I’ve been experimenting with macOS tiling window managers.
Amethyst was easy to install and required no deep system changes, but it had several drawbacks:
No simple way to export GUI configs.
Config keys felt confusing.
Required “reset layouts” often.
In multi-monitor setups, it sometimes ignored large screen areas.
yabai appears far more powerful, with true tiling, scripting, rules, padding/gaps, and a very active ecosystem.
But: on Apple Silicon macOS 13+, meaningful yabai features require partially disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP).
This feels risky. It’s unclear whether the security trade-off is worth the improved workflow, and whether I would later regret degrading the security posture of my personal laptop.
Resolution Criteria
This market resolves YES if, in my explicit judgment, disabling SIP (even partially) to run yabai would have been something I regret—for reasons such as security concerns, breakage, instability, maintenance overhead, or general dissatisfaction.
Resolves NO if I conclude that:
disabling SIP would not have been something I regret, or
keeping SIP fully enabled and not installing yabai would not be something I regret.
It resolve N/A if there's no convincing argument. There being only 1 argument won't make it convincing.
Resolution will be based on my clear written statement.
Trading Encouragement
Traders are encouraged to provide convincing arguments for their position, backed by reasoning or experience. Useful angles include:
Security implications of disabling specific SIP components
Practical experiences running yabai under partial SIP disablement
Likelihood of future macOS updates breaking the setup
Productivity benefits vs. long-term maintenance costs
Whether lightweight alternatives (e.g. Amethyst, LeaderKey) already solve the core problem
Comparisons with Linux tiling workflows and expectation management
Arguments that carefully weigh trade-offs or reference real-world experience are especially valuable.
Update 2025-12-02 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator is leaning towards YES (that they would regret it), noting that they haven't disabled SIP yet and are planning to check Hacker News for community opinion and alternatives before making a decision.
1,000Added more subsidy.
I can use some hand-holding here: help me decide! What do I need to consider? How should I weigh things? Should I categorically reject the option of disabling SIP?
I guess I should also ask how many hours you anticipate spending on getting this thing to work and deciding on whether you want to implement the change? If you spend 20 hours troubleshooting maybe the efficiency gains don’t pay off for months and maybe an update will break your setup before you realize the efficiency gains. Thinking about it like that I’m gonna bet more “yes”.
Thanks for thinking along!
I’m hoping that 4–6 hours total will be enough to (1) get yabai into a workable state for software-development workflows, and (2) have it set up so I can easily disable or bypass it if it interferes with normal day-to-day use.
What I’m mostly struggling with is understanding whether the [specific?] SIP [components] yabai needs disabled actually protect me from anything I should reasonably worry about. My personal rule of thumb here is basically: I’m not a security expert, so I shouldn’t turn things off unless the protection they offer is so marginal that the benefit from disabling it outweighs it.
@JohnSmithb9be I incline towards yes I’d regret it, since I haven’t done it yet. Thinking of checking hacker news to find out community opinion and perhaps alternatives.