Hostwatch 0.10Running NowRelease notes on GitHub↗

Intrusion detection that understands your Mac

Learns what's normal on your Mac, flags what isn't, and tells you the story. AI‑ready, strict when you need it, open source.

Download for macOS Docs Changelog ↗
macOS will say “Apple could not verify Hostwatch”. Here's how to open it

Why you see it. Hostwatch is free and open source, and it isn't notarized by Apple (that needs a paid Apple developer account). The message means Apple hasn't checked this app, not that anything was found in it.

  1. In the message, click Done (not Move to Trash).
  2. Open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security and scroll down to “Hostwatch” was blocked…
  3. Click Open Anyway, confirm with your password, then Open. You only do this once.

Want to be sure it's the real file first? Compare shasum -a 256 Hostwatch-*.zip with the .sha256 on the release page ↗. Or build it yourself from the source.

Hostwatch Events tab: processes, files and connections, with what's new and risky marked
Endpoint SecurityPacket filter firewallApple on-device AIMIT licensed
1.0 Why

One machine was enough. GitHub, Grafana Labs, Binance. 2026.

extensionpackageinterview task

An editor extension. An npm package. A job-interview task. Each was trusted, each ran on one machine. Hostwatch watches what runs on yours.

GitHub · May 2026

A poisoned VS Code extension

One employee's device; about 3,800 internal repositories taken.

TechCrunch ↗
Grafana Labs · May 2026

A compromised npm package

A leaked token; the private codebase downloaded and held for ransom.

Grafana Labs ↗
Binance · October 2026

A fake job interview

A coding task ran malware on an engineer's laptop; $6.3 billion stolen.

BleepingComputer ↗

CVEs published per year

New vulnerabilities, all software. 2026*: 35,364 in the first half (+49.5%), forecast ≈72k for the year, up to 91k by a regression model.

25k50k75k100k 2026 forecast range: about 72,000 (straight-line) to 90,831 (regression model) 2023: 28,818 CVEs28,8182024: 40,009 CVEs40,0092025: 48,185 CVEs48,185 2026 forecast: about 72,000 CVEs ≈72k forecast 91k model 2023202420252026*
CVEs published per year
YearCVEs
202328,818
202440,009
202548,185
2026, January to June35,364
2026 forecast (straight-line)71,314 to 72,008
2026 forecast (regression model)90,831
Source: Jerry Gamblin's CVE data reviews (2026: first half 35,364, then forecast): 2023–2024 ↗ 2025 ↗ 2026 mid-year and forecast ↗

Mac malware is growing too

Trojans and stealers target the Macs developers work on.

+67%
new macOS backdoor variants 2025 · Moonlock ↗
+17%
new macOS stealer variants 2025 · Moonlock ↗
54%
of Mac malware samples are trojans and infostealers Q3 2026 · 37,898 samples · Point Wild ↗
2.0 How

Attacks are chains. Hostwatch reads them as one story, not a thousand alerts.

An app starting a shell, a file in Downloads, a connection to a new server: each is normal alone. Together they're how a Mac gets compromised.

01A download
02Quarantine removed
03It runs
04Reads cookies, keychain
05Adds itself to startup
06 · DangerousCalls home

Stories

Related suspicious steps, joined and scored. Every step with its command, file or address, one click from the timeline.

A Dangerous story: xattr, CleanMyDisk, curl

Live HUD

A see-through overlay with the newest activity and first-seen behaviour. ⌃⌥⌘H from any app.

The Hostwatch HUD overlay

Learns your Mac

The first hour sets the baseline. Apple's processes and trusted developers are decided automatically.

Patterns, not events

The same program doing the same kind of thing is one decision. One-off commands stay out of the way.

Known threats

Daily public threat lists and exploited macOS flaws, matched on your Mac.

3.0 Who

Unknown connections wait for you. Everything else just works.

Turn on Ask and each program's new connection is checked first. Known ones pass, known-bad ones are blocked, anything new waits for Allow or Block. Built on macOS's own pf. Nothing is decrypted.

Ask, with context

Who's connecting, where, and on what port. Ask Claude right in the question.

Firewall question: node wants to connect to registry.npmjs.org

Every destination, one timeline

New domains, the programs that reached them, and what the firewall does there. Containers and VMs judged per destination.

Network tab with firewall status per destination

Watch, Ask, Strict

Start with Watch: it only shows what it would block.

Claude Code guard

Claude Code's commands are checked before they run. The dangerous are blocked, the risky need your OK.

Fails safe

The redirect goes away when the collector stops, crashes, or its web check fails.

4.0 What

What is this program doing? Watch it for a minute and find out.

Watch Closely records everything one process and its helpers do, using Endpoint Security, and puts the risky things first. Then Claude or Apple's on-device model explains it. AI suggests, you decide.

Watch Closely

A minute of everything one process does, in plain words, the risky things first. Then Claude or the on-device model explains it.

Watch Closely: what CleanMyDisk did in a minute

Running Now

Every process, root ones too, with CPU, memory and uptime. Jump to the moment it was spawned.

Running Now: every running process

Ask AI

About any event, domain or story: what it is, the risks, what to do. AI suggests, you decide.

Time Travel

Scrub back through recorded activity, CPU and memory, to any moment.

MCP server

Let Claude Code investigate your history: read-only, only with your permission.

5.0 Where

Your activity stays on your Mac. All of it.

Storage
History, patterns and stories live in your Library folder. Nothing is uploaded.
Secrets
Passwords and tokens are masked before they're recorded, and again before any AI.
Firewall
Reads only which server an app asks for. It never decrypts traffic.
AI
Only when you ask. Apple's on-device model keeps even that on the Mac.
6.0 How long

Two minutes to set up. macOS 26 or later.

01

Download

From Releases, then move it to Applications.

02

Allow it

Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. It isn't notarized.

03

Full Disk Access

A short setup window walks you through it.

04

Start watching

Your password once, to start the collector.

7.0 What next

Today, one Mac. Next, every Mac in a company. The Mac app stays free.

Now

Hostwatch for Mac

Everything on this page. Free for personal use, open source, all on your Mac.

Planned

Hostwatch Server

For companies: every Mac sends its events to one server you run. One timeline, stories and analytics across the whole fleet.

Planned

Hostwatch Cloud

The same server as a service (SaaS), run for you. Nothing to install or maintain.

Know what your Mac is doing.
Starting now.

Download for macOS Read the docs
macOS will say “Apple could not verify Hostwatch”. Here's how to open it

Why you see it. Hostwatch is free and open source, and it isn't notarized by Apple (that needs a paid Apple developer account). The message means Apple hasn't checked this app, not that anything was found in it.

  1. In the message, click Done (not Move to Trash).
  2. Open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security and scroll down to “Hostwatch” was blocked…
  3. Click Open Anyway, confirm with your password, then Open. You only do this once.

Want to be sure it's the real file first? Compare shasum -a 256 Hostwatch-*.zip with the .sha256 on the release page ↗. Or build it yourself from the source.

Free for personal use, always.
Made in Ukraine , between ballistic missile attacks.

Help Ukraine on United24 ↗