Dock Timelapse MCP Server

Dock Timelapse

Your Dock tells the story of the tools you live in. Dock Timelapse records it quietly every day and turns its evolution into an Apple-style timelapse: apps springing in, others handing over their spot, a day counter ticking, all drawn over your own wallpaper.

Demo render with an invented nine-month history. The real output is 1920×1080 and 1080×1920 H.264 at 60 fps.

How it works

• Records — an hourly background agent reads the Dock's own preferences (the pinned apps, up to and including System Settings). On each day the Dock changes it saves a snapshot: the app list, every icon in high resolution, and the current wallpaper. Optionally it keeps a cropped Dock screenshot too.
• Renders — the videos are redrawn from that data: a glass Dock over your blurred wallpaper, spring animations, change labels (+ Linear, Cursor replaces Xcode), the date and day counter, and a progress bar scaled to real calendar time.
• Previews on day one — preview invents a plausible past that ends with your real Dock, so you can see your video right away.

Requirements: macOS and uv. ffmpeg comes bundled.

Install

Command line

uv tool install dock-timelapse

dock-timelapse install        # start recording (hourly agent, one snapshot per day of change)
dock-timelapse preview        # see your video now, with an invented past
dock-timelapse render         # later: the real timelapse → ~/Movies/Dock Timelapse/

Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add bcldvd/dock-timelapse
/plugin install dock-timelapse@dock-timelapse

The plugin brings the skill and the MCP server. Then just ask: "start recording my Dock", "make a timelapse of my Dock", "which apps did I add since June?"

Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot and other agents

The skill follows the open Agent Skills format:

npx skills add bcldvd/dock-timelapse -y

MCP server (Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, …)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dock-timelapse": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["dock-timelapse", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.dock-timelapse]
command = "uvx"
args = ["dock-timelapse", "mcp"]

Tools: dock_status, current_dock, dock_history, install_recording, uninstall_recording, capture_now, render_timelapse, render_preview, render_frame.

Usage

dock-timelapse status                                     # recording state + every snapshot and its changes
dock-timelapse render --format portrait                   # landscape | portrait | both (default)
dock-timelapse render --background white                  # wallpaper (default) | desktop (sharp) | white
dock-timelapse preview --demo                             # a generic demo Dock
dock-timelapse still --t 2 5.5                            # single PNG frames
dock-timelapse install --screenshots                      # also keep Dock screenshots
dock-timelapse uninstall                                  # stop recording, history stays

Screenshots use the Screen Recording permission: install --screenshots prints the Python path to add in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording. The videos only need the Dock data, so this step is optional.

Data lives in ~/Library/Application Support/dock-timelapse/ (snapshots.json, icons, wallpapers, and capture.log).

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest

License

MIT