One hotkey covers your screen. One hotkey uncovers it. Everything keeps running.
No sleep. No display disconnect. No process interruption. Touch ID when you're back.

You could set up Amphetamine, configure Hot Corners, tweak energy settings, and adjust your screen saver. Or you could press ⌘⇧L.

• ⌨️ One hotkey — lock and unlock with ⌘⇧L (customizable)
• 🔒 Touch ID unlock — or password fallback, just like your Mac
• 🖥️ Every screen covered — all displays, auto-detects new monitors
• 🤖 Agents keep running — AI coding tools, builds, downloads, SSH sessions
• 😴 Prevents sleep — IOKit assertion keeps your Mac awake while locked
• 📦 3.4 MB — native Swift, no Electron, no frameworks
• 🚫 No analytics — no data leaves your Mac, no accounts, no internet required
• 🐕 The watchdog — a metallic origami dog in breathing teal light guards your screen

Grab the latest signed & notarized DMG from getlockpaw.com or GitHub Releases.

brew tap sorkila/lockpaw
brew install --cask lockpaw

brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/sorkila/lockpaw.git
cd lockpaw
xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -scheme Lockpaw -configuration Release build

On first launch, grant Accessibility when prompted. A dog icon appears in your menu bar.

The lock screen is intentionally minimal. Near-black canvas. Subtle radial glow. One element at a time.

Progressive disclosure — the screen opens with the watchdog, your message, and a quiet elapsed timer. A chevron breathes at the bottom. Tap anywhere to reveal the fallback auth button. Nothing appears without your intent.

The watchdog — a metallic origami dog rendered in teal and amber, floating in a pool of light. Slow 12-second breathing cycle. On successful unlock, the dog scales up with a teal bloom and fades away.

Typography — system San Francisco throughout. Regular weight message at 55% white. Monospaced timer at 35%. The screen whispers.

Auth button — glass material effect with a subtle border. Visible enough to be tappable, quiet enough to stay out of the way.

Hotkey — CGEvent.tapCreate with .listenOnly on a dedicated background thread. Bypasses the LSUIElement activation issue that affects Carbon hotkeys in menu bar apps. Requires Accessibility permission.

Input blocking — separate CGEventTap intercepts all keyboard, scroll, and tablet events system-wide while locked. Mouse events pass through to the overlay (SwiftUI buttons need clicks). If macOS disables the tap, it re-enables synchronously in the callback.

Window level — CGShieldingWindowLevel(), the highest level in the system. Above Spotlight, Notification Center, screen savers, everything.

Multi-display — one overlay window per screen, recreated on hot-plug.

State machine — LockState enum with validated transitions. Every transitionTo() call is checked. State is verified again after async authentication returns.

Sleep prevention — IOPMAssertion keeps the Mac awake while locked.

Auth — LAContext.evaluatePolicy(.deviceOwnerAuthentication) for Touch ID with password fallback. Rate-limited: 30s cooldown after 3 failed attempts.

Auto-updates — Sparkle framework checks for updates automatically. Appcast hosted at getlockpaw.com.

Lockpaw is a visual privacy tool, not a security boundary.

It guards against the accidental — a colleague, a cat, your own muscle memory while agents run. Not the intentional.

lockpaw://lock              Lock the screen
lockpaw://unlock            Unlock with Touch ID
lockpaw://unlock-password   Unlock with password
lockpaw://toggle            Toggle lock state

Lockpaw/
├─ LockpawApp                     Entry, MenuBarExtra, AppDelegate, onboarding
├─ Controllers/
│  ├─ LockController              State machine, lock/unlock orchestration
│  ├─ Authenticator               LAContext · Touch ID · password fallback
│  ├─ InputBlocker                CGEventTap · keyboard/scroll blocking
│  ├─ HotkeyManager              CGEventTap · global hotkey detection
│  ├─ OverlayWindowManager       NSWindow · multi-display · shielding level
│  └─ SleepPreventer             IOKit · idle sleep assertion
├─ Models/
│  ├─ LockState                  .unlocked → .locking → .locked → .unlocking
│  └─ HotkeyConfig               Centralized hotkey UserDefaults access
├─ Views/
│  ├─ LockScreenView             Dog · glow · progressive disclosure
│  ├─ MenuBarView                Dropdown · lock/unlock/quit
│  ├─ SettingsView               Native Form · hotkey recorder · appearance
│  └─ OnboardingView             4-step wizard · hotkey · accessibility
├─ Utilities/
│  ├─ Constants                  Timing, animations, formatting
│  ├─ Notifications              All Notification.Name in one place
│  └─ AccessibilityChecker       AXIsProcessTrusted + System Settings
└─ Resources/
   └─ Assets                     App icon, mascot, menu bar icon, colors

Pushes to main and PRs run build + 34 unit tests via GitHub Actions. Tagged releases (v*) build, sign, notarize, and create GitHub Releases with the DMG attached.

_{getlockpaw.com}