Frequently asked questions.

A tiny animated corgi that lives on top of your Mac’s Dock. It walks around, naps, and reacts to what your Mac is doing: hung apps, low battery, new downloads, screenshots, music and about 25 more.

A small animated character that lives on your screen while you work. DockPal is a desktop pet for Mac: a corgi that walks along your Dock and reacts to what your Mac is doing.

Any Mac running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. Apple silicon and Intel.

No. You download it directly from dockpal.app.

Click the corgi icon in your menu bar, or right-click your pet. You can also open DockPal again while it’s running to bring up Settings.

Yes. On a left or right Dock it walks along the side edge. With auto-hide it waits at the edge of the screen and hops up when the Dock slides in.

About 30 things your Mac does: typing, hung apps, low battery and charging, new badges, bouncing icons, downloads, screenshots, music, headphones, muting, the Wi-Fi dropping, drives being plugged in, a hot Mac, low memory, a nearly full disk and more. See every one of them.

No. It hides over full-screen apps and stops when the screen locks. It has no Dock icon unless you want one, and sounds are off until you turn them on.

No. There’s no account and nothing to sign in to.

DockPal costs $6.99. It’s one payment, with no subscription. There’s no trial, but you can play with the corgi on the home page before you buy.

Open DockPal and paste the licence key from your receipt email into the window that appears.

Search your email for your Dodo Payments receipt, or write to myself@vikaskalwani.com.

One Mac at a time. To move it to a new Mac, choose Settings › About › Licence › Deactivate on This Mac on the old one first. For a second Mac, buy a second licence.

Write to myself@vikaskalwani.com and we’ll free the licence so you can activate it on your new Mac.

Yes. Every update is free, with no subscription. DockPal checks once a day and offers new versions, and you can choose Check for Updates… from the menu bar at any time. Future in-app purchases, such as more pets, are paid separately.

All sales are final, so please check the features and requirements before buying. If DockPal doesn’t work on your Mac or you were charged twice, write to myself@vikaskalwani.com. See the Refund Policy.

Never. If you’re away for a while, it’ll be a little lonely and very happy to see you. Happiness never drops below 20%.

Pat it, rub its belly, give it treats, feed it a file, play fetch, or give it a bath. Each fills one of three needs: Fed, Loved and Played. Check them in the Happiness Meter.

With care. 10 belly rubs teaches it to chase its tail, 15 games of fetch teaches it to play dead, and 20 treats teaches it to high-five.

Yes. Right-click it to choose a name, one of three sizes (Mini, Regular, Big), and any of 16 outfits, or “Surprise me” for a new look every day.

The corgi is the first. More pets are coming.

One pet at a time for now.

Only if you want it to. Sounds are off by default; turn on “Pet sounds” in Settings and set the volume. It’s always silent during a Focus or a focus session.

Hover over it for a row of things to do: a treat, a ball, a bath, a butterfly, its tricks or a focus session. Click it and it hops, click its tail and it dashes off, stroke it back and forth for a belly rub, or drag it to pick it up.

Yes, on the real dates: hearts on Valentine’s Day, bunny ears at Easter, a witch’s hat in Halloween week, a diya at Diwali, a pilgrim hat at Thanksgiving, a Santa hat from 1 to 26 December and fireworks at New Year. On the anniversary of the day you met, it gets a party hat, a cake and confetti.

With “Curl up quietly during a Focus” on, it curls up and stays quiet until the Focus ends: no sounds, no bubbles, no reactions. Add the Keep DockPal Quiet Focus filter to the Focus you choose in System Settings. DockPal notices whether a Focus is on, never which one.

No. DockPal never sees what you type. It only notices that a key was pressed, whether Shift or Command is held (to spot the screenshot shortcut) and whether Caps Lock is on. None of this is recorded. It doesn’t need Input Monitoring or Accessibility access.

Nothing. Your pet pretends to eat them. The file is never moved, opened or read.

Only for two things: your licence and updates. DockPal activates your licence once, then checks it’s still valid each time it opens, such as when you log in. That sends your licence key, activation ID and, when activating, your Mac’s name to Dodo Payments. It also looks for updates once a day, which sends only DockPal’s version; you can turn this off in Settings › About › Updates. It has no analytics, and it keeps working offline once activated.

Only if you turn on meeting reminders. It reads event titles and start times so it can nudge you 5 minutes before a meeting. Your calendar never leaves your Mac.

No. It needs no Accessibility, Input Monitoring or Screen Recording access. Calendar and Downloads are optional, and macOS asks you first. So is Full Disk Access, which is only used to tell whether a Focus is on and reads nothing else; the Focus filter works without it. The Privacy Policy explains what each one is used for.

No. It never takes screenshots and never reads window contents. When you take a screenshot it poses, but it never sees the picture.

It hides over full-screen apps, and it might be hidden from the menu bar: click the corgi icon there and choose Show Pet. During a Focus or focus session it’s curled up at the end of the Dock.

Check Settings › Reactions; each reaction has its own switch and a ▶ button to preview it. If you’re in a Focus, it stays quiet on purpose.

Turn on “Remind me before meetings” and allow Calendar access in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Calendars.

Settings › General › turn off “Launch at login”.

Turn off any reaction in Settings › Reactions, or turn on “Reduce motion” so it stays in place.

First choose Deactivate on This Mac in Settings › About › Licence to free your licence. Then quit DockPal from the menu bar and drag it from Applications to the Trash. To erase everything else it stored, delete the files listed in the Privacy Policy.

It reacts to Music and Spotify only. Those two apps announce when they start and stop playing, so no permission is needed. Other players, such as a browser, aren’t seen.