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What is macarkpet?

wanduforl/macarkpet — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

51JavaScriptAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

In one sentence

A macOS app that puts a small animated Arknights-style character on your desktop, walking, sitting, and reacting to clicks.

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Install a release build to add a walking, sitting animated character to your Mac desktop.

USE CASE 2

Sync community Arknights model packs to change which character appears.

USE CASE 3

Build the app from source with Xcode and package your own release zip.

What is it built with?

SwiftAppKitSwiftUIWKWebView

How does it compare?

wanduforl/macarkpetgangweix/next-forcingwk140320/quant-watch
Stars515151
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyeasyhardeasy
Complexity2/55/53/5
Audiencegeneralresearchergeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

The app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized, so macOS may require right-click Open on first launch.

GPL v3.0: you can use, modify, and share the code, but anything you build on top of it and distribute must also be released under the same open license.

So what is it?

MacArkPet is a macOS desktop app that places small interactive animated characters on your screen. The characters are based on models from the game Arknights, displayed as Spine animations, which are a kind of skeletal animation format common in mobile games. The app renders them using a web view component built into macOS, so no separate rendering engine needs to be installed. The launcher window lets you browse available model files, filter and search them, preview how they look, and adjust size and speed before placing one on the desktop. Once running, a character walks, sits, sleeps, or reacts to interactions. Basic physics keeps it grounded on the desktop surface, the Dock, and the tops of windows. A menu bar icon gives quick access to controls such as always-on-top, click-through mode, and position reset. Models are not bundled with the app because they are based on Arknights game assets owned by Hypergryph. Instead, the app can sync them from a community repository at runtime. The readme is clear that those downloaded resources belong to their original rights holders and must not be used commercially or redistributed without permission. MacArkPet is an unofficial fan project with no affiliation with the game developer or the upstream Ark-Pets project it was inspired by. The app requires macOS 13 or later and Xcode tools to build from source. A release zip is available on the GitHub Releases page. First-time users on macOS may need to open it via right-click because the app is ad-hoc signed rather than notarized through Apple. The source code is released under the GNU General Public License version 3 to match the upstream project's license.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through downloading and running MacArkPet from the GitHub Releases page on my Mac.
Prompt 2
Explain how MacArkPet uses WKWebView to render Spine animations without a separate game engine.
Prompt 3
Help me build MacArkPet from source using the build_and_run.sh script.
Prompt 4
What legal restrictions apply to the Arknights model files this app downloads at runtime?

Frequently asked questions

What is macarkpet?

A macOS app that puts a small animated Arknights-style character on your desktop, walking, sitting, and reacting to clicks.

What language is macarkpet written in?

Mainly JavaScript. The stack also includes Swift, AppKit, SwiftUI.

What license does macarkpet use?

GPL v3.0: you can use, modify, and share the code, but anything you build on top of it and distribute must also be released under the same open license.

How hard is macarkpet to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is macarkpet for?

Mainly general.

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