Sketchybar Not Updating Workspace Order Correctly

[LIEeOoNn]

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:

1. 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.

2. 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?