GeekTool
GeekTool is a macOS utility that lets you place customizable widgets called "geeklets" directly on your desktop. These geeklets can display the output of shell scripts, the contents of text files, or data from web URLs, turning your desktop into a live information dashboard. Power users, developers, and system administrators use GeekTool to monitor system statistics, display custom clocks, show log files in real-time, or integrate web-based data—all without opening separate windows. The app works as a preference pane and has been a mainstay of the Mac customization community for over a decade.
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1 suggestionGeekTool is an Intel-only application with no native Apple Silicon build confirmed by either the vendor or the community. The search results from December 2023 explicitly list GeekTool as X86 architecture only, with no arm64 support. The developer's official site has not been actively updated in years, and there is no indication that a native build is in development. GeekTool will continue to run under Rosetta 2 on M-series Macs today, but Apple is removing Rosetta in macOS 28 (September 2028), meaning this app will stop launching entirely on that release. If you rely heavily on GeekTool's geeklet functionality, you should begin exploring alternatives now. Native replacements with similar capabilities include Übersicht (a free, actively maintained geeklet-style widget engine that runs natively on Apple Silicon and offers comparable shell-script and web-content rendering), or you can migrate to macOS Sonoma's built-in Interactive Widgets and Lock Screen widgets, which provide some desktop-customization features without requiring third-party software. Contact the GeekTool developer to ask whether a native build is planned, but given the lack of recent updates, an alternative may be your most reliable path forward.
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