Download Flotilla

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Release notes

macOS 15 or later Apple silicon Free and open source (GPL-3.0)

Flotilla

Download started

Not released yet

Flotilla hasn’t published a release yet. Build it from source, or watch the repository on GitHub to be notified when the first version is out.

The latest version

Download the latest Flotilla-X.Y.Z.zip from the Releases page on GitHub.

Download Download again Open Releases Build from source Watch on GitHub

Next, install Flotilla in three steps

All versions on GitHub

On GitHub, choose Watch › Custom › Releases to be notified of new versions.

Installation

Install Flotilla in three steps.

  1. 1

    Unzip it and drag it into Applications

    Double-click the downloaded Flotilla-X.Y.Z.zip to unzip it, then drag Flotilla.app into the Applications folder.

    Finder shows it under its name for the system language, such as 归帆 in Simplified Chinese.

  2. 2

    Open it for the first time

    Flotilla is not notarized by Apple. The first time you open it, macOS says that Apple cannot verify it is free of malware, and refuses to open it.

    Click Done to close the alert, then allow the app to open:

    1. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security
    2. Scroll down to Security, and click Open Anyway on the line saying the app was blocked This button only appears for an hour after you try to open Flotilla
    3. Confirm with your login password when prompted

    After that, Flotilla opens like any other app.

    Alternatively, remove the quarantine attribute in Terminal, then open it directly:

    xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Flotilla.app
    Why does macOS block Flotilla?

    Flotilla is ad-hoc signed and not notarized by Apple, so Apple cannot verify that it is free of malware, and macOS refuses to open it the first time.

    Apple explains how macOS checks the apps you open, and how to open one anyway, in Safely open apps on your Mac.

  3. 3

    Grant the Accessibility permission

    Flotilla uses Accessibility to read the Dock’s interface, in order to:

    • Find where a group’s tile (its icon in the Dock) is on screen, so the panel and its tail line up with the tile
    • Detect clicks on a tile and expand on mouse-up, with the same timing as the Dock’s built-in folders

    Without the permission, macOS prompts for it the first time a tile is clicked after each launch of Flotilla. It is granted in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility; on macOS 27, this page is Privacy & Security › Device Control and Data Access.

    Without the permission

    Flotilla still works, except that:

    • The panel is placed at the mouse location of the click, and may not line up exactly with the tile
    • The panel appears only after the Dock launches the tile, slightly later than with the permission

    After updating

    Flotilla is ad-hoc signed. After switching to a new version, the previous grant may stop working, and the permission needs to be granted again.

Getting started

Create your first group.

Flotilla lives in the menu bar as a sailing ship icon. Click it and choose Settings… to open the settings window; Quit Flotilla is in the same menu.

Create a group

  1. Under Groups, click New Group, type a name, and press Return A tile for the group appears in the app section of the Dock; the Dock restarts briefly to show it
  2. Select the group, click Add…, and choose Add Apps…, Add Files…, or Add Web Page…
  3. Or drag apps, files, and Finder folders onto the group in the settings window or onto its tile in the Dock; drag a web page from your browser onto the group in the settings window

Use the panel

  • Click a group’s tile to open the panel, and click an item to open it
  • Click a sub-group or a Finder folder to step into it; the back button takes you up one level
  • Click the tile again, click anywhere else, or press Esc to close the panel
  • Drag an item within a group to reorder it
  • Drag an item out of the panel and hold it there until Remove appears, then let go to take it out of the group

The full guide is in the README

The settings window, with the Essentials group expanded under Groups and the General section below

Build from source

Build it yourself.

Only the Xcode Command Line Tools and mise are needed; Xcode is not required.

  • Xcode Command Line Tools 26 or later

    Version 26 ships with Swift 6.2 and the macOS 26 SDK; NSGlassEffectView, which the panel uses on macOS 26, is only available in that SDK.

  • mise

    The build commands are tasks in mise.toml.

git clone https://github.com/rakuyoMo/Flotilla.git
cd Flotilla

# Build the release version, bundle it as build/Flotilla.app, and ad-hoc sign it
mise run bundle

# Launch the bundled app
open build/Flotilla.app
  • The two ld: warning: search path ... not found warnings during the build can be ignored: they point to directories that the Command Line Tools don’t include.
  • Quit any installed Flotilla before launching build/Flotilla.app: when an instance is already running, a newly launched copy activates it and quits immediately.

Tests, code style, and more in the README