leaves something like:

1: banana
2: orange
4: apple

then you iterate through the list of newly added workspaces since last update in the final section and then add them to the end. (lets say 7: melon):

1: banana
2: orange
4: apple
7: melon

lets say you keep doing this (remove banana next and re-add lemon, for instance) you next get:

2: orange
4: apple
7: melon
3: lemon

etc,etc.

You can achieve what you want by completely removing all items from SB and re-adding your ordered list in the last code block. Just remove the if guard:

# Remove all workspaces from sketchybar
for existing in "${EXISTING[@]}"; do
    sid=${existing#space.}
        sketchybar --remove "$existing"
done

and then remove the if guard in the final block (it's redundant now as all tested items will not exist in SB as we removed them in the last step):

for sid in "${WORKSPACES_TO_SHOW[@]}"; do
        if [ $sid = "11" ]; then
            LABEL="magic"
            #this is my equivalent to scratchpad in hyprland
        else
            LABEL="$sid"
        fi
        sketchybar --add item "space.$sid" left \
                  --set "space.$sid" \
                  background.color=0x44ffffff \
                  background.corner_radius=4 \
                  background.height=20 \
                  background.drawing=off \
                  label="$LABEL" \
                  click_script="/opt/homebrew/bin/aerospace workspace $sid" \
                  script="$CONFIG_DIR/plugins/space.sh $sid" \
                  update_freq=1 \
                  --subscribe "space.$sid" aerospace_workspace_change workspace_manager
done

I liked your idea, so borrowed it! There doesn't seem to be any performance hit to completely removing and re-adding the workspaces (at least none I can notice) and the goal of ordered workspaces is achieved. Hope it helps you or someone else!

0 replies

jimmer74 · 2025-10-30T05:59:28Z

jimmer74
Oct 30, 2025

But since I've written this, there IS a performance hit when clicking on workspace in SB - you get a noticeable re-draw. Which I didn't get last night, so it's fragile. When the systems under some other load then the redraw can become noticeable!

I'm going to see if there's a better approach and report back - because I want this too!

0 replies

jimmer74 · 2025-10-30T07:00:42Z

jimmer74
Oct 30, 2025

ok, so keeping your if guards to only add/remove changed workspaces, then change:
EXISTING=($(sketchybar --query bar | jq -r '.items[] | select(startswith("space."))'))

to:
EXISTING=($(sketchybar --query bar | jq -r '.items[] | select(startswith("space."))' | sort -n))

finally add:

sketchbar --reorder ${EXISTING[@]}

to the end of workspace manager script. et voila!

(I also removed update_freq=1 as it was messing with my active workspace highlighting... ymmv depending on your set-up)

my complete working set-up:

#!/bin/bash

CONFIG_DIR="${CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.config/sketchybar}"
source "$CONFIG_DIR/colors.sh"
BUILT_IN_ID=$(aerospace list-monitors | grep "Built-in" | awk '{print $1}')

# Build a list of non-empty workspaces
NON_EMPTY=($(aerospace list-workspaces --monitor $BUILT_IN_ID --empty no))
# get the current focused workspace
FOCUSED=$(aerospace list-workspaces --focused)

# want a combined list that contains the current focused workspace
# (empty or not) and any workspace with an app on it 
if [[ "${NON_EMPTY[@]}" =~ "${FOCUSED}" ]]; then
	TO_SHOW=($(echo "${NON_EMPTY[@]}"))
else

	TO_SHOW=($(echo "${NON_EMPTY[@]}"$'\n'"$FOCUSED" | sort -n))

fi
echo "${TO_SHOW[@]}"


# remove stale entries from sketchybar
CURRENT=($(sketchybar --query bar | jq -r '.items[] | select(startswith("space."))' | sort -n))
for curr in "${CURRENT[@]}"; do
	sid=${curr#space.}

	if [[ ! " ${TO_SHOW[@]} " =~ " ${sid} " ]]; then
		sketchybar --remove "$curr"
	fi
done

# Add/update workspaces that should be shown
for sid in "${TO_SHOW[@]}"; do
    if ! sketchybar --query "space.$sid" &> /dev/null; then
        LABEL="$sid"
        sketchybar --add item "space.$sid" left \
                  --subscribe "space.$sid"  ws_manager_built_in aerospace_workspace_change \
                  --set "space.$sid" \
                  background.color=$ITEM_BG_COLOR \
                  background.corner_radius=5 \
                  background.height=30 \
                  background.drawing=off \
                  label="$LABEL" \
                  click_script="aerospace workspace $sid" \
                  script="$CONFIG_DIR/plugins/aerospace.sh $sid" \
                 # somewhere here should be the error
    fi
done

# reorder workspaces in SB
sketchybar --reorder ${CURRENT[@]}

some of my var names are different to yours (my service is called ws_manager_built_in.sh as it's for the built-in screen only) and I've adapted what I already had to map onto yours... but the name changes are superficial as it's mostly your script at this point!

1 reply

LIEeOoNn Oct 30, 2025
Author

Thanks for your effort after I tried very long for this I just gave up and made this issue glad you solved it

jimmer74 · 2025-10-30T07:05:57Z

jimmer74
Oct 30, 2025

But it only updates/reorders when I click on/key-bind to a new workspace, not when I close an app or send it to a new workspace....

will update when I've fixed that!

1 reply

LIEeOoNn Oct 30, 2025
Author

yeah that would also be perfect

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Sketchybar Not Updating Workspace Order Correctly #701

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LIEeOoNn Mar 7, 2025

e.g.

My Setup:

Issue Summary:

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