Native macOS · menubar app

Your desktop,
finally alive.

Turn your desktop into a live wallpaper — animated gradient, still image, or looping video — with a matching glass Lock Clock overlay. Engineered for near-zero power draw.

brew tap vahsir7/cavewall && brew install --cask cavewall

Recommended — Homebrew installs skip the Gatekeeper quarantine warning that a raw DMG download triggers on this unsigned, open-source build. Tap source.

Free & open source Support the project macOS 14+ Zero dependencies
CaveWallFileLibrary
9:41
Click the wallpaper to try your own video
Finder Safari Messages Music CaveWall
CaveWall
Wallpaper
Accent color
Icon appearance
Live on lock screen
Pause on Low Power
Live demo — pick a demo video, set your accent, or click the wallpaper to upload your own.
What it does

Everything a wallpaper should be, running quietly in the menubar.

Three things it does exceptionally well.

Live desktop wallpaper

Animated gradient, still image, or looping video — playing across every Space and every display at once.

Accent color control

Set the system accent color straight from the menubar — Dock, widgets, and highlights retint in a click. Pairs with any icon appearance mode you've picked in System Settings.

Power-aware by design

Pauses on Low Power Mode, when the desktop is hidden, when the screen sleeps, and while locked. No polling, ever.

0
Third-party dependencies
100%
Native AppKit & AVFoundation
~0
Idle power draw when paused
How it works

Set once from the menubar. It handles the rest.

01

Pick your wallpaper

Drop in a video, choose an image, or dial an animated gradient from the media library.

02

Apply everywhere

It plays across every Space and display, plus a live glass Lock Clock overlay while you're unlocked — macOS itself only allows a static picture on the real lock screen, and CaveWall keeps that in sync too.

03

Forget about it

CaveWall pauses the moment nothing's visible and resumes instantly. Your battery won't notice.

Free. Open source. Native.

No subscription. No account. No tracking. Just a better desktop.

Download for macOS Star on GitHub