[macOS 16 Tahoe] space --destroy fails silently while --create works

[tomari3]

yabai-v7.1.16
ProductName: macOS
ProductVersion: 26.1
BuildVersion: 25B78

Description

I am unable to destroy spaces using yabai -m space --destroy. The command fails silently with no output and no error in the log, even though the space is empty and not focused.

Conversely, yabai -m space --create works perfectly, which suggests the Scripting Addition is loaded and SIP is configured correctly.

Environment

• **Yabai version: yabai-v7.1.16
• **macOS version: macOS
• SIP: Disabled (fs, debug, nvram)
• Scripting Addition: Loaded but i get the following:
  sudo: sorry, you are not allowed to set the following environment variables: TERMINFO

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a new space: yabai -m space --create (Success: Space created)
2. Focus the new space.
3. Attempt to destroy it: yabai -m space --destroy (Fail: Nothing happens)
4. Focus a different space and attempt to destroy the target space: yabai -m space N --destroy (Fail: Nothing happens)

Logs

• tail -f /tmp/yabai_$USER.err.log returns no the following output, which i do not understand:

sudo: a terminal is required to read the password; either use the -S option to read from standard input or configure an askpass helper
sudo: a password is required
sudo: a terminal is required to read the password; either use the -S option to read from standard input or configure an askpass helper
sudo: a password is required
sudo: a terminal is required to read the password; either use the -S option to read from standard input or configure an askpass helper
sudo: a password is required
sudo: a terminal is required to read the password; either use the -S option to read from standard input or configure an askpass helper
sudo: a password is required
sudo: a terminal is required to read the password; either use the -S option to read from standard input or configure an askpass helper
sudo: a password is required

• No errors appear in stderr when running the destroy command.
• Previous TERMINFO sudo errors were resolved via sudoers config; the silent failure persists.

Notes

It seems like the private API hook for destroying spaces might have changed in macOS Tahoe, while the creation hook remains valid.

[KazBrekker1]

Facing the same issue

[wiktor-waj]

yabai-v7.1.16
ProductName: macOS
ProductVersion: 26.2
BuildVersion: 25C56

Creating, focusing spaces works but destroying does not. I have cleaned both /tmp/yabai_$USER.err.log and /tmp/yabai_$USER.out.log and no new logs are generated when running yabai -m space --destroy

[erkingoksuu]

#2693 In here that problem discussed and the solution for that problem was commited as,
"e33e94c0b25f807891e0e70101122afaec796e02"
two month ago. However, the current release was published three months ago so, that solution not affect us.

Just wait for new release.

[lucaorio]

I might be wrong here, but regardless of when 6e02 will be released, I think things broke again with macOS Tahoe 26.2.

I have two machines running the same HEAD Formula yabai (HEAD-996e26d): 26.2 is not destroying spaces, but 26.0.1 does.

[asmvik]

26.2 arm64 works fine if you are running HEAD version. I'll do a new release when 26.3 is released.

[wiktor-waj]

I'm running

yabai-v7.1.16

From head:

% brew info yabai
==> asmvik/formulae/yabai: stable 7.1.16, HEAD

MacOS version: 26.2 (25C56) arm64
And still I can create as many spaces as I want but deleting them doesn't work still even with: e33e94c
And it seems I am not the only one as one person already mentioned in the fix it does not work for them either.

[asmvik]

Reinstall the scripting addition after building from head. I tested and verified this 30minues ago when I updated my own system.

sudo yabai --uninstall-sa
sudo yabai --load-sa (twice, once to install and second to load).

[wiktor-waj]

Reinstall the scripting addition after building from head. I tested and verified this 30minues ago when I updated my own system.

sudo yabai --uninstall-sa sudo yabai --load-sa (twice, once to install and second to load).

Sure enough works for me now, thanks! I've checked wiki and install instructions never mention reinstalling scripting addition. Maybe updating the wiki would clear some issues. https://github.com/asmvik/yabai/wiki/Installing-yabai-(from-HEAD)

[asmvik]

I agree. Usually it will auto-update upon load, but that requries me to manually set the new version in the source before making the change. I believe the fix on head was from a PR in which the version number was not updated.

[lucaorio]

Ha! I'm sorry for the false alarm!

sudo yabai --uninstall-sa
sudo yabai --load-sa

The above is what I was missing, too. Thanks, @asmvik, for pointing us in the right direction. All is working well now.