System Requirements

• macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later
• Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) or Intel Mac
• Administrator privileges for System Extension approval

What Gets Installed

• Alpaca.app in /Applications
• System Extension for DNS filtering (embedded in app)
• Background services for blocklist updates
• Application Support folder in /Library

How It Works

Alpaca uses Apple's Network Extension framework to intercept all DNS queries from your Mac. It filters queries against a local blocklist of 3.8M+ domains across 28 categories, including:

• Ads & Trackers - Block advertising and tracking domains
• Malware & Phishing - Protection from malicious domains
• Threat Intelligence - Known threat actor infrastructure

Privacy

Alpaca performs all filtering locally on your Mac. DNS queries are forwarded directly to your system's configured DNS servers. No data is collected, stored, or transmitted to external services.

Blocklist Updates

The blocklist is updated automatically every 6 hours from a secure CDN. Updates are verified with SHA256 checksums before installation.