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support@fallingdata.zoneOpen the DMG and drag Daemon Watchdog to your Applications folder. Launch it from Applications or Spotlight.
On first launch, Daemon Watchdog will ask to install a privileged helper tool. This is required for automatic daemon restarts. You'll see a system authorization prompt — enter your password to approve. You can skip this step and use monitoring-only mode.
Open Daemon Watchdog from the menu bar, go to Settings, and paste the license key from your purchase confirmation email. Daemon Watchdog includes a 14-day free trial with full functionality.
System daemons run as root and can only be restarted with elevated privileges. The helper tool runs as a LaunchDaemon and communicates with the app securely over XPC. It only performs daemon restart operations — nothing else.
Yes. Without the helper, Daemon Watchdog monitors daemon memory and alerts you when thresholds are exceeded, but cannot automatically restart daemons. You can install the helper at any time from the app.
The Mac App Store requires apps to run in a sandbox, which blocks the privileged helper and launchctl access that Daemon Watchdog needs to restart system daemons. Daemon Watchdog is signed and notarized by Apple for your security.
Daemon Watchdog ships with profiles for the most common macOS Tahoe memory leakers: backupd, corespotlightd, mds_stores, contextstored, powerd, and WindowServer. Each has a sensible default threshold that you can customize.
WindowServer cannot be restarted without logging out. Daemon Watchdog monitors it and alerts you when memory usage is dangerously high, recommending a reboot before a kernel panic occurs.
Daemon Watchdog defers restarts during Time Machine backups to prevent corruption. System daemons are designed to be restarted — launchd automatically relaunches them. The app tracks restart events so you can see exactly when and why a restart occurred.
After 14 days, Daemon Watchdog continues to monitor daemons and display health status, but disables automatic restarts. Purchase a license to restore full functionality.
Your license key works on up to 3 Macs.
Daemon Watchdog checks for updates automatically via Sparkle. You can also check manually from the About window.
Daemon Watchdog includes a command-line tool (sdw) and an MCP server (sdw-mcp) for scripting and AI agent integration. See the CLI & MCP Server guide for setup instructions.