My Dock Buddies on the Mac App Store
My Dock Buddies now comes from two places: the Mac App Store, and a direct download from this site. It is the same app — the same characters, the same Dock, the same account — and the difference is mostly in how it reaches your Mac and how it updates afterwards. If you already own buddies, nothing you have bought is at risk either way. Here is the whole of it, so you can pick once and forget about it.
The same app, either way
Both are the same universal build for Apple silicon and Intel: the same buddies, the same sizes and roaming choices, the same menu-bar app with no Dock icon of its own. Both need macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on an Apple silicon or Intel Mac. Both sign in to the same account, and both download your buddies to your own Mac after you do. Nothing about a character behaves differently depending on where the app came from.
What the App Store does differently
The App Store version installs and updates itself through the App Store, so there is nothing to drag into Applications and no update prompt to click. It runs inside Apple’s sandbox, which is a stricter container than a normal Mac app gets: it can reach the network and read one folder you pick, and nothing else. You can also buy a buddy inside the app there, through Apple, rather than going to the website to check out.
What the direct download does differently
The download from this site is a disk image signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple. You drag it into Applications once, and after that it updates itself quietly in the background. It is not sandboxed, which is why the feature that reacts to your coding agent can read its session folder without asking you to choose it first. Buddies are bought on this site, as they always have been.
They are two separate installs
If you install both, macOS treats them as two different apps: separate settings, separate sign-in, separate copies of your models. That is deliberate — it means neither can disturb the other — but it also means signing in twice, and our one-computer-at-a-time rule still applies to your account. Most people want one or the other, not both.
Buddies you already own come with you
Your buddies belong to your account, not to the app or the computer. Buy Max on this site and he is there when you sign in to the App Store version; buy him inside the app and he is there in the web playground and on Windows. There is no second library to keep in step, and no way to end up paying twice for the same character: a buddy you own is not offered for sale again.
A note on prices
Every buddy is $4.99 / ₹479, a one-time unlock, in US dollars or Indian rupees. Inside the App Store version, Apple sets the local price from its own price tiers, so the number in your currency can differ a little from the one on this site. It is the same buddy and the same one-time unlock either way — you are simply buying it from a different shop.
Which one should you pick
If you want installs and updates handled for you, take the App Store version. If you want the version that can watch your coding agent without being pointed at a folder, take the download. If you have no strong feeling, take the App Store one — it is the least to think about. Either way you can switch later by signing in to the other; your buddies follow the account.