Application-level locking with on-device face recognition for macOS. Stronger than any other Mac app-locker.
FaceGate is a native macOS utility that brings app-level locking with FaceUnlock to your Mac. Lock sensitive applications behind FaceUnlock, Touch ID, or a secure password — all processed entirely on-device with zero telemetry.
macOS natively lacks the ability to restrict individual applications. Although other App-lockers exist, none of them use face recognition and are not as feature rich as FaceGate.
All controls in your hands - 100% free & open source , 100% malware free , 100% local .
- App Locking — Lock any installed app. FaceGate intercepts launches in real-time and prevents access until authenticated.
- On-Device Face Recognition — Software-based face embedding pipeline running entirely on your Mac via the Apple Neural Engine. No cloud, no data leaving your device.
- Liveness Detection — Head-pose challenges (turn left, turn right, tilt) to prevent photo and video spoofing.
- Touch ID — Seamless integration with macOS Touch ID.
- Password — Encrypted PIN stored in the macOS Keychain.
- Per-App Session Timers — Customizable unlock duration per app, including "Keep Unlocked Indefinitely." and "Lock immediately"
- Lock-on-Sleep — Automatically lock all apps when your Mac sleeps or the screen locks.
- Uninstall Protection — Prevents casual deletion by making the app bundle immutable and requires Admin Privileges to uninstall.
- Scheduled App-Lock/Unlock — Time-based auto-lock and auto-unlock windows.
- FaceUnlock Schedule — Disable face recognition during specific hours (e.g., when dark or in public spaces) to automatically fallback to Touch ID/Password.
- Auto-Optimization — Automatically boost display brightness and trigger Center Stage to improve camera visibility and face detection accuracy.
- Customizable Sensitivity — Fine-tune face recognition similarity thresholds to balance convenience and security.
- Menu Bar Control — Monitor locked/unlocked apps and lock them directly from the menu bar popup.
- Secure Operations — Require authentication to quit the application or configure settings to prevent unauthorized tampering.
- Emergency Kill Hotkey — Global keyboard shortcut to instantly terminate.
- Menu Bar Agent — Runs silently in the menu bar — no Dock icon, no distractions.
short_demo.mp4
▶ Watch the installation video
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dweep-desai/FaceGate-Mac/main/install.sh | bashThe script automatically fetches the latest release from GitHub, installs FaceGate to your /Applications folder, and removes the Gatekeeper quarantine flag so it can run immediately.
Important
FaceGate is not Apple-notarized, so simply double-clicking the manually downloaded app will not work. Follow the steps below:
- Download the latest
.dmgfrom the Releases page. - Mount the DMG volume and drag
FaceGate.appto your/Applicationsfolder. - Open Terminal and remove the quarantine attribute by running:
xattr -cr /Applications/FaceGate.app
- You can now launch FaceGate normally!
brew install --cask dweep-desai/tap/facegatexattr -cr /Applications/FaceGate.app
FaceGate is designed as a convenience layer against casual physical access, not a defense against targeted attacks using high-fidelity spoofing. The built-in 2D FaceTime camera lacks depth sensing.
- Face embeddings are AES-256-GCM encrypted and stored locally.
- Encryption keys are held in the macOS Keychain.
- The password uses SHA-256 with a random 32-byte salt, stored in the Keychain.
- Zero telemetry. The app is fully offline and makes no network requests.
- Face unlock sensitivity is configurable (default similarity threshold: 0.65).
- macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
- A Mac with a built-in or external camera (for face unlock)
- Touch ID-compatible Mac (optional, for Touch ID fallback)
git clone https://github.com/dweep-desai/FaceGate-Mac.git
cd FaceGate-Mac
brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate
open FaceGate.xcodeprojBuild with Cmd+B or Cmd+R. You may need to update the signing configuration for your development team.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the complete technical architecture and contribution guide.
MIT License. See LICENSE.
Authored by Dweep Desai