macOS: Dock icon visible when app installed from .app bundle, but not in dev mode (menu-bar-only app)

[gitvzz]

Problem

We are building a menu-bar-only app (system tray, no windows). The app should NOT appear in the macOS Dock. This works in development but fails when running the installed app.

• Dev mode (cargo tauri dev): Dock does NOT show icon ✓
• Installed app (installed from DMG to Applications, launched by double-click): Dock DOES show icon ✗

Environment

• Tauri v2
• macOS (tested on Sequoia / Sonoma; exact version TBD)
• App uses tray icon only (windows: [] in config), no webview windows

Root Cause Analysis

The difference comes from how the process is launched:

	Dev mode (cargo tauri dev)	Installed (double-click .app)
Launch path	Binary executed directly by cargo (equivalent to terminal ./app)	Launched via macOS Launch Services
Uses .app bundle	No (runs from target/debug or target/release)	Yes (from *.app/Contents/MacOS/)
Info.plist applied	No	Yes
Dock behavior	Process launched as terminal subprocess → typically no Dock slot	Launched as standard GUI app → Dock icon appears

Conclusion: In dev mode, the process is a child of cargo, so macOS does not assign a Dock slot. When launched via Finder/Launch Services, the system treats it as a normal GUI app and shows the Dock icon unless LSUIElement/activation policy is applied before Launch Services makes that decision.

Attempted Solutions (All Failed)

1. LSUIElement in Info.plist

• Added LSUIElement = true in src-tauri/Info.plist (merged into built .app)
• Verified with plutil -p that the built app contains LSUIElement => true
• Result: Still shows in Dock when launched from Applications

2. set_activation_policy(ActivationPolicy::Accessory) in setup

• Result: Works in dev, fails when installed

3. Early setActivationPolicy in main() via objc2 (before any Tauri init)

• Result: Debug logs show policy is correctly set to Accessory, but Dock still shows

4. Call activateIgnoringOtherApps(true) after setActivationPolicy

• Result: No effect

5. Reapply activation policy after 300ms (in case Tao resets it)

• Result: Policy remains Accessory, not reset; Dock still shows

6. ActivationPolicy::Prohibited instead of Accessory

• Result: No effect

7. app.set_dock_visibility(false) in setup

• Result: No effect

8. TransformProcessType(..., kProcessTransformToUIElementApplication) at the very start of main()

• Result: No effect

Hypothesis

• LSUIElement should work at the OS level (e.g. Electron docs state it does), but it does not for this Tauri build. Possible causes:
  • Tao/WRY creates something (hidden webview for tray?) that triggers Dock registration before plist is honored
  • Initialization order issue
• Runtime APIs (set_activation_policy, set_dock_visibility) run too late relative to Launch Services’ decision

Request

Could the Tauri/Tao team investigate and add proper support for menu-bar-only apps that should never show in the Dock when launched from the .app bundle? This is a common pattern (e.g. Dropbox, many menu bar utilities).

Related

• Discussion: Toggle dock icon on macos #10774 (toggle dock icon)
• Wry: How to hide Dock icon to make the browser window completely invisible? wry#995 (hide dock icon)