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Getting started

Liquid Radius requires macOS Tahoe 26.0 or later, and a one-time setup that prepares macOS to load the corner-radius tweak. The whole setup takes about five minutes. Apple Silicon Macs (M-series) and Intel Macs follow slightly different steps because Apple Silicon has an extra boot-policy layer that Intel Macs don't.

Before you start

You will need:

• An admin account on your Mac.
• FileVault disabled (Apple Silicon only). FileVault must be off before you can change the boot policy. If it's on, disable it in System Settings Privacy & Security FileVault Turn Off and wait for it to finish (a few minutes on most Macs).
• About 5 minutes.

Setup on Apple Silicon (M-series)

This applies to every Mac with an M-series chip (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, Mac Pro from late 2020 onward). Follow each step in order.

1. Disable FileVault if it's on. System Settings Privacy & Security FileVault Turn Off. Wait for the disk to finish decrypting.
2. Boot into Recovery Mode (also called "1TR", short for One True Recovery). Choose Apple menu Shut Down. Wait until the Mac is fully off, then press and hold the power button until you see "Loading startup options". Click Options, click Continue, and sign in with an admin account when prompted.
3. From the menu bar, choose Utilities Terminal.
4. Run these three commands in this exact order. The first will prompt for your admin username and password. The other two share the same authentication.

   bputil -nkca
   csrutil authenticated-root disable
   csrutil disable

   bputil -nkca downgrades the boot policy to Permissive Security and tells iBoot to stop filtering the kernel's boot-args. csrutil authenticated-root disable lifts the read-only seal on the system volume. csrutil disable turns off System Integrity Protection.

   Order matters. bputil must come first because the -n flag rewrites the boot policy and resets some SIP bits in the process. Running csrutil disable last ensures every SIP bit ends up off. Partial configurations break the install silently because the injection runtime needs task_for_pid access that the half-set state doesn't grant.

5. Restart by choosing Apple menu Restart. Boot back into normal macOS and sign in as usual.
6. Open Terminal in macOS (Applications Utilities Terminal) and run:

   sudo nvram 40A0DDD2-77F8-4392-B4A3-1E7304206516:boot-args="-amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1"

   Enter your admin password when prompted. The long GUID prefix tells nvram to write to the system NVRAM partition rather than the common one. Without it you'll get Error setting variable - 'boot-args': (iokit/common) not permitted, even with everything else set up correctly.

7. Restart one more time for the AMFI flag to take effect:

   sudo reboot

After the second restart, open Terminal and run nvram boot-args. The output should include amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1. You can also run csrutil status, which will show System Integrity Protection status: disabled. or a Custom Configuration line. Both are fine.

Setup on Intel Macs

This applies to the four Intel Macs that support Tahoe: 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro (4-port), 2020 iMac, 2019 Mac Pro. Intel Macs don't have the boot-policy layer, so the flow is shorter.

1. Boot into Recovery Mode. Choose Apple menu Restart and hold ⌘R until you see the Apple logo.
2. From the menu bar, choose Utilities Terminal.
3. Run:

   csrutil disable

4. Restart back into normal macOS.
5. Open Terminal and run:

   sudo nvram boot-args="-amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1"

6. Restart one more time.

After the second restart, run nvram boot-args in Terminal. The output should include amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1.

3. Install Liquid Radius

1. Download the latest version from your purchase email or from What's New.
2. Open the .dmg file and drag Liquid Radius to your Applications folder.
3. Open Liquid Radius from Applications. macOS will show a warning that it can't verify the developer; this is expected. To allow the app to run:
   • Click Done on the warning dialog.
   • Open System Settings Privacy & Security.
   • Scroll to the bottom. You'll see "Liquid Radius was blocked to protect your Mac." Click Open Anyway.
   • Confirm with your admin password and click Open on the second dialog.
   You only need to do this on first launch. Liquid Radius will open normally from then on.
4. Activate your license. Paste the license key from your purchase email when asked.
5. Click the toggle to apply Liquid Radius. Enter your admin password when prompted. The setup runs in about ten seconds and relaunches your open apps automatically.

Once setup finishes, every window respects the same corner radius. You can now drag the slider to choose your radius. The default of 26 points matches Apple's flagship Liquid Glass apps such as Photos, Finder, and Mail.

Security

Liquid Radius asks you to relax two of macOS' code-integrity protections. They're a deliberate trade-off, because Apple doesn't expose the corner-radius drawing code through any public API, so any third-party app that adjusts it has to work below that line. This section explains what each setting does, what the realistic risks are, and how Liquid Radius limits them.

What disabling SIP changes

System Integrity Protection (SIP) is a layer of defense-in-depth that prevents even administrators from modifying certain protected system locations. With SIP off, those locations become writable.

What this means in practice:

• Other software you install (including software you didn't intend to install) could potentially modify protected system files that would normally be blocked.
• SIP doesn't replace anti-malware protection. Gatekeeper, XProtect, and notarisation all still work, and macOS still requires admin authorisation for privileged operations. SIP is one layer in a stack of several.
• You can re-enable SIP at any time. See Re-enable System Integrity Protection.

What the AMFI bypass changes

Apple Mobile File Integrity (AMFI) is the kernel check that decides whether a piece of code is allowed to run inside a hardened app. With the AMFI bypass set, dyld accepts dynamically-loaded code that hasn't been Apple-notarised, including the Liquid Radius corner-radius dylib.

What this means in practice:

• Hardened-runtime apps can load unsigned dynamic libraries. In a realistic threat model, an attacker would need to already have execution on your Mac to take advantage of this. It doesn't expand your network attack surface.
• Like SIP, this is one layer of defense among many. Gatekeeper, XProtect, the sandbox, and standard file permissions all still apply.
• You can remove the AMFI flag from your boot arguments at any time. See Remove the AMFI bypass.

About code injection

Liquid Radius works by injecting a small dylib into running apps to swap out the corner-radius drawing code. The same technique is used by long-established Mac tweaks for window management and customisation. The realistic risk isn't malicious behaviour. It's that a bug in Liquid Radius could cause specific apps to crash or behave oddly.

The Recover from Recovery Mode handles exactly this case. One nvram command disables every injection path on next boot, regardless of the state your Mac is in. See Recover from Recovery Mode for the procedure.

How Liquid Radius limits its blast radius

• Narrow scope. The injected dylib only modifies window-rendering code. It doesn't touch your files, accounts, photos, network connections, or any other app data.
• No telemetry. Liquid Radius runs entirely on your Mac. No usage tracking, no analytics, no crash uploads.
• Always disablable. The Recover from Recovery Mode is read by your Mac's firmware before any OS code runs, so it works even when nothing else does.
• 14-day refund. Every Liquid Radius licence comes with a 14-day refund, no questions asked. If you change your mind for any reason, email [email protected].

If these trade-offs don't suit your Mac

Liquid Radius isn't the right tool for everyone. If you don't want to disable SIP or set the AMFI flag, or if your Mac is governed by an MDM profile that doesn't allow it, Liquid Radius can't run. macOS Tahoe doesn't expose corner-radius customisation through public APIs, so this isn't something Liquid Radius can work around.

Using Liquid Radius

Set your radius

Drag the slider in the main window to your preferred corner radius. Changes apply across every running app instantly, with no logout and no relaunch.

The default 26pt matches Tahoe's Liquid Glass apps. Lower values look closer to legacy macOS; higher values lean toward iPad-style softness. Try a few and pick what feels right on your screen.

Toggle on or off

The main switch in Liquid Radius turns the tweak on or off without uninstalling anything.

• Toggle on. All open apps relaunch with the corner radius applied. Takes a few seconds.
• Toggle off. Newly opened apps look stock again immediately. Apps that were already running keep their current appearance until you relaunch them. The injection mechanism stays loaded in memory but does nothing. To clear it from every process, restart your Mac.

Advanced tweaks

The Advanced section in Liquid Radius offers three optional tweaks that match Apple's flagship Liquid Glass apps. Each can be turned on or off independently.

• Indent traffic lights. Moves the close, minimise, and zoom buttons inward to match Photos, Finder, and Mail.
• Taller title bar. Increases the title bar height to match Apple's flagship apps.
• Centred title. Centres the window title and toolbar items.

Toggling any of these prompts to relaunch your open apps so the change takes effect everywhere. Save your work first.

The advanced tweaks are best-effort, not guaranteed. Many third-party apps draw their own custom toolbars or window chrome and will ignore one or more of these settings. Apple's flagship apps like Photos, Finder, and Mail respect all three; popular third-party apps with custom layouts (chat apps, code editors, creative tools) may keep their own title bar, toolbar position, or traffic light placement regardless of what's toggled here. The corner radius itself works on every supported app. The Compatibility page notes which apps support which advanced tweaks.

Updates

Liquid Radius checks for updates automatically a few seconds after launch, using Sparkle. A public changelog of every release is available at liquidradius.com/whats-new.

When an update is ready, Liquid Radius shows a small dialog summarising what's new. Click Install Update. If the update changes the underlying tweak, you're asked for your admin password once. Only the corner-radius part is replaced; the underlying mechanism stays in place, so no reboot is needed.

You don't need to re-disable SIP or re-set the AMFI bypass after an update. Those system settings persist.

To check for updates manually, choose Liquid Radius Check for Updates… from the menu bar.

Troubleshooting

Most issues are caught before install. Liquid Radius checks SIP and the AMFI flag and shows a clear message if either is missing. The cases below cover what to do when problems appear after install.

An app crashes when I open it

Hardened-runtime apps such as Discord, Slack, Mail, and Notes need the AMFI bypass to be set correctly. If one of these apps crashes immediately after launch, it's almost always a missing or mistyped boot argument.

Open Terminal and run nvram boot-args. The output should include amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1 on its own or alongside other flags. If it doesn't, follow the steps in Setup on Apple Silicon (or Setup on Intel Macs) again, paying close attention to the leading hyphen.

If the boot argument is set correctly and the app still crashes, see Recover from Recovery Mode.

My Mac hangs at the login screen or the desktop never finishes loading

This is rare but recoverable. Boot into Recovery Mode and use the NVRAM disable flag described in Recover from Recovery Mode. Your Mac will boot in fully stock state on the next restart, with Liquid Radius silently skipped.

Once your Mac is booting normally again, you can either re-enable Liquid Radius or uninstall it from inside the app.

A particular app stays stock

A small number of apps don't respond to corner-radius adjustments, usually because they draw their own window chrome rather than using AppKit's standard windowing. The current list is on the Compatibility page. If an app you use isn't covered, email [email protected] and we'll investigate.

The Dock stays in its stock appearance by design. Its anti-tamper code aborts when it detects any third-party injection. This is a hard macOS limit, not a Liquid Radius limitation.

An update broke something

If a Liquid Radius update causes apps to crash or your Mac to misbehave, the fastest recovery is the NVRAM flag in Recover from Recovery Mode. After your Mac is stable, you can uninstall Liquid Radius from inside the app and reinstall an earlier version, or wait for a fix and email [email protected] with details of what you saw.

Recover from Recovery Mode

If Liquid Radius ever stops your Mac from booting normally, or you want to disable it without first reaching the desktop, you can suspend every injection path with a single Terminal command from Recovery Mode. Your Mac boots in fully stock state on the next restart.

How to do it

1. Boot into Recovery Mode.
   • Apple silicon: Press and hold the power button until you see "Loading startup options", then click Options Continue.
   • Intel: Hold ⌘R while your Mac restarts.
2. Sign in with an admin account if asked.
3. From the menu bar, choose Utilities Terminal.
4. Run:

   nvram com.liquidradius:disabled=1

5. Choose Apple menu Restart.

On the next boot, Liquid Radius reads the NVRAM flag and skips every injection step. Apps return to their stock appearance, every macOS security check passes, and your SIP, AMFI, and FileVault settings are unchanged.

How it works

The flag lives in NVRAM, the small chunk of non-volatile memory on your Mac's logic board where macOS itself stores boot arguments, brightness defaults, and your boot disk choice. NVRAM is read by the firmware before any OS code runs, so this fail-safe still works when normal recovery paths can't.

Both Liquid Radius injection paths (the boot-time daemon and the per-user agent) check this flag before doing anything. One nvram command disables them both.

To re-enable Liquid Radius

From any administrator Terminal, in macOS or Recovery Mode, run:

sudo nvram -d com.liquidradius:disabled

Restart your Mac. Liquid Radius runs normally again.

Uninstall

Liquid Radius is fully removable. Uninstalling restores every window to its stock appearance and removes every file Liquid Radius placed on your Mac.

1. Uninstall from inside Liquid Radius

1. Open Liquid Radius.
2. Click the info icon (i) in the top-right corner to open the About sheet.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Uninstall.
4. Enter your admin password when prompted.

Liquid Radius removes everything it added: the dylib, the helper script, the per-user LaunchAgents, and the system-level component. You'll see one of two outcomes:

• Immediate: everything is removed in the live session. You can quit Liquid Radius normally.
• Restart required: the system-level component is currently active. Liquid Radius schedules a clean removal for the next boot. Choose Restart Now or restart later. Until you restart, Liquid Radius is no longer applied to newly-launched apps, and the system is safe to keep using.

2. Re-enable System Integrity Protection (optional)

Once Liquid Radius is uninstalled, you can return your Mac to its stock security posture by re-enabling SIP.

1. Boot into Recovery Mode (same steps as in Setup on Apple Silicon or Setup on Intel Macs).
2. From the menu bar, choose Utilities Terminal.
3. Run:

   csrutil enable

4. Restart your Mac.

3. Remove the AMFI bypass (optional)

If you also want to remove the AMFI flag from your boot arguments, run from any administrator Terminal:

sudo nvram -d boot-args

Or, to keep other flags but remove only the AMFI flag, edit the value with sudo nvram boot-args="..." using only the flags you want to keep.

Restart your Mac. Your security settings are now identical to a fresh macOS Tahoe install.

Compatibility

Liquid Radius works with most Mac apps. The full list (including the small number of apps that don't support every advanced tweak) is on the Compatibility page.

What stays stock

A few system surfaces are intentionally left alone:

• The Dock. Anti-tamper code aborts if any third-party injection is present, so Liquid Radius doesn't try.
• Brightness, volume, and other transient HUDs. These are drawn by short-lived processes that come and go too quickly to inject reliably.
• Some apps with custom window rendering. For example, certain video editors and creative tools that draw their own chrome. These are noted on the Compatibility page.

Why a Mac restart is needed to fully turn it off

When you turn Liquid Radius off, newly-opened apps look stock immediately. Apps that were already running keep their current appearance until they relaunch. The injection mechanism stays loaded in their memory but does nothing. A restart clears the mechanism from every process. This is a deliberate choice: the alternative would force every app to relaunch instantly, which would be unsafe if you have unsaved work.

macOS versions

Liquid Radius requires macOS Tahoe 26.0 or later. It runs on every Mac that supports Tahoe, including the Apple silicon lineup and the four supported Intel models. See System requirements for the list.

Privacy

Liquid Radius runs entirely on your Mac. The full Privacy Policy covers what we do and don't collect; the short version is below.

• No telemetry. Liquid Radius doesn't track usage, send analytics, or upload crash reports.
• No accounts. Your license is a single string. There's no profile, no cloud sync, no sign-in.
• License activation contacts Lemon Squeezy once when you enter your license key, and weekly thereafter to confirm the key is still valid. The request contains your license key and your Mac's name, which Lemon Squeezy uses to track which Macs the licence is active on.
• Updates contact liquidradius.com to fetch the appcast and update package. Standard HTTP request data may be logged by our hosting provider (Cloudflare); we don't use it for tracking.
• Local files stay on your Mac. These include preferences in UserDefaults, the dylib in ~/Library/Application Support/Liquid Radius/, and a small set of marker files in /tmp. All of it is removed on uninstall.

Refunds

Every Liquid Radius licence comes with a 14-day refund through our payment processor, Lemon Squeezy. If the app doesn't work for you, or you change your mind, email [email protected] with your order number and we'll process it.

When a refund is issued, the licence key is deactivated automatically. Liquid Radius re-checks every key periodically against Lemon Squeezy, so the app reverts to its unlicensed state on next launch and the key no longer activates Liquid Radius on any Mac.

Full terms are on the Terms of use page.

Get help

If you have lost your licence key, email [email protected] from the address used at purchase, and we will resend it.

For anything else, email [email protected]. Please include:

• Your macOS version (Apple menu About This Mac).
• Your Mac model.
• The Liquid Radius version (visible in the About sheet inside the app, or on the Changelog).
• A short description of what you're seeing.
• If relevant, what was running or being installed when the issue started.

We typically reply within one business day.