Waterline Turns AI Agent Activity into a macOS Screen Saver

Summary

Waterline by Ascenda is a free macOS screen saver that visualizes work from Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor as rising water, with ripples for tool failures, context compactions, and ended sessions. It runs locally on Apple silicon Macs, requires no account, and is currently version 0.8.2. Separate collectors connect each supported agent to the screen saver; installation uses an npx command and requires Node.js 20 or newer. Waterline scales the water level to the user’s typical activity over seven days, while the optional early-access Ascenda Flow app tracks activity throughout the day and adds workload-based color. Without collectors, the saver shows still water and a clock rather than simulating activity. The screen saver does not keep the Mac awake, open network connections, send analytics, or perform update checks. Activity reaches it through a local Unix socket, and Flow shares its reading through a local file. The screen saver and installer are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Waterline is distributed as a signed binary under the MIT licence, while its separate agent hooks are open source under Apache 2.0; the screen saver’s source is not public. It supports Apple silicon Macs running the macOS versions described on the product page, and a system-wide installation in `/Library/Screen Savers` requires an administrator password.