See your old wallpaper in a new light.

Daydreaming uses AI to match your picture to the time and local weather, then sets it as your Mac wallpaper.

Yosemite Valley example — Yosemite Valley and Golden Gate Bridge wallpapers on two Macs, controlled together.

Yosemite Valley and Golden Gate Bridge wallpapers on two Macs, controlled together.

Three steps.

Start with a photo, a piece of art, or the wallpaper you already love.

Pick a picture

Choose a picture of your own, or start with the built-in Yosemite Valley. Daydreaming keeps the scene and changes the atmosphere.
Create with AI

Add your OpenAI API key to set up automatic wallpapers. Later, you can prepare a picture and prompt for a one-off creation in Codex.
Start Daydreaming

Use local weather or choose your own, then pick how often your wallpaper changes.

Or write your own.

Keep the bridge, then change the world around it. A few words in the prompt can take the same picture somewhere entirely new.

Golden Gate Bridge above clouds, with floating koi and flower-covered islands, AI-edited example

Sky garden

Turn the bay into a sky garden. Keep the bridge. Let koi swim through clouds, with giant water lilies and floating islands.

Golden Gate Bridge over a glowing blue bay with whales beneath the surface, AI-edited example

Luminous bay

Make the bay bioluminescent after dark. Keep the bridge. Let enormous whales swim beneath the surface, leaving trails of blue light.

Golden Gate Bridge and bay made from layered colored paper, AI-edited example

Cut-paper world

Make this a hand-cut paper diorama. Keep the bridge’s shape, and build the hills, water, and clouds from colored paper.

Golden Gate Bridge crossing golden desert dunes beside a turquoise river, AI-edited example

Desert crossing

Replace the bay with golden dunes and a winding turquoise river. Keep the bridge, with sunset light and sand drifting through the air.

Photos, art, abstracts

One wallpaper. Two moods.

Daydreaming works with more than photos. Start with an abstract wallpaper or a piece of art, then describe how it should feel in Light and Dark Mode. When macOS switches appearance, your active wallpaper follows.

Abstract flowing ribbons in warm ivory, coral, and soft blue — Light Mode

The same flowing ribbons in midnight indigo, cobalt, and copper — Dark Mode

Meet the dreamer.

I'm Freek, a developer and partner at Spatie. I build tools for developers, write about what I learn, and make personal projects for the Mac and the web.

Daydreaming is one of them. It keeps the wallpaper you chose and lets the light and weather around it change through the day.

Daydreaming is free and postcardware. A postcard is entirely optional. Here is where to send one.

Freek Van der Herten

Developer and partner at Spatie

More things I've made

MailcoachEmail marketing
FlareError tracking for PHP
There ThereHelpdesk software
Oh DearWebsite monitoring
BloomA Mac app for coding agents
WordStocktMultiplayer word game

Questions?

What do I need to use Daydreaming?

A Mac running macOS 26 or later, a picture you want to use, and an OpenAI API key with API billing set up. OpenAI powers automatic wallpapers; the Codex handoff is an extra option after setup. Download Daydreaming to get started.

Which AIs can I use?

OpenAI creates wallpapers automatically, including scheduled updates, using your own API key. You can also choose Create in Codex for a one-off idea. Daydreaming saves your picture and instructions in a local folder and opens a prepared chat in the Codex desktop app. You review and send that chat yourself. Scheduled updates still use OpenAI.

Can I suggest a feature?

Yes. In Daydreaming, choose Help > Submit a Prompt and tell us what you would like the app to do. Only the text you enter, your app version and build, and any optional credit name or reply email are sent. Your current wallpaper idea, pictures, logs and API key are not attached.

What does it cost?

Daydreaming is free. Every schedule is available, and you can create a wallpaper anytime.

Use your own OpenAI API key. OpenAI bills your account directly for each new wallpaper. Usage is billed separately from ChatGPT subscriptions. Picture quality, model, and picture size affect cost. See OpenAI’s API pricing.

Choose a schedule from 5 minutes to 24 hours, including custom intervals. Set a daily safety limit from 1 to 288; new installs start at 24. A 5-minute schedule can request up to 288 new wallpapers a day. The limit counts submitted requests, including attempts that may have been billed even if they fail. Turning on automatic updates checks immediately and can create a new wallpaper.

Will every update cost me?

With reuse enabled, Daydreaming can apply a saved wallpaper when your picture, time slot, weather, style, instructions, and settings match. That means no new OpenAI charge. Changing instructions or connected text can mean a new picture is needed. You can create a fresh wallpaper anytime, within your daily limit.

Does the app need to stay open?

Daydreaming needs to be running for automatic updates, and checks the schedule while your Mac is awake. It lives in the menu bar, with no Dock icon. Launch at login is optional. You can also hide the menu bar icon and reopen the window by opening the app again.

Can I use it without sharing my location?

Yes. Choose a fixed weather condition in Customize. Automatic weather requires location permission and sends coordinates rounded to two decimal places to MET Norway. The forecast is cached between checks.

Can I give it my own direction?

Yes. Pick Natural, Subtle, Watercolor, or Cinematic in Customize, and write your own instructions in the main window’s prompt. Time and weather are included automatically. Mention a public HTTPS page or drop a text, Markdown, HTML, or JSON file into the prompt. Daydreaming reads its text before each new wallpaper, with up to three sources. Typed file paths ask for permission first; website scripts are not run.

Where does my picture go?

Your original and saved wallpapers stay in your Mac’s Application Support folder. For an automatic wallpaper, a JPEG copy, at most 2,560 pixels on its longest edge, goes directly to OpenAI with your style, instructions, time, weather, and any connected text. Create in Codex saves a copy and your instructions in a local folder; you decide whether to send the prepared chat. Use Original as Wallpaper returns to your picture. You can clear saved wallpapers in Settings. Both pause automatic updates; clearing keeps your original.