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Saffsanity/sill

Shows any window or the whole desktop from your Mac on your iPhone or iPad, with touch, trackpad, keyboard and Apple Pencil control, no server needed.

Open-source alternative to:Apple Sidecar

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Last commit
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What is it?

Sill streams a single window or the entire desktop from a Mac to an iPhone or iPad. The Mac captures the window with ScreenCaptureKit, encodes it as HEVC video and sends it to the Sill app on the device, which decodes and displays it. Taps, clicks, scrolls, keyboard input and Apple Pencil input travel back to the Mac and are turned into mouse and keyboard events.

The connection runs over the local network, a USB cable, Direct Wireless Connection, or your own VPN such as Tailscale. Traffic is encrypted with TLS 1.3, and each device is paired once to its Mac. There is no account system and no relay server in between. The Mac app lives in the menu bar and captures nothing while no device is connected.

The iPhone layout places the picture above buttons, keys and a trackpad, and iPhone Duo support follows the hinge. Clipboard text can be shared in both directions, and the menus of the Mac app can be reached from the device. Sill for Mac is written in Swift, uses Apple frameworks only, and is licensed under Apache-2.0.

Key features

  • 01Streams one window or the whole Mac desktop to an iPhone or iPad.
  • 02Supports touch, trackpad, keyboard and Apple Pencil as input.
  • 03Encodes video with HEVC on the Mac's hardware encoder.
  • 04Connects over Wi-Fi, USB cable, peer-to-peer Wi-Fi or a personal VPN.
  • 05Encrypts traffic with TLS 1.3 and pins paired devices by key.
  • 06Shares text clipboard in both directions.

Use cases

  • Using a Mac app from an iPad while away from the desk.
  • Controlling a Mac window from a phone over Tailscale when away from home.
  • Using Apple Pencil on a Mac app that has no touch support.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Download Sill for Mac from getsill.app

  2. 2

    Or install Sill for Mac with Homebrew

    brew install --cask saffsanity/sill/sill
  3. 3

    Install Sill for iPhone and iPad from the App Store

  4. 4

    To build Sill for Mac from source, run the make-app script from the repository folder

    Scripts/make-app.sh --install --open

Things to know

  • Sill for Mac requires a Mac with Apple silicon running macOS 14 or later.
  • Sill needs a companion app on an iPhone or iPad running iOS 17 or later.
  • Your Mac must stay awake with Sill open, and sound from the Mac is not streamed.
  • The optional virtual display uses a private macOS API, which is why Sill for Mac is not on the Mac App Store.

In collections

Open-source Mac apps

Topics

#remote-desktop#screen-sharing#macos#ios#swift#videotoolbox#apple-pencil#hevc#ipad#ipados

FAQ

What is sill?
Shows any window or the whole desktop from your Mac on your iPhone or iPad, with touch, trackpad, keyboard and Apple Pencil control, no server needed. Sill streams a single window or the entire desktop from a Mac to an iPhone or iPad. The Mac captures the window with ScreenCaptureKit, encodes it as HEVC video and sends it to the Sill app on the device, which decodes and displays it. Taps, clicks, scrolls, keyboard input and Apple Pencil input travel back to the Mac and are turned into mouse and keyboard events.
Is sill free to use? What license does it have?
sill is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is sill still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to sill was on Oct 20, 2026.
What can I use sill for?
Using a Mac app from an iPad while away from the desk. Controlling a Mac window from a phone over Tailscale when away from home. Using Apple Pencil on a Mac app that has no touch support.
How do I install sill?
Download Sill for Mac from getsill.app Or install Sill for Mac with Homebrew: brew install --cask saffsanity/sill/sill Install Sill for iPhone and iPad from the App Store To build Sill for Mac from source, run the make-app script from the repository folder: Scripts/make-app.sh --install --open
Where can I get sill?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/Saffsanity/sill

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