A floating dock for macOS that lives on your external displays — giving each monitor its own app launcher without the native Dock jumping between screens.
Vibe coded with Claude Code
macOS ships with one Dock that teleports to whichever screen you last moved your cursor to. AltDock solves this by putting a persistent, fully customisable floating dock on every external display simultaneously.
- Multi-monitor — one floating dock per external display, auto-hides when you unplug
- Fully customisable — adjust size, opacity, background style, colour tint, border, and glow
- Saved scenes — not a feature here, but layout preferences persist across launches
- App name labels — hover any icon to see its name, just like the native Dock
- Window previews — hover a running app to see thumbnail previews of open windows
- Separator bars — right-click any icon → Add Separator After to group apps
- Vertical & horizontal — position the dock at bottom, top, left, or right
- Auto-hide — dock slides off-screen and reappears when your cursor reaches the edge
- Hide system Dock — optionally banish the native Dock while AltDock is running
- Mirror Native Dock — sync your pinned apps from the system Dock automatically
- Drag & drop — drag
.appfiles onto the dock to add them instantly - Launch at Login — start AltDock automatically on login
- Trash — shows empty/full state; right-click to empty
Right-click the dock background → Settings… to open the settings panel, or click the ⬚ icon in the menu bar.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Position | Bottom / Top / Left / Right |
| Icon Size | 28 – 80 pt slider |
| Background Style | Ultra Thin / Thin / Regular / Dark |
| Background Tint | White opacity overlay |
| Color Tint | Custom colour + intensity |
| Glow Effect | Blurred halo behind the pill |
| Show Border | Glass rim stroke |
| Auto-hide | Slide to screen edge when inactive |
| Window Previews | Thumbnail on hover |
| Hide System Dock | Suppress the native macOS Dock |
| Mirror Native Dock | Import system Dock pinned apps |
git clone https://github.com/RonaldPark89/AltDock.git
cd AltDock
chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh
open AltDock.appRequirements: macOS 13 Ventura or later · Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
Open AltDock.dmg and drag AltDock.app to /Applications.
To start at login: open the menu bar icon → Launch at Login.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Screen Recording | Required to show window thumbnail previews on hover |
| Accessibility | Required to detect and interact with running applications |
macOS will prompt for these on first use.
- Non-sandboxed — required for private API access and screen recording
- One
NSPanelper external display, floats above all windows - Ad-hoc code signed for local use (not App Store compatible)