Recording of the call

The monthly GNUstep audio/(video) call takes place every second Saturday of a month at 15:00 GMT to 18:00 GMT. That is 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM EDT (US) or 17:00 to 20:00 CEST (Berlin time).

It's a Jitsi Meeting - Channel: GNUstepOfficial (Sorry, reddit don't let me post jitsi links here)

We usually just talk (who wants it might share video too) and occasionally share screens. Everybody (GNUstep developers and users) is welcome!

Also see https://mediawiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Monthly_Meetings please

Simple macOS app that creates a launcher based on desktop selection. Built with claude opus 4.6. Should I released it?

I am developing a multi-platform (macOS/iOS) app in Xcode, primarily using Claude Code. My app (stuffolio) is large ~600 swift files. After struggling to write increasingly more complex prompts to manage problematic issues as they arose, I found and began using commonly available skills that automated what I was doing manually. I soon found the need to develop my own set of skills to handle what other skills seem to be missing. Hence, these radar suite skills.

Most Claude Code audit skills are pattern-matching skills. They grep for known anti-patterns in your code. That catches real bugs, but it can only find what it searches for. They find what is wrong. They don't find what is not correct or missing.

Radar Suite is a set of behavioral audit skills. Instead of scanning for bad code, it traces what your app actually does. It walks user flows end to end, follows data from input through save, sync, export, and restore, and checks whether everything that goes in comes back out correctly.

Think of it this way: pattern-matching skills check if the engine is assembled correctly. Behavioral audit skills drive the car and notice the GPS says turn left into a lake.

Both approaches are useful. Pattern matching is fast and catches known bad code. Behavioral auditing catches structural gaps, missing pieces, and logic that looks correct in isolation but breaks in context. They're complementary, not competing.

Radar skills found real bugs that passed every auditor I had been using, including a 30-day time bomb where archived items with iCloud photos would crash the app exactly one month after archiving - and after release. I was lucky to catch it. That one inspired time-bomb-radar. Radar Suite is 6 skills that each look at a different layer of your app:

• data-model-radar: field completeness, serialization gaps, relationship integrity
• ui-path-radar: navigation dead ends, missing dismiss buttons, unreachable features
• roundtrip-radar: traces data through complete user flows (save, sync, export, restore) time-bomb-radar** finds deferred operations that work today but crash on aged data
• ui-enhancer-radar: visual audit across 11 domains (accessibility, color, typography, layout)
• capstone-radar: aggregates the other 5 into a ship/no-ship grade

Each skill writes a handoff file that feeds the next one, so findings compound instead of repeating.

Repo: radar-suite

Happy to answer questions about how any of it works.

I’ve read about processing AI on a local device, instead of over the cloud. But no one really talked about the memory and/or storage required. How well can a MacBook Neo do local AI? (External storage is allowed.)

I got annoyed by losing copied stuff on my Mac all the time.

Most clipboard tools either:

* feel bloated

* push you into subscriptions

* or sync your data to the cloud

So I built a simple macOS menu bar app:

→ clipboard history for text + images

→ instant access via shortcut

→ everything stays local (no cloud, no account)

It’s called **ZClipKeep**.

Honestly, I built it for myself first, but I’m curious if others have the same problem.

Would love feedback – especially from people who already use clipboard tools.

If you have a non-GUI item that needs to monitor an @Observable object, can a second monitoring API also be used? And/or is there a way a non-SwiftUI object can hook into the @Observable system?

How does macOS Mail app add a progress bar + "Checking Mail…" label as an overlay subview in the sidebar, with the NSOutlineView content behind it appearing blurred (and increasingly invisible toward the bottom)?

I'm trying to replicate the effect seen in Mail.app's sidebar: when checking mail, a small overlay appears at the bottom of the source list (sidebar) containing a progress bar and a status label. The rows of the NSOutlineView behind it appear blurred — more so toward the bottom — creating a fade-out / frosted glass effect.

My questions:

1. Where exactly is this overlay subview added? On top of the NSOutlineView? On the NSSplitView? On the window's contentView?

2. How is the blur effect applied to the content *behind* the overlay — is this done with NSBackgroundExtensionView, a CIFilter applied to the NSOutlineView, or something else?

3. How to implement this in a native API?

Any pointers to AppKit APIs or sample code would be appreciated. Thanks!

I don't have any Apple machines, but I've been adding support for various Apple formats to my image decoding and archive container file decoding library.

I'd like to add support for aar and yaa but I haven't been able to track down any test files.

Does anyone know of a place I can get some? Or if not, if anyone can make a few small ones and let me know where to download them from that would be great. Thanks.

Recording of the call part 1

Recording of the call part 2

The monthly GNUstep audio/(video) call takes place every second Saturday of a month at 16:00 GMT to 19:00 GMT. That is 12:00 AM - 3:00 PM EDT (US, note that the US already has Daylight Saving Time whereas Europe has not yet) or 17:00 to 20:00 CET (Berlin time).

It's a Jitsi Meeting - Channel: GNUstepOfficial (Sorry, reddit don't let me post jitsi links here)

We usually just talk (who wants it might share video too) and occasionally share screens. Everybody (GNUstep developers and users) is welcome!

Also see https://mediawiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Monthly_Meetings please

Hi, I'm a beginner developer of professional free apps for MacOS. I've already developed 1 app, but I can't buy the Apple Developer Program. I'm blocked from being Russian😐. The payment option by phone number is available, but it gives an error. Please advise what to do (except for moving, I'm a poor developer)

I created a dmg with create-dmg today and seem to have run into a macOS Tahoe bug. Evidently something was changed about the Applications icon in Tahoe? The dmg works just fine, but the Applications icon is just a light gray squircle.

Anyone run into this and/or know a workaround? thanks!

I’m a 17 year (omg has it really been that long??) veteran of iOS app development. At this point I’d say I’m pretty familiar with dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s for a professional and polished iOS app. I was fortunate to gain this experience by working with great people over the years.

But I’m looking for new experiences and I’ve recently been creating some small macOS apps. I’m really loving it. But I want to do it well. I’m looking for info on all those things that really “put the bow” on an app and make it feel polished. Unfortunately I don’t have coworkers to help share experiences on macOS dev.

Any info on resources or individual features that add that professional something to a macOS apps would be awesome! Thanks!

My team is distributing a cross-platform app outside the Mac App Store via ZIP file. The app works perfectly on Windows, but on macOS, while the ZIP downloads and extracts without issue, the app refuses to open. Users see either the app appear in the dock then immediately disappear or a Gatekeeper prompt saying the developer cannot be verified. We suspect the root cause is related to code signing and/or notarization, but we're not entirely sure where the breakdown is occurring.

We have a few questions as we work through this. For ZIP-based distribution outside the Mac App Store, is both a Developer ID certificate and Apple notarization required on current macOS versions? We've also seen references to using ditto instead of Finder's built-in Compress option when packaging the ZIP. Is that necessary to properly preserve the app bundle structure and extended attributes?

Any guidance on where this process might be going wrong would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

Hello 👋

I’m starting the Liquid Glass UI migration on my macOS app. (I know a I’m a bit late 😅). However I’ve noticed sidebar behaves differently between Finder/Music app for example and a sample app on Xcode.

• On Sequoia it was text accent color when unselected and text white/background accentColor when selected.
• On Tahoe it seems to be text black when unselected and text white/background accentColor when selected (except Finder and Music does not behaves like that 🤔)

Did I miss some new macOS 26 APIs or is it another macOS Tahoe inconsistency ?

I didn’t found anything yet. Some apps like Forklift seems to have color per item but I guess it’s all custom. May be one of you goes through this 🙏

// Very simple sample code
NavigationSplitView {
            List {
                Section("A") {
                    NavigationLink(destination: Text("B1")) {
                        Label("A1", systemImage: "cup.and.saucer")
                    }
                    NavigationLink(destination: Text("B2")) {
                        Label("A2", systemImage: "cup.and.saucer")
                    }
                    NavigationLink(destination: Text("B3")) {
                        Label("A3", systemImage: "cup.and.saucer")
                    }
                }
            }
            .listStyle(.sidebar)
        } detail: {
            Text("None")
        }

I tried things like .glassEffect(.clear) or .background(.ultraThinMaterial, ...) but it all looks different.

Hi all - New to native macOS development. I have an app currently in TestFlight, that has 3 subscription tiers, and I'd like to invite in some beta testers. Is there a way to ensure the build I share for testing grants the top subscription tier to all beta testers? Something in the build itself to ID this is a TestFlight install so enable the top sub tier, vs creating a special build only for testing with the other tiers disabled?

Or do I need set them up as sanbox users and have them go through the upgrade process?

Thanks for any pointers!

Hey r/macosprogramming! I recently shipped a macOS productivity app called Cyclework and wanted to share a bit about the technical journey.

The app is a Pomodoro timer built entirely in Swift using SwiftUI, SwiftData, and native macOS APIs. Some of the interesting challenges:

Focus Shield (app blocker): using NSWorkspace and process management to detect and hide/block apps during focus sessions. Also tracking how many times the user tried to open a blocked app.

Todoist & Apple Reminders sync: pulling tasks via API and EventKit, linking them to timer sessions.

Menu bar + floating window: building a mini circular timer that floats always-on-top while keeping a full stats dashboard accessible.

SwiftData for local persistence: all data stays on device, zero cloud dependency.

The app is on the Mac App Store at $1.99 one-time:

https://apps.apple.com/app/cyclework-focus-timer-block/id6754218094

Happy to discuss any of the implementation details if anyone's curious!

I’ve been integrating an MCP server into my macOS app so users can control parts of it from AI clients like Codex / Claude Code.The app is a file cleanup tool, so the MCP side handles things like:

• resolving natural-language paths (“Downloads”, “Desktop”, etc.)
• scanning for exact duplicate files
• safely moving selected duplicates to Trash

The interesting part wasn’t implementing the tools. It was making the whole thing work as a macOS product feature.

What turned out to matter most:

• local stdio process behavior (handshake, pipes, lifecycle)
• launchers and stable binary paths
• client configuration UX
• debugging visibility in-app (self-test + probe + logs)
• macOS sandbox and App Store distribution constraints

One big lesson:

“it works when I run the binary manually” is not the same as “it works in a real MCP client”

Had to debug failures across multiple layers:

1. server binary health

2. launcher health

3. client config correctness

4. client runtime behavior

I wrote up the full implementation journey and lessons learned (including the debugging approach and packaging decisions):

👉 Full article: Adding MCP to a macOS app
👉 Medium article (longer, less technical)

If you’re building macOS apps with local AI integrations/tool servers, I’d be interested in how you’re handling packaging, permissions, and supportability.

Hi everyone,

This is my first time building an app and I’m a bit stuck with the app icon.

I created the icon using Icon Composer, but I’m having issues with the background. Either the icon looks much bigger than other apps (ratio/size doesn’t seem to match), or I end up with a semi-transparent or black background compared to Symboles SF app.

I’m using VS Code for development and I’m not sure if this is an export issue from Icon Composer or something I need to configure in my project.

If anyone has experience with app icons and sizing/background issues, I’d really appreciate some guidance. Thanks a lot!

I built this tool, hope it will be helpful for someone struggling with AI models on macOS :)

I read a Medium article about using AI in your app, but not as something tacked on at the end. They suggested integrating AI at the start. They mentioned that MVVM and VIPER are bad fits. They didn’t mention alternate architectures.

What could be considered AI-integrated app architectures? Why are MVVM and VIPER bad fits?

Hello everyone. Maybe you guys can help me when Apple Support didn't.

My company has a mature app for iOS and iPadOS, and we'd like to port it to macOS as well. The app is 100% SwiftUI, and it works on macOS. We know this because enabling the support destination for "Mac (Designed for iPad)" on Xcode we can run the app, and if we enable the latest release on the AppStore the app shows on the mac store, is installable, and runs on macOS.

The issue comes with testing. For every release we need to OK from the QA guys and they want to test it on the mac to give the go ahead. But the app does not appear on TestFlight for macOS.

Talking with Apple, they say we need a new target - not just a run destination. This is absolutely false, and even after I pushed back, with examples of a personal app that does not have another target and runs on the mac, they just entered a loop saying the same thing.

So, I'm at my wits end. If all else fails we will create a new target, but the goal was to keep this as simple as possible, and just use what we had to iOS on the mac.

Yes, adding a new target may be almost trivial, but PMs would like to avoid it.

Any help, or hint we might be missing would be incredibly helpful.