Docky replaces the macOS Dock with a configurable strip of tiles and widgets

The Dock is the surface Docky wants to replace

Docky describes itself as a Dock replacement for macOS that elegantly replaces the system one, and the argument in the README is about attention. The Dock is the most used surface on a Mac, and it has barely changed in years.

The interesting design decision is that Docky is not only a replacement. It can run alongside the system Dock, mirror it, or fully replace it. That distinction matters more than it sounds. A user who wants the stock Dock's behaviour most of the time but wants a different arrangement for a specific workflow can keep the system Dock and let Docky mirror it, which is a much gentler adoption path than switching wholesale.

The stated goal is that the Dock moves with your workflow instead of getting in the way, and the tagline puts it as the same old dock on steroids. Now free and open source.

The project is GPLv3, copyright Jose Quintero 2026, and the README is explicit that there is no paid tier and no upsell. It is a universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, notarized by Apple, and it requires macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later, with Xcode 16 or later to build from source.

Releases are in beta: 0.9.1 beta in July 2026, 0.9.4 beta in September and 0.9.5 beta on 2026-10-02, which is also the date of the last push. The repository is not archived, so the work is live, but a 0.x beta on a replacement for a system component is worth reading as a beta.

Tiles, folders, dividers and spacers share one strip

The layout model is the core of the product. You add and arrange anything in one strip: apps, widgets, Smart Stacks, folders, spacers and dividers. You pin what you reach for, drag to reorder, and the layout follows your workflow.

The folders are richer than the system's. Grouping apps into folders comes with nested navigation, Quick Look, and drag and drop, and you can optionally show running apps inline so a folder doubles as a live workspace. That last option is the interesting one, because it turns a folder from a static grid into a view of what is currently open, which is closer to a task switcher than to a folder.

Icons are overridable for any pinned app, any running app, or any widget-backed app, so an app can look different in the Dock than it does in Launchpad or on disk.

There is also a set of scripted actions. The README describes them as catalog-backed AppleScript and menu-click automation, plus curated commands. The word catalog is doing work: it suggests the actions are drawn from a browsable list rather than written by hand, which puts a lot of the value in the catalog rather than in the scripting mechanism.

Themes and profiles round out the personalisation story. The appearance is themeable, and configuration profiles are switchable, so a work setup and a personal setup can be two profiles rather than two sets of manual adjustments. The repository has a BundledThemes/ directory and a Config/ directory.

Widgets in the Dock, and the Smart Stack trick

The widget system is what separates Docky from a plain Dock restyling.

Built-in widgets include Calendar, Reminders, Batteries, System, Weather and Now Playing, and they live in the Dock itself rather than in a separate panel. The Smart Stacks feature lets you stack several widgets into a single tile and cycle through them in place, which is the answer to the obvious objection that adding six widgets to a strip makes it unusable.

There is also a community widget ecosystem. The widget store lets you add.dockywidget bundles, and the README points to a documentation file for external widgets that describes the bundle contract and how to build community widgets. The repository has a docs/ directory with the external-widgets.md file, and the widget store is the distribution channel.

Docky also ships its own built-in Launchpad rather than relying on the system's.

The built-in Launchpad and the live window switcher

Two features replace system behaviour rather than extend it, and both are about speed.

The built-in Launchpad is a fullscreen, searchable app launcher with full keyboard navigation, its own layout, and an optional global shortcut. Its own layout matters, because it means the launcher can be arranged the way the user wants rather than following the system grid.

The window switcher is described as a global, Cmd-Tab-style window switcher with live window previews, and there are per-tile hover previews so you can see a window before you raise it. Hover previews are the part that changes daily behaviour: instead of switching to an application and then hunting for the right window, you hover a tile and see which window it holds.

The previews require Screen Recording permission, and window management requires Accessibility. The README says Docky needs both and prompts for them on first launch. Those are the two most sensitive permissions a macOS app can hold, since together they allow reading the contents of any screen and simulating clicks anywhere. For an app that draws floating windows and previews, they are also unavoidable.

The live switcher is also why the project cannot ship on the Mac App Store, which the README explains directly.

Private APIs are the reason there is no App Store build

The most consequential paragraph in the README is the note about distribution. Docky uses private SkyLight and CoreGraphics Services and Accessibility SPI, with the code under Docky/Private/, in order to position windows, capture previews and drive the system Dock. Because of this, Docky cannot be distributed on the Mac App Store, and it is built from source or distributed directly.

This is worth understanding rather than treating as a footnote. SkyLight is the private window server interface, and CoreGraphics Services is where the Dock's own internals live. A Dock replacement that drives the system Dock, positions its own windows at the Dock's edges and captures window previews has to talk to these private interfaces, because there is no public API that lets a third party do that.

The upside is the feature set. Driving the system Dock means Docky can mirror it and replace it rather than just sitting next to it, which is what makes the alongside, mirror or replace choice possible at all. The cost is that the app is unverifiable by Apple's review, it can break on a macOS update when a private interface changes, and you have to trust the developer with an app that holds Accessibility and Screen Recording.

The dependency list is short for a project of this scope. Sparkle is listed as the software update framework under BSD 3-Clause, and updates are delivered in-app via Sparkle. The repository has a Frameworks/ directory, which is likely where that sits, plus a DockyDockWatchdog/ directory that suggests a separate helper process for keeping the Dock alive.

Installing Docky and building it yourself

The download page is getdocky.com, and the README offers a Homebrew cask:

brew install --cask josejuanqm/tap/docky

There is a detail about that cask that is unusual enough to spell out. Updates are delivered in-app via Sparkle and no tap trust step is needed for a normal install. If you run Homebrew with HOMEBREW_REQUIRE_TAP_TRUST=1, you have to trust the cask first with brew trust --cask josejuanqm/tap/docky. In other words, a stricter Homebrew configuration turns a one line install into a two step one, and the README tells you how rather than leaving you to work it out.

Building from source is an Xcode workflow rather than a command line one:

git clone https://github.com/josejuanqm/docky.git
cd docky
open Docky.xcodeproj

You build and run the Docky scheme, and the Swift Package dependency on Sparkle resolves automatically on the first build. There is no Package.swift, the project is an .xcodeproj with a Docky.xcodeproj/ directory at the top of the tree.

The repository layout also has a scripts/ directory, a Config/ directory for configuration, BundledThemes/ for the shipped themes, assets/ for resources, docs/ for the widget documentation, and a SUPPORTERS.md file. The funding links are GitHub Sponsors with tiers from coffee to patron, and Buy Me a Coffee for one-off contributions, and sponsors get a role in the project's Discord server, with teams credited by logo in SUPPORTERS.md.

Editorial conclusion

Docky suits a Mac user who finds the stock Dock too fixed and wants a strip they can rearrange, with widgets and previews in the same place, and it is the wrong tool for anyone who wants a drop-in Dock that behaves exactly like Apple's, since the point of the project is a different behaviour model. Before installing, read the note about private SkyLight and CoreGraphics Services APIs, because that is why Docky is not on the Mac App Store and why you have to trust a notarised build from the project site or build it yourself. Verify first that your Mac runs macOS 14 or later, and that you are willing to grant Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. josejuanqm/docky on GitHub
2. License: GPL-3.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases