Cats Lock is a $2.99 Mac app that stops your cat from trashing your keyboard
If your cat has ever walked across your keyboard and sent a half-typed nonsense message to your entire team, Cats Lock is the $2.99 fix you didn't know existed. The macOS app, launched in May 2026 by indie developer Todd Alexander, locks the keyboard the moment your Mac goes to sleep — so your cat can sprawl across the keys without triggering a single keystroke. Alexander built it after his own cat repeatedly strolled across his laptop during work calls and fired off garbled messages into Slack.
What it does
Cats Lock blocks all keyboard input while the screen is off, and it also kills the key-click sounds so your Mac stays silent while the cat gets comfortable. When you need to use the machine again, unlocking takes a mouse click — no keyboard needed, so there's no accidental self-defeat.
The app goes further than simple blocking. It includes a deterrent mode with seven built-in sounds — a dog bark, a vacuum cleaner hum, a cat hiss, and more — designed to discourage a curious cat from settling down in the first place. You can also upload your own audio if none of the defaults work on your particular animal.
Privacy is a genuine selling point here. Cats Lock is fully sandboxed, requires no Accessibility permissions, collects no data, and has no cloud component. For an app that sits quietly in the background at all times, that matters.
The details
The app is a one-time purchase of $2.99 — no subscription, no upsell — and requires macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later on either Apple Silicon or Intel Macs. It's available now on the Mac App Store. The 9to5Mac Indie App Spotlight featured it at launch, and the Product Hunt launch sold out available slots within hours.
Windows users are out of luck for now. PawSense, an older Windows-only utility, has been the only comparable option for years, and there's still no macOS equivalent — until this one. If you're on a Mac and share your desk with a cat, $2.99 is a straightforward ask.
