simple-bar

Status bar widget for yabai, AeroSpace, and FlashSpace

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Category
Status Bar
WM Type
—
License
free
Open Source
Yes
Keybindings
No
Scripting
Yes
Last Update
2026-04-10

Features

  • yabai integration
  • AeroSpace integration
  • FlashSpace integration
  • Window focus clicking
  • Multi-monitor support
  • Custom widgets
  • Layout mode display
  • Workspace navigation

About

Status bar widget for Übersicht designed specifically for tiling window managers. Displays all open apps, windows on current space, layout modes (BSP, stack, float), and enables window focus via clicking. Multi-monitor support with per-display configuration.

Who It's For

simple-bar is for yabai, AeroSpace, and FlashSpace users who want a status bar that shows their current tiling layout without the full complexity of SketchyBar. It's an Übersicht widget — you need Übersicht installed — and it displays space indicators, open windows, layout modes (BSP, stack, float), and lets you click windows in the bar to focus them. For tiling WM users who want useful status information without writing a SketchyBar config from scratch, simple-bar provides a pre-built solution.

How It Works

simple-bar is a JavaScript widget for Übersicht that queries yabai, AeroSpace, or FlashSpace at regular intervals to read the current space and window state. The bar renders as an Übersicht widget at the top of the screen, showing: space indicators (click to switch), the currently focused window's title, all open apps and windows on the current space, and the active layout mode. Each display gets its own bar instance with independent configuration. Custom widgets can be added alongside the default ones by extending the widget's JSX files.

Compared to Similar Tools

Compared to SketchyBar, simple-bar is faster to set up (install Übersicht, clone the repo, done) but less customizable — SketchyBar is a dedicated rendering engine with a full event system and animation support. simple-bar is ideal for users who want good defaults quickly; SketchyBar is for users who want to control every aspect of their bar. Compared to Barik (Swift-based TOML config), simple-bar requires Übersicht as a dependency while Barik is a standalone app — Barik may be more stable on macOS updates.

Requirements

Getting Started

brew install --cask ubersicht
# Clone simple-bar into Übersicht's widgets folder:
git clone https://github.com/Jean-Tinland/simple-bar ~/Library/Application Support/Übersicht/widgets/simple-bar

Übersicht detects the widget automatically. Configure simple-bar by editing lib/settings.js in the widget folder. Full documentation at github.com/Jean-Tinland/simple-bar.

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