NiceDock

A native macOS second Dock with live widgets: music, todos, events, weather, search, system stats, quick actions and 111 widgets in one dock beside the macOS Dock. Written from scratch in Swift/SwiftUI; the design is inspired by CoolDock, and NiceDock is not affiliated with it.

Website: farvisun.github.io/nicedock · Download: latest release

• Native Swift 6 toolchain, SwiftUI + AppKit, macOS 14 Sonoma or later
• ~9 MB app bundle, ~27–32 MB memory (+4 MB for the Now Playing helper while a music widget is shown, +1.7 MB while an app is below 100 % volume), about 0.2–0.5 % of one core when idle with the default layout (the first minute after launch also scans local AI tool logs once)
• 10 languages, full right-to-left support, Persian with the Estedad typeface, Solar Hijri calendar and Persian digits
• Local-first: credentials live in the macOS Keychain, no account, no telemetry
• AI Assistant: Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and other MCP clients can read and configure NiceDock (NiceDock --mcp) and paint wallpapers by mood, season or weather — off by default, read-only until you allow changes in Settings → Privacy & Permissions. Setup and tools: docs/ai-assistant.md

Install

1. Download NiceDock.dmg from the latest release (Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later) and drag NiceDock into Applications.
2. NiceDock is ad-hoc signed, not notarized by Apple, so macOS stops the first launch. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NiceDock.app once.
3. Pick a layout in the welcome window, then right-click the dock › Widgets… to add more.

Releases are built by .github/workflows/release.yml when a v* tag is pushed; each release lists the SHA-256 of its files. The website is site/ (static, no external requests) and is deployed to GitHub Pages by .github/workflows/pages.yml.

Build & run

scripts/build-app.sh release --run     # builds build/NiceDock.app and launches it
scripts/build-app.sh debug             # faster debug build
swift build                            # compile only

The script compiles with SwiftPM, assembles the .app bundle (Info.plist, fonts, translations, generated icon) and ad-hoc signs it. Drag build/NiceDock.app to /Applications to keep it.

Developer launch flags: --lang <code>, --settings <pane>, --widgets, --onboarding, --mcp (stdio MCP server, no UI; COOLDOCK_SUPPORT_DIR points it at another state folder), and the offscreen widget renderer --render <dir> <kinds|all|category:name> [--wait s] [--lang fa] [--style darkGlass]. Debug builds also accept --profile <index> and --tap <0…1> (clicks the dock at that fraction of its width) to inspect widget panels without UI scripting, and --menu-probe <app> [--perform "Item"]… to build and fire an app tile's right-click menu against the real app.

Verification

• Pixel diff — the reference frames (docs/reference, screenshots of the design that inspired NiceDock) are not published in this repository; with a local copy, scripts/pixel-diff.sh renders every frame with deterministic reference data (--scene reference) and compares it with ImageMagick: exact size, match at 8 % and 3 % colour fuzz (ImageMagick's AE metric: 100 % minus the out-of-fuzz colour error, each differing pixel weighted by how far it is off), RMSE. Output: build/pixel-report/report.html (reference | render | diff strips), report.md, metrics.tsv. Current result: 74/74 frames exact size, mean match 99.93 % (median 99.95 %, strict 3 %: 99.81 %), every frame ≥ 99.5 % (lowest: contactCard 99.51 %, nowPlaying 99.59 %; all others ≥ 99.71 %, 63 of 74 ≥ 99.90 %). scripts/pixel-residue.sh then sorts what is left: 93.2 % of the pixels that still differ (8 % fuzz) lie within 1 px of an edge in the reference (anti-aliasing and sub-pixel placement); away from edges 99.96 % of pixels match on average, and 99.85 % match when each pixel may be compared with any reference pixel up to 1 px away. scripts/chrome-check.sh holds the 29 tiles without a site frame to the same chrome. Evidence index: docs/verification.
• Data providers — swift test runs 476 tests (they pass in any time zone, UTC−11 to UTC+14; live Now Playing, App Volume, Accessibility and network suites are opt-in); the provider suites feed real captured responses (Open-Meteo, Yahoo Finance, Binance, GitHub contributions, Simple Analytics, redacted OpenCode database rows) and documentation-schema fixtures (Stripe, Shopify, Dodo, Polar, Dub, DataFast, Plausible, Resend, Supabase, X, TikTok, YouTube, Linear, Anthropic, OpenAI, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini API, Perplexity, xAI, Z.ai) through the same parsers the widgets use. LiveAuthTests replays each keyed provider's real no-key / fake-key answers through the widget's own request and error handling — see docs/verification/providers.md. COOLDOCK_VERIFY_LOCAL_LOGS=1 swift test --filter LocalLogsTests also checks AI-usage totals against this Mac's Claude Code / Codex logs.
• Calendar feeds — the ICS reader (Services/ICS.swift) is tested with handcrafted RFC 5545 snippets and four real feeds captured with curl (Google US holidays, iCloud US holidays, the LLVM community calendar, Make WordPress meetings); every occurrence in an eight-week window matches an independent python-dateutil expansion (). Widget renders from real feeds, English and Persian: .

Using it

Action	How
Add widgets	Right-click the Dock → Widgets…, click a card or drag it into place
Configure a widget	Right-click it → Customize… (connected widgets: Connection & Settings…)
Reorder	Hold ⌘ and drag a widget (plain drag while the widget browser is open)
Switch profiles	Hover the Dock and pick a tab, swipe across it, or ⌃⌥⌘0…7
Hide / show	⌃⌥⌘D (configurable)
Settings	Menu bar icon → Settings…, right-click the Dock, or ⌘,
App menus	Right-click an app: its windows, New Window / private window / browser profiles, Open Recent, Options ▸ Keep in Dock, Open at Login, Show in Finder; hold ⌥ for Force Quit
Lost the Dock?	Menu bar icon → Layout → Reset Layout

Widgets

Category	Widgets
Apps & files	App, App Folder, Applications, Trash, Folder, Downloads, Recent Files, File Shelf, AirDrop, Dropbox, Find Files, App Switcher, Running Apps
Clocks & focus	Clock, Clock with Seconds, Time & Date, Time Card, Date, Day & Date, Date/Time/Weather, Flip Clock, Analog (dark/light), World Clock, Pixel Clock, Timer, Stopwatch, Pomodoro, Drink Water, Posture
Calendar & tasks	Today's Events, Agenda, Week, Next Meeting, Zoom Meeting, Day/Month/Year Progress, Progress Ring, Reminders, Todo, Habit Tracker, Linear
Weather	Weather, Weather & Forecast, Details, Daily, Today & Forecast, Conditions, Hourly, Sunrise & Sunset, Wind
System & controls	Battery, CPU, Memory, Storage, Temperature, CPU History, Network, Devices Battery, Audio, App Volume (per-app volume and mute, macOS 14.2+), Quick Toggles, Clipboard, Screenshots, Recent Screenshots, Voice Memo, Emoji
Utilities	Color Picker, Converter, Calculator, Bookmarks, Search Web, Window Manager, Separator, Space
Media & people	Now Playing (any app: Music, Spotify, browsers, Podcasts, VLC…), Now Playing Large, Background Sounds, YouTube Video, Recent Photo, Wallpaper, Mail, Latest Mail, Notes, Quick Contacts, Contact Card
Markets	Stock, Stock Chart, Watchlist, Crypto, Crypto Chart, Crypto Watchlist
Connected	Polar, Stripe, Dodo Payments, Shopify ×3, Plausible, Simple Analytics, DataFast, Visitors Chart, Dub, Resend, GitHub, Supabase, X, TikTok, YouTube, AI Usage (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Antigravity, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini API, Perplexity, Grok, GLM / Z.ai, Anthropic/OpenAI admin APIs)

Data sources: Open-Meteo (weather, no key), Frankfurter (currency), Yahoo Finance and Binance (quotes), EventKit and ICS/webcal calendar feeds (Google, iCloud, Outlook, Fastmail, any .ics link), CoreAudio, CoreWLAN, IOKit, PhotoKit, Contacts and each provider's public API.

Settings

General · Appearance (live preview, six dock styles incl. Liquid Glass, size, spacing, corner radius, monochrome, reduce transparency) · Layout (seven scenarios: Swap at the Bottom, Reveal, Fixed ×6 positions, Reveal on Top, Replace the macOS Dock, Replace & Auto-Hide, Floating) · Screens (one / attached / all displays, rename, identify) · Dock · Profiles (up to 8) · Widgets (incl. App Volume) · Shortcuts (recorders) · Language & Region (language, calendar, digits, 12/24 h, Estedad) · Privacy & Permissions (incl. Calendar Feeds and the AI Assistant) · Performance (live memory/CPU of NiceDock) · About.

Architecture

Sources/CoolDock
├── App/        AppDelegate, DockController (per-display panels, scenarios, reveal triggers),
│               DockRootView (plate, strip, reorder, profile tabs), Panels, HotKeys, StatusItem
├── Core/       AppStore (@Observable state + JSON persistence), Settings, Models, WidgetCatalog,
│               Localization (runtime language switching), Formatting (Fmt), Theme, Secrets
├── Services/   SystemMonitor, WeatherService, CalendarService, NowPlayingService, visibility rules
├── Widgets/    Components (Tile, rings, charts, brand marks) + one folder per widget family
└── UI/         Settings window, Widget browser, setup forms, onboarding

Performance rules: services are demand-driven (they run only while a visible widget subscribes), clocks use TimelineView schedules instead of timers, hidden docks unmount their widgets, images are downsampled at decode time, and closed windows release their SwiftUI trees. See docs/WIDGET_GUIDE.md for the widget contract.

Localization

English strings are the keys; translations live in Resources/<lang>.lproj/Localizable.strings (fa, ar, de, fr, es, tr, ru, zh-Hans, ja). Language changes apply instantly without relaunching. Persian and Arabic switch the whole interface to right-to-left and use the bundled Estedad font (SIL Open Font License, Resources/Fonts/Estedad-OFL.txt).

Credits

Design inspired by CoolDock by AppitStudio. Estedad typeface by Amin Abedi.