Always show dock icon not working

[jakeleventhal]

Description

#121
#101

The above issues implemented this feature, but it doesn't seem to work.

Reproduction

Additional Context

• Cap version: 0.4.84
• Operating system, version: macOS 26.5 (25F71)
• Device (optional): MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2021

[linear]

CAP-711

[tembo]

Code context for this bug:

The "Always show dock icon" toggle (labeled as hideDockIcon internally) is handled in apps/desktop/src-tauri/src/permissions.rs:152-170. The key logic in sync_macos_dock_visibility is:

let should_hide_dock = GeneralSettingsStore::get(app)
    .ok()
    .flatten()
    .is_some_and(|settings| settings.hide_dock_icon);

let should_show_dock = !should_hide_dock
    || app.webview_windows().keys().any(|label| {
        CapWindowId::from_str(label)
            .map(|window_id| window_id.activates_dock())
            .unwrap_or(false)
    });

The setting is correctly read from the store, and the dock visibility is synced via app.set_dock_visibility(should_show_dock) and app.set_activation_policy().

A few observations:

1. Inverted naming in UI vs store: The UI shows "Always show dock icon" but the store field is hideDockIcon (inverted at general.tsx:418). This is correct but worth noting for debugging.

2. Window-dependent override: Even with hideDockIcon: false (show dock), if any window with activates_dock() is open (Main, Editor, Settings, etc. per windows.rs:826-837), the dock icon shows regardless.

3. Related issue cannot close the app, broken dock icon - size is 0/nearly invisible #1591: Previously reported dock icon visibility issues where the icon became nearly invisible/zero-sized. That was closed as resolved in April 2026.

Suggested investigation:

• Check if set_dock_visibility and set_activation_policy are actually being called (adding tracing logs would help)
• Verify the setting is persisted correctly in the store file
• The macOS version (26.5) is quite new - could be a Tauri/tao compatibility issue with the newer macOS APIs

The original implementation referenced in #101 was commit 5e74656c54dd9d51bf4bf9dc3a57fcdf59832bd4 by @Brendonovich.