Lock the Dock: Preventing Applications from Adding Themselves to My Dock

All applications, or just some? I wonder if you have the "Show recent applications in the Dock" preference turned on...even if you had an application toggled to "Keep in Dock", toggling that off or dragging from the Dock should unset that.

You can lock the Dock so it's contents can't be modified using the Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Dock contents-immutable -bool true; killall Dock

But that seems like overkill, since if you ever did want to add or remove something, you'd have to reverse that.

AG Bell wrote:

MacOS Sequoia

I have my most frequently used applications on my dock where I want them. However, there are a number of applications I also use occasionally which I do not want on my dock. Each of them wants to be added to the dock when I open them. When I quit the app, they remain unless I go into the menu to remove them. I would prefer they leave the dock when I close the application.

Is there a way to lock the application doc so that it will not allow applications to add themselves?

Seems odd.

typically periodic app will show on the right side of the Dock (before the divider) and remove them selves when Quit.

Note: Command Q quits the app not the red pill button to close the window.

You can Control click that Dock icon and there are some options there— but does not seem relevant...