Dock Folders

Turn any folder into a clickable Dock icon that shows its contents as a popup menu — like macOS Dock stacks, but with custom icons.

Warning

This automation is provided as-is for personal use. The repository is public for anyone who wants to fork and adapt it. Please do not open issues for support or feature requests.

Features

📂 Native popup menus — Shows folder contents in a clean list

🎨 Custom icons — Preserves folder icons (including Emoji) in the Dock

🕵️ Clean experience — Hidden from CMD+Tab and Dock recent apps

⚡ Fast — Uses native macOS APIs and AppleScript

🖱️ Click-to-open — Opens selected items or the folder itself

Usage

Quick Start

Generate a Dock app for a single folder:

./dock-folders.sh ~/Documents/dock-folders/coding

Or build apps for all folders in a directory:

./dock-folders.sh --all ~/Documents/dock-folders

Then drag the generated .app files from ./build/ into your Dock.

Note

First launch: If the folder is in ~/Documents, ~/Desktop, or ~/Downloads, macOS will ask for permission to access it. Click Allow.

Setup

1. Create a folder to hold your dock shortcuts:

   mkdir -p ~/Documents/dock-folders

2. Create sub-folders for each Dock group:

   mkdir ~/Documents/dock-folders/coding
   mkdir ~/Documents/dock-folders/music

3. Add items: Drag apps, aliases, files, or folders into these directories.

4. Add icons: Use Customize Folder or Finder's Get Info panel to set custom icons. The script will automatically use them.

Options

Option	Description
--all <dir>	Build apps for all sub-folders in <dir>
<folder>	Build an app for a single folder
OUTPUT_DIR=path	Change the output directory (default: ./build/)

Installation

No dependencies required. The script uses only built-in macOS tools.

1. Download dock-folders.sh
2. Make it executable:

   chmod +x dock-folders.sh

3. Run it!

Images

License

MIT