ApexDock/ docs
Getting Started

Install

Download, drag to Applications, and launch ApexDock.

ApexDock ships as a standard .app bundle. There's no installer, no kernel extension, no daemon — drag and run.

Download

After purchase, you'll receive an email with a download link. Save the .dmg to your Downloads folder and open it.

Install

  1. Drag ApexDock.app into Applications/.
  2. Eject the DMG.
  3. Open Applications/ and double-click ApexDock to launch.

The first launch shows an onboarding wizard that walks you through licensing, permissions, and the bar's basic layout. You can re-open it later from Settings → About → Re-run Onboarding.

What gets created on first launch

ApexDock creates one user-scoped data directory:

~/Library/Application Support/ApexDock/
├── api/                     ← Unix sockets for the public APIs
├── hooks/                   ← Optional shell hooks fired on bar events
├── themes/                  ← Custom appearance overrides (advanced)
├── widgets/                 ← File-drop JSON widgets and YAML widget files
└── notes.json               ← Quick Notes data

Permissions on the parent directory are 700 and on the sockets are 600, so only your user account can connect to the public APIs.

Updating

When a new version is released:

  1. Download the new DMG.
  2. Drag the new ApexDock.app over the old one in Applications/.
  3. Quit and re-launch.

Your settings, license, hooks, and widgets are preserved. The bundled apexdock CLI updates automatically when you upgrade — the symlink from /usr/local/bin/apexdock points at the bundle.

Uninstall

  1. Quit ApexDock (right-click empty bar space → Quit, or apexdock is gone from the menu bar).
  2. Drag ApexDock.app to the Trash.
  3. Optional: remove ~/Library/Application Support/ApexDock/ if you want to nuke settings, notes, hooks, and widgets.
  4. Optional: remove the CLI symlink with sudo rm /usr/local/bin/apexdock.

The macOS Dock auto-restores when ApexDock quits — if you'd previously enabled Hide macOS Dock, your original Dock preferences come back automatically.