Layout

Widen the gaps, narrow the columns. [layout] is three fields, all re-applied live by scootctl reload:

Field	Type	Default	Reload	Meaning
gap	integer (pixels)	12	live	Gap between columns, between windows stacked in a column, and at output edges. Clamped into 0..=10000: negatives become 0, anything above becomes 10000 — already wider than an 8K display’s long edge, a guard against a typo, not a usable setting. A gap that large leaves no usable area, so windows end up 1x1.
column_widths	array of floats	[1/3, 1/2, 2/3]	live	Column widths as fractions of the output width, in the order cycle-column-width steps through and set-column-width N indexes into (0-based). Non-finite or non-positive entries are dropped; an empty list falls back to the built-in three. A shorter list clamps live columns onto the nearest surviving entry.
default_column_width	integer (unsigned)	1	live (new windows)	Index into column_widths for newly created columns (1 selects 0.5, half the output). Too large clamps to the last valid index; negative is a whole-file parse error, not a clamp. Live columns hold still.

[layout]
gap = 8
column_widths = [0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0]
default_column_width = 1

Symptom: a gap wider than the screen, windows 1x1. You typed a huge gap (or a probe did). It clamps at 10000, which still leaves no usable area — set it back under a few dozen.