A moving (wall)paper for your desktop.

v0.040 · macOS 15+ · Apple Silicon · Swift 6 · MIT · Short Demo

Your desktop is yours. Why should it be a static photo?

MovingPaper turns your background into something alive, like a looping video, an animated GIF, a YouTube clip, or a random video from your Apple Photos library. Everything else works exactly the same: Icons, right-click menus, drag-and-drop, all of it. Your Moving (Wall) Paper animation sits underneath. I call it MovingPaper.

A few ways people use it:

• Podcast background -- listening to a podcast while you work? Set a chill looping video and let the visual ambiance match the vibe. Your desktop becomes the world's most relaxed studio.
• Music visualizer -- throw on a music video from YouTube as your wallpaper and code to the rhythm. It's like having MTV in the background, except it's 2026 and your wallpaper is the screen.
• Photos shuffle -- hit Shuffle and MovingPaper pulls a random video from your entire Apple Photos library. Family clips, travel memories, skateboard fails -- your desktop is never the same twice.
• Aesthetic workspace -- pixel art rain, fireplace loops, Japanese lo-fi scenes, slow-motion nature. Pick something beautiful and let it run.
• Multiple desktops -- set a different vibe on each macOS Space. Work desktop gets the calm ocean. Personal desktop gets the anime loop. You do you.

It's the kind of app that makes you smile every time you minimize a window.

Download MovingPaper v0.040

Open the .dmg, drag MovingPaper to Applications, launch it. Look for the night sky icon in your menu bar -- that's it.

Apple Silicon (arm64). Code-signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Auto-updates via Sparkle.

The repo doubles as a Homebrew tap, so you can install via Homebrew Cask without leaving the terminal:

# One-shot install of the latest release (no tap):
brew install --cask https://raw.githubusercontent.com/8bittts/movingpaper/main/Casks/movingpaper.rb

# Or tap the repo for ongoing `brew upgrade` updates:
brew tap 8bittts/movingpaper https://github.com/8bittts/movingpaper
brew install --cask 8bittts/movingpaper/movingpaper

The Cask formula in Casks/movingpaper.rb is pinned to the current release. Sparkle auto-update keeps installed apps current between Cask bumps.

Plays a looping video or GIF as your desktop background. Everything on your desktop still works normally -- the animation sits underneath.

• Resilient async loading -- stale YouTube and Photos results are cancelled or ignored so your newest wallpaper choice wins
• Loading overlay -- on-brand shimmer pill floats above all windows so you always know what's happening
• Per-desktop wallpapers -- different wallpaper on each macOS Space and monitor, including separate Spaces per display
• Sound control -- mute or unmute video audio (muted by default)
• Multi-monitor -- auto-detects displays, adapts on hot-plug
• Power-aware -- pauses on Low Power Mode and thermal throttling
• Automatic update checks -- checks hourly via Sparkle using its standard updater dialog kept dockless (app-managed activation policy), with signed feeds and verify-before-extraction enabled in staged builds
• Persistent -- your wallpapers come back when you relaunch
• Menu bar only -- no Dock icon during normal use, update checks, or update install prompts

In Per Desktop mode, each Space and monitor gets its own wallpaper -- switch Spaces and the wallpaper changes with it, even when macOS is keeping separate active Spaces on different displays.

Requires macOS 15.0+ and Swift 6.0+.

git clone https://github.com/8bittts/movingpaper.git
cd movingpaper
swift test
./scripts/smoke-test.sh
./scripts/build_and_run.sh

./scripts/build_and_run.sh --logs       # launch and stream app logs
./scripts/smoke-test.sh --production    # verify tests, release build, signing, notarized DMG, checksum, appcast
./scripts/build-dmg.sh --build-only     # assemble release app bundle only
./scripts/build-dmg.sh --local          # build + sign + DMG, skip notarization
./scripts/build-dmg.sh --unsigned       # ad-hoc sign, no Developer ID
./scripts/release-movingpaper.sh        # bump + package + notarize + tag + GitHub release

Use build_and_run.sh for anything that touches Sparkle — it launches a fully staged .app bundle. swift run MovingPaper is fine for general codepaths, but Sparkle stays dormant there.

Use smoke-test.sh before shipping changes. The default mode does not launch the wallpaper app; it runs the test suite, builds release, assembles a staged app bundle, and verifies core bundle shape. --production also requires and verifies the signed release app, signed and notarized DMG, checksum, and signed Sparkle appcast metadata.

Don't have any videos or GIFs on-hand? The build/tests/ folder ships with a few sample wallpapers you can load into MovingPaper to try it out. More will be added over time.

A borderless NSPanel at desktopWindow + 1 sits above the system wallpaper but below Finder icons. ignoresMouseEvents = true keeps the desktop interactive. Video loops via AVQueuePlayer + AVPlayerLooper. GIFs animate via CGAnimateImageAtURLWithBlock. Per-display Space changes are tracked from macOS's managed display-space snapshot, with a CGSGetActiveSpace fallback, so wallpaper swaps stay aligned with the correct monitor and desktop without visible flash.

Fork, branch, swift test, PR. One feature or fix per PR.

MIT

YEN is a personal terminal experience that makes command-line work beautiful.
Fast, customizable, and designed for developers who live in the terminal.