Version 2.0

Your Dock. Your Rules.

Dock too full? Hide any running app from the Dock like a charm. Quick Switch, per-app rules, keyboard shortcuts — zero friction.

Download for macOS View source Read the rewrite story

$ brew install --cask hewigovens/tap/ghosttile

Features

Everything to tame your Dock

GhostTile gives you full control over which apps appear in the Dock, without quitting them.

Instant Hide

Remove any running app from the Dock with a single click. The app keeps running invisibly in the background.

Quick Switch

Cycle through hidden apps with a keyboard shortcut. Raycast-fast, no mouse needed.

Menu Bar + Dock Menu

Access hidden apps from GhostTile's menu bar icon or right-click the managed app's Dock icon. Always one click away.

Expose View

Bird's-eye overview of all hidden apps. Visual grid with live previews. Click to bring any app back instantly.

CLI + URL Scheme

Full CLI for terminal power users. URL scheme for Shortcuts and launchers. ghosttile hide Safari

Smart Notifications

Get notified when a hidden app needs your attention. "Slack needs your attention" — click to bring it back, or dismiss and stay focused.

Quick Switch

Navigate hidden apps at the speed of thought

Press ⌃ ⇧ Tab to cycle through your hidden apps without touching the mouse. The overlay appears instantly and disappears the moment you release. Built for flow state.

CLI

Full power from your terminal

GhostTile 2.0 ships with a full-featured CLI. List, hide, unhide, toggle — pipe it into scripts, cron jobs, or your dotfiles. First-class terminal citizen.

Automation

Your Dock, on autopilot

Set per-app rules to auto-hide on launch. Use the CLI in scripts and cron jobs, or integrate with Alfred, Raycast, and Shortcuts via the ghosttile:// URL scheme.

Use Cases

Who needs GhostTile?

If your Dock is overflowing, you already know.

🎯

Focus sessions

Hide Slack, Mail, and Messages during deep work. They keep running — you just stop seeing them. Bring them back with a shortcut when you're ready.

🖥️

Screen sharing & demos

Clean up your Dock before presenting. Hide the apps you don't want your audience to see — no quitting, no awkward shuffling.

🧰

Background utilities

Apps like menu bar helpers, sync tools, and dev servers don't belong in the Dock. Hide them permanently with per-app auto-hide rules.

⚡

Minimal setups

Keep only what you need visible. A clean Dock means less visual noise and faster app switching — especially on smaller screens.

Get Started

Get started in seconds

Install, launch, hide. That's it.

Install

Download directly or install via Homebrew.

brew install --cask ghosttile

Launch & grant access

Open GhostTile and allow Accessibility permissions. One-time setup, takes 10 seconds.

Hide apps

Click any app in the list to hide it, or run ghosttile hide Safari from your terminal.

The Story

Rewritten from scratch after a decade

GhostTile started in 2014 with a simple idea: "Dock is too full? Just try GhostTile!" It grew into the go-to utility for hiding running apps from the Dock — drag & drop, per-app config, keyboard shortcuts, Alfred workflows. Thousands of Mac users relied on it daily.

But macOS changed a lot in ten years. SIP, notarization, Apple Silicon, new sandboxing rules — many of the old tricks simply died. We rebuilt everything from scratch in Swift to bring back as much of that magic as possible. Not every trick survived, but the core experience is here. GhostTile 2.0 is free — a sincere rewrite, from the heart, for the community.

Read the full rewrite story →

2014

First release. Objective-C, mach_inject, OS X 10.8+.

2017

Touch Bar support, Quick Switch, URL schemes.

2026

Complete rewrite in Swift. Native APIs. Apple Silicon native.

Ready to reclaim your Dock?

GhostTile 2.0 is completely free. Download the latest release or install with Homebrew.

Latest release: v2.0.1 on GitHub

Download for macOS GitHub Releases View source