Docktopus — Your dock. Your way.

Fit your desktop

Place the dock at the bottom, top, left, or right. Choose alignment, scale, magnification, auto-hide, and fullscreen behavior.

Keep apps organized

Import your macOS Dock, pin apps and folders, show running apps and badges, and browse folders as lists or grids. Right-click for app actions and Finder.

App previews in the dock

Hover over a running app to browse its window previews without switching away from your work. Window titles help you find the right one; scroll or use the arrows when more windows are available than fit on screen. Click a preview to switch directly to that window.

Search as you type

Start typing or press ⌘F to search copied snippets, clip titles, source apps, filenames, and categories. Combine several words, in any order, to narrow the results. Matching text is highlighted in previews, including recognized text in images.

Move from search to paste

Use ↑ and ↓ directly from search to select a result, then press Return. If results are still loading, Return waits for the current search and keeps your arrow-key selection. Outside search editing, all four arrow keys browse cards. Esc leaves search editing, then closes the panel.

Recognize clips at a glance

Browse text snippets, image thumbnails, file previews, and website cards, with source-app icons and timestamps. Recognized code snippets get syntax highlighting; copied hex colors in #RGB or #RRGGBB form show a swatch and RGB values. A selection counter keeps your place in the results.

Find words inside images

On-device text recognition makes copied images searchable by the words they contain. Matching text regions are highlighted directly on the image preview, so you can find a screenshot without remembering when you copied it.

Pin, categorize, and rename

Use ⌘P to pin or unpin reusable clips. Keep them in Main or a named category and filter from the category bar. Rename a clip’s label without changing its copied content; saved titles survive copying it again. Copying the same content again updates the existing clip, keeping its pinned category and custom title. Pinned clips are preserved during history cleanup.

Paste with the formatting you want

Return restores the selected clip and pastes it into the app you were using. Automatic pasting requires Accessibility permission; Restore Selection to Clipboard Only lets you paste manually without it. Choose Paste as Plain Text to remove formatting. ⌘⇧C copies a clip while editing search; ⌘C does the same while browsing cards. Copy Item also works from the actions menu without closing the manager.

Clean up pasted links

Optionally remove recognized tracking parameters, including UTM tags and common advertising click IDs, when pasting. Supported redirect links are unwrapped to their destination. This setting changes the pasted link without rewriting the saved clip.

Drag clips or use the Island

Drag supported text, links, images, and files into another app. Clipboard history is also available in Docktopus’s Island, with the same search and category controls. File clips reference the original files; previews and dragging depend on the file type and continued access to those files. Files in protected Desktop and Documents folders show a lightweight filename card instead of loading their contents for a preview.

Choose your retention window

Unpinned history is kept for one month by default. Choose 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 months, or choose Unlimited. Expired clips are cleaned up at startup and every 12 hours. Delete individual unpinned clips or confirm Clear Unpinned History in the actions menu. Pinned items and their categories are kept.

Keep capture and website previews under your control

Clipboard history and text recognition stay on your Mac. Keychain Access and common password-manager apps are excluded automatically; copies carrying recognized sensitive clipboard markers are skipped. Exclude other apps in Settings, disable the manager, or use Privacy Pause for 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes.

Automatic website previews are on by default. Turn them off, exclude hosts and their subdomains, or use Load preview for an individual link. Loading a preview contacts the website and may contact other hosts used by the page, which can receive your IP address and requested URL. Saved previews remain visible when automatic loading is off.

Media · Now Playing

See artwork, track and artist information, playback state, and read-only playback progress from apps that publish macOS Now Playing information. Use play/pause, previous, and next where the source app supports them. Explore the dock’s Now Playing widget. In the collapsed Island, the optional React to playing audio setting makes the bars follow the current source on macOS 14.2 or later and may require audio capture permission. The regular animation remains available when live audio is unavailable; Reduce Motion keeps the bars still.

Stats · your Mac’s activity

Open the shared System Stats panel for CPU and available GPU readings, per-core activity, memory, network graphs, and top CPU apps. The Island uses the same detailed dashboard as Docktopus’s other Stats surfaces.

Clipboard · shared history

Search and reuse your existing Clipboard Manager history, including pinned clips and category controls. Clipboard Manager must be enabled separately. When it is off, the Island provides a direct link to its settings.

Drop Zone · a saved shelf

Collect files, folders, links, text, and images in the shelf shared with the dock and menu bar. Items restore after restarting Docktopus. Drag an item out, open it, copy it, or reveal it in Finder. Explore Drop Zone, its saved copies, and recovery controls.

Controls · audio and displays

Choose an audio output, adjust supported system volume, and balance application audio and enabled Docktopus keyboard and mouse sounds through the shared Audio Mixer. Per-app controls require macOS 14.2 or later. Expand Display brightness for compatible displays; the section scrolls alongside the mixer so application controls remain reachable. Explore Display Controls and full display settings.

Notifications · optional previews

Enable notifications separately to see incoming previews and up to 100 recent entries in memory. A collapsed Island shows the preview; an expanded Island offers a New notification button while keeping your selected activity usable. Open the source app, hide a preview, remove history entries, or exclude an app.

Calendar · your next meeting

See a compact countdown before a timed event, then Now while it is in progress. Calendar previews start 15 minutes before by default; choose 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes in Settings → Dynamic Island, or turn them off. Click the countdown to pin Calendar and reach event details, the agenda, and Join. Explore Calendar and its previews. All-day events stay in calendar views; keyboard feedback and incoming notifications keep priority in the compact strip.

Open, pin, and use the keyboard

Choose Hover or click, or Click only. A brief hover opens the Island without taking keyboard focus. Click the header or pin button to keep it open; click again, use Close, or press Esc to dismiss it. A deliberate close stays closed until the pointer leaves. When the Island is focused, ⌥1 through ⌥7 select its seven activities.

Drop without losing your place

Dragging a supported item over the Island previews Drop Zone, including in Click only mode. An accepted drop keeps it open and pinned. Cancel the drag to return to your previous activity and pin state.

Themes, notches, and several displays

Use Liquid Glass, CDE, or Windows 95, with light and dark presets. The physical notch surround stays black while the content, controls, and keyboard feedback use your theme. Displays without a notch get a compact Island at the top center. Enable one or several displays; if every selected screen is disconnected, the primary display provides a fallback. Display changes preserve surviving Islands’ activity and pin state.

Keyboard feedback, with or without an Island

Opt in to brightness and volume keyboard overlays with Accessibility access. Feedback appears in the Island on the affected display, or in a standalone themed overlay when that screen has no Island. Unsupported audio outputs keep their macOS controls. Display Controls can be enabled independently of Dynamic Island.

Live views when you need them

Hidden activities release their live presentation work, and display brightness refreshes only while its disclosure is open. Reduce Motion makes expansion immediate and stops animated playback bars. Upcoming Calendar checks continue while the Island and its Calendar previews are enabled, including when collapsed. Enabled Clipboard and notification capture keep their own settings and may continue when the Island is closed.

Choose capture and permissions deliberately

Opening the Island does not enable Clipboard Manager or notification capture. Calendar requires macOS Calendar access; opening an event may also ask for Automation permission for Calendar. Banner capture requires Accessibility. Experimental quiet delivery requires Full Disk Access and a restart; it reads Notification Center records, temporarily manages included apps’ desktop banners, and can read stored message text even when macOS hides previews. Delivery can take several seconds and support depends on macOS. Per-app audio and optional audio-reactive bars may require audio recording access.

From total CPU to individual apps

Follow recent CPU activity, inspect individual cores, and see which apps are busiest. Performance and efficiency cores are labeled when your Mac exposes that information. Overall CPU is a share of all cores; app CPU follows Activity Monitor, where 100% means one fully used core and an app can exceed 100%.

Memory with useful context

See used and total RAM, swap usage, the memory pressure reported by macOS, and the apps using the most resident memory. Pressure is separate from the percentage of RAM in use. App rankings group related processes; shared memory can be counted in more than one process.

GPU activity and available sensors

Check recent GPU activity alongside CPU and GPU temperatures and the GPU clock when those readings are available. GPU usage and sensor coverage depend on your Mac and the values exposed by macOS. Missing readings are marked unavailable instead of appearing as zero activity.

Compare download and upload

See transfer rates in bytes per second on the primary network interface, with a fallback to active interfaces, and peak rates for the current System Stats session. Download and upload share one graph scale, so their heights can be compared. Top Network Apps combines each app’s attributed download and upload; its totals can differ from system traffic, and unavailable attribution leaves system totals visible.

Choose how often to refresh

Set dock and menu bar refresh to 2–15 seconds in Settings. System totals update about once per second while the detailed panel is open; app rankings, sensors, and compact GPU readings refresh less often to limit background work. Graphs show recent samples from the current run. Sampling stops when all stats views and the menu bar readout are closed or disabled.

Match your desktop

Use Liquid Glass, CDE, or Windows 95, with light and dark presets. Customize CPU, GPU, memory, download, and upload colors across the dock, details panel, and menu bar; titles adapt for readable contrast. Restore Stats Colors returns the selected theme’s metric colors. Opened details stay available while you scroll; close them with Esc or a click outside.

Choose where sound goes

Open Audio Mixer from the dock widget, menu bar, or Dynamic Island to manage system volume and app audio.

Switch between available output devices, then adjust system volume or mute the output where the device supports it. Outputs without software volume control use the controls on the device itself.

Balance applications independently

Adjust volume or mute each application playing audio, watch its audio level, and search the list when several apps are active. Per-app audio controls require macOS 14.2 or later.

Keep your mix close by

Adjust enabled keyboard and mouse soundpacks separately. Choose and preview packs in Sound settings; their volume and mute stay in sync with the mixer. Saved per-app volumes return automatically; restore one application to full volume or use Reset app mix to restore all saved application volumes and unmute them.