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Click an active app's Dock icon to minimize its windows. Click again to restore them.
Click2Minimize adds a window toggle to the macOS Dock while leaving ordinary app launching and switching to macOS.

macOS 13+ · Swift 5 · Build with Xcode 15+ · PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0

Based on Click2Minimize by Hatim El Hassak.

See the difference

Before · Default macOS Dock

Clicking Chrome's Dock icon while Chrome is already in front leaves its window open.

After · Click2Minimize

Clicking the same Dock icon toggles the window between restored and minimized. In this recording, the first click restores Chrome and the next minimizes it.

When you click an app's Dock icon	Default macOS	With Click2Minimize
App is closed or in the background	Launches or activates the app	Same macOS behavior
App is active with visible windows	Keeps the app in front	Minimizes its eligible visible windows
App is active with only minimized windows	Normal Dock behavior	Restores its eligible minimized windows
Frontmost app has a fullscreen window	Normal Dock behavior	Same macOS behavior

How it works

macOS handles the first click that launches or activates an app. Click2Minimize acts only when you click the Dock icon of an app that is already active:

Open or switch (macOS) → Minimize visible windows → Restore minimized windows

If an app has both visible and minimized windows, the visible ones take priority. The next click restores eligible minimized windows, including windows you minimized manually.

Get started

Build this fork locally:

git clone https://github.com/chengen1018/Click2Minimize.git
cd Click2Minimize
xcodebuild -project Click2Minimize.xcodeproj -scheme Click2Minimize \
  -configuration Release -derivedDataPath build

The app will be at build/Build/Products/Release/Click2Minimize.app. Move it to Applications if you want, then launch it. To build an ad-hoc signed universal DMG at dist/Click2Minimize.dmg, run ./build_dmg.sh instead.

Permissions

1. In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, allow Click2Minimize. Relaunch the app after granting access.
2. When macOS asks, allow Automation → System Events so the app can read Dock icon names and positions.
3. Use the menu bar icon to enable or disable the toggle, or turn on Launch at login. The toggle is on by default and launch at login is off by default.

A locally built, ad-hoc signed app may require Open from Finder's context menu on first launch.

Behavior and limitations

• Clicks on Launchpad, Trash, and Downloads keep their normal macOS behavior.
• When the frontmost app has a fullscreen window, Click2Minimize passes the click through to macOS.
• Finder toggling applies only to standard Finder windows.
• Apps that do not expose their windows through macOS Accessibility may not respond.

Why this fork?

This fork focuses on predictable Dock toggling across multi-window apps, manually minimized windows, and Finder:

• Current-window-state decisions: Visible windows are minimized first. When none are visible, all eligible minimized windows are restored, even if Click2Minimize did not minimize them.
• Finder filtering: Only standard Finder windows are changed.
• Sequential multi-window handling: Window actions run one at a time to accommodate apps whose Accessibility window lists update asynchronously.

See CHANGELOG.md for the change history.

Architecture

The two paths meet at the cached Dock map:

• Refresh: NSWorkspace launch, activation, termination, and Space changes are debounced for 300 ms. AppleScript asks System Events for Dock item names and bounds.
• Click: a CGEvent tap sees left mouse-down events. The handler matches the click to a cached Dock item, then checks whether the feature is enabled, the app is active, and the frontmost app is not fullscreen.
• Window action: AXUIElement reads the app's windows. Visible windows take priority and are minimized; when none are visible, minimized windows are restored. If no action applies, the original click passes through.

The current startup path does not invoke the update-check functions. Dock discovery depends on macOS Accessibility and System Events permissions. Local tests for the window-action decision are in Tests/WindowToggleDecisionTests.swift.

Origin and license

The original project is Click2Minimize by Hatim El Hassak. This repository is a derivative, not an independent rewrite. The original work and derivative portions remain subject to the PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 license. Read NOTICE.md and LICENSE before redistributing or adapting the project.