Open-Source macOS Apps

A curated list of open-source macOS apps and Mac-focused command line tools.

Feel free to contribute: issues or pull requests. Read CONTRIBUTING.md before adding an entry.

Entries marked (archived) are read-only upstream but still worth knowing about.

Contents

• macOS Apps
  • AI and LLM
  • Communication
  • Text Editors and IDEs
  • Web Browsers
  • Media (audio, video, images)
  • Games
  • Window Management and Input
  • Developer Tools
  • Package Managers
  • System Utilities
  • Productivity
  • Menu Bar Apps
  • Screensavers and Wallpapers
• Apple Sample Projects
• Apple Open Source
• See also
• License

macOS Apps

AI and LLM

• AI Footprint - Shows what AI coding tools leave on your Mac: disk usage, background processes, MCP servers and login items.
• AIQuotaBar - Live Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and GitHub Copilot usage limits in the menu bar, with reset countdowns and alerts.
• Assistant - Voice assistant for Claude Code that listens, answers by voice and transcribes speech with a local Whisper model.
• Brow - Shows Claude Code usage limits in the MacBook notch and runs parallel sessions in git worktrees.
• Headroom - Claude Code usage meter showing session and weekly percentages in the menu bar. (archived)
• KyttoMCP - Control panel for MCP servers across Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and Codex.
• Lunavect - Claude Code and Codex companion showing session status and usage limits with reset times.
• PromptBar - Access multiple AI chats from the menu bar without opening a browser.
• Tintpad - Hotkey launcher that opens a terminal at the right repo with a coding agent already running.

Communication

• Adium - Instant messaging client.
• Bitpost - Bitmessage client.
• CallReady - Shows your next calendar call, restores your preferred microphone and mutes it with one shortcut.
• Caprine - Facebook Messenger desktop app.
• Colloquy - IRC client for macOS and iOS.
• Dejalu - Email client.
• fb-mac-messenger - Mac wrapper for Facebook Messenger.
• Goofy - Facebook Messenger client for macOS.
• LimeChat - IRC client for macOS.
• M - Email client with device-to-device encryption for messages between M users.
• WhatsMac - Native Mac app wrapper for WhatsApp Web.

Text Editors and IDEs

• Atom - Hackable cross-platform text editor built on Electron. (archived)
• Brackets - Cross-platform code editor for the web, written in JavaScript, HTML and CSS. (archived)
• CotEditor - Lightweight plain-text editor for macOS.
• FocusWriter - Cross-platform fullscreen word processor written in C++ and Qt.
• MacDown - Markdown editor.
• Markoff - Lightweight Markdown (CommonMark) previewer for macOS.
• Marp - Markdown presentation writer built on Electron. (archived)
• nvALT - MultiMarkdown fork of Notational Velocity, a mouseless note-taking app.
• TextMate - Graphical text editor for macOS.
• Visual Studio Code - Cross-platform code editor built on Electron.
• VSCodium - Visual Studio Code without Microsoft branding, telemetry or licensing.

Web Browsers

• Brave Browser - Web browser built on Chromium with a focus on privacy.
• Firefox - Cross-platform web browser.
• Helium - Floating browser window that stays on top of other apps. (archived)
• Stedding - Arc-style Chromium browser with Spaces, pinned tabs and sidebar folders.
• TenFourFox - Firefox fork maintaining support for PowerPC Macs on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.
• Yalqen - Keyboard-first Chromium browser for developers with vertical tabs, a command bar and ad blocking.

Media (audio, video, images)

• Audacity - Cross-platform multi-track audio editor and recorder.
• Carol - Minimal lyrics app that lives in the menu bar, built with SwiftUI.
• Castbar - Control Chromecast, Google Home and Nest speakers from the menu bar.
• Catch - Menu bar app that downloads torrents from RSS feeds (broadcatching).
• Clementine - Cross-platform music player and library organizer written in C++ and Qt.
• Gifs - Mac app for finding GIFs. (archived)
• HandBrake - Cross-platform video transcoder.
• ImageAlpha - Mac GUI for pngquant, pngnq and posterizer. (archived)
• ItsPaint - MS Paint for the Mac, written in Swift.
• Kap - Screen recorder built with web technology.
• LumaView - Folder-based image viewer with EXIF information and multipage PDF support.
• mac2imgur - Upload screenshots and images to Imgur.
• MP4Flow - FFmpeg front end for batch MP4 conversion, trimming, cropping, rotation and merging; needs FFmpeg installed.
• Radiola - Lightweight Internet radio player for macOS.
• Screenshots - Area, window and scrolling capture, text recognition, MP4 and GIF recording and annotation.
• Seashore - Image editor based on parts of GIMP, built entirely in Cocoa.
• ShotMap - Video storyboard tool with smart frame selection, a manual timeline and PNG/JPG export.
• Shotnix - Screenshots, screen recordings and a video editor with scrolling capture, annotation and text recognition.
• Simple Comic - Comic viewer.
• SomaFM miniplayer - Unofficial player for minimal background playback of SomaFM channels.
• Soundcleod - Standalone macOS browser for SoundCloud. (archived)
• Tonecap - Design your keyboard's sound, synthesized with no recordings, and hear it as you type.
• VLC - Cross-platform media player and streaming server written in C, C++ and Objective-C.

Games

• GreenMahjong - Solitaire mahjong game with several themes and layouts.
• OpenEmu - Multi-system video game emulator.
• Screentendo - Turn your screen into a playable level of Mario.
• Snk - Snake with a twist, written in Swift.
• stockfish-mac - Chess app for the Mac built on the Stockfish engine.

Window Management and Input

• Command Reopen - Restores an app's minimized or closed windows through the native Cmd+Tab switcher.
• Dockit - Dock any window to the edge of the screen.
• Keyty - Shows your keyboard and mouse input as an on-screen overlay for demos and livestreams.
• LayoutKeeper - Saves window layouts per external monitor and restores them when the monitor is plugged in again.
• MacGesture - Global mouse gestures for macOS.
• Plonk - Window manager with custom zones, workspaces, keep-awake, screenshots and agent control.
• Show Desktop - Hide every window with one click or shortcut, then bring them all back where they were.
• SlowQuitApps - Adds a global delay to Command-Q to stop accidental app quits.
• Spectacle - Organize your windows without using a mouse. (archived)
• Who Stole My Focus - Finds out which app keeps taking focus from your work, and when.
• Windows - Snaps windows to halves, full screen, center or custom sizes by shortcut or by dragging to a screen edge.

Developer Tools

• App Reviews - Keeps track of user reviews for your iPhone apps.
• Breaker - Watches your launchd jobs, cron jobs, Folder Actions and SwiftBar plugins and notifies you when one breaks.
• Cactus - Static site generator for designers in Python, with a lightweight GUI app for macOS.
• CCMenu - Monitors continuous integration servers from the menu bar.
• Changes - GUI Git client for macOS with AI assist.
• CocoaPods App - Full-featured standalone installation of CocoaPods. (archived)
• CocoaRestClient - Native app for testing HTTP/REST endpoints.
• Color Picker Pro - Color detection tool for designers and developers.
• Device Hub Pro - Mirror, control and test Android emulators and phones, iOS simulators and iPhones side by side.
• GitUp - Simple but powerful Git client for macOS.
• Hex Fiend - Fast hex editor for macOS.
• iro - Color picker menu bar app.
• Jekyll - Blog-aware static site generator in Ruby.
• MactsAsBeacon - Turns a Bluetooth LE-equipped Mac into an iBeacon.
• Muxflow - Remote-first tmux IDE for running coding agents on local and SSH hosts.
• Oh My Android - Control panel for the Android Emulator and real phones over adb, with a built-in MCP server.
• Pasteboard Viewer - Inspect your system pasteboard.
• Pods Updater - Manage dependency releases in your Podfile.
• Realm Browser - Open and modify Realm database files. (archived)
• Resign - Resign IPA files.
• rfig - Command completion menus and directory-scoped history suggestions for zsh, Bash and Fish.
• Rockxy - HTTP debugging proxy for intercepting HTTPS, inspecting APIs, mocking responses and debugging WebSocket traffic.
• Touch Bar Simulator - Use the Touch Bar on any Mac. (archived)
• Tracexy - Local-first network analysis of live traffic and PCAP captures as app-aware sessions.
• Unused - Checks Xcode projects for unused resources.
• VisualJSON - JSON pretty-viewer for macOS.
• WWDC - Unofficial WWDC app for macOS.

Package Managers

• Cakebrew - GUI for managing Homebrew formulae.
• Fink - Package manager for macOS, written in Perl.
• Homebrew - The missing package manager for macOS, written in Ruby.
• MacPorts - Ports system for macOS, written in Tcl.

System Utilities

• Abendrot - Screen warmer that cuts nighttime blue light on every display.
• Americano - Simple caffeinate wrapper that lives in the menu bar.
• ApolloShell - Desktop shell for macOS 26 with a sidebar dock, launcher, dashboard and control centre.
• AppDuo - App cloner with separate data directories and custom names and icons.
• AudioAnchor - Keeps sound output on the device you choose and switches it back when macOS moves it.
• Awake - Prevents your Mac from sleeping, inspired by Caffeine.
• Boost - Memory and disk menu bar app with memory pressure history, idle app pausing, cache cleanup and an uninstaller.
• Burn - Burn data, audio, video and disk images to disc.
• ClamDown - Keeps a MacBook awake and cool with the lid closed, so coding agents and long tasks keep running.
• Cleaner - Disk cleaner with public JSON rules, an uninstaller, a disk map and a 7-day quarantine.
• Cockpit - HUD and menu bar dashboard for glanceable system monitoring.
• Cyberdog - SSH/SFTP client with a terminal, server health dashboard and FTP, S3 and WebDAV support, built with Electron.
• Cyberduck - Cross-platform browser for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV and cloud storage, written in Java and C#.
• dshb - Terminal system monitor written in Swift.
• Dusty - Menu bar disk cleaner with an allowlist-only deletion engine.
• Eul - System monitoring app for macOS.
• Featherbar - Featherweight menu bar system monitor showing CPU, RAM, power and temperature.
• FileZilla - Cross-platform FTP and SFTP client written in C++ and wxWidgets.
• GrandPerspective - Disk usage visualisation for macOS.
• IconCraft - Give any Mac app a new name and icon in Finder, the Dock and Launchpad without modifying the app.
• KeepingYouAwake - Prevents your Mac from going to sleep.
• Kilobat CLI - Network monitoring and diagnostics from the terminal, with a local MCP server.
• Lockpaw - Menu bar screen guard that locks and unlocks with a hotkey.
• MenuMeters - CPU, memory, disk and network monitors in the menu bar.
• Monolingual - Removes unneeded language localization files to free up disk space.
• Peel - Uninstalls Mac apps along with every file they leave behind.
• PlugNPlayMac - Script that automates tasks when a device is connected to your Mac.
• Pulse - Menu bar system monitor with live CPU, memory, temperature, fan, network, disk, power and battery stats.
• RamDock - RAM and CPU usage in the menu bar, with a process list for quitting or force quitting processes.
• Safelight - Schedules the color filter, brightness and Light/Dark appearance, fading the screen to red at night.
• Shady - Menu bar app to dim your Mac's screen.
• Shieldxy - Auditable application firewall and connection monitor.
• SpaceMap - Disk usage analyzer that draws your disk as a zoomable treemap while the scan runs.
• Swivel - Convert, resize, compress and OCR files from a radial wheel while dragging them, all offline.
• tag - Command line tool to manipulate and query Finder tags on files.
• Tape - Stock ticker for macOS in the empty corner beside the Dock: one listing at a time, in its logo's colour.
• TimeMachineEjector - Ejects your Time Machine disk after a backup and mounts it again when the next one is due.
• Tunnelblick - Graphical user interface for OpenVPN.
• Unblock Eject - Shows which apps are keeping a disk from ejecting, quits them and ejects.

Productivity

• Needle - What's playing in the corner beside the Dock on macOS.

• Annotator - Draw arrows, boxes, highlights, spotlight, zoom and blur over any app during demos and lessons.

• BibDesk - Bibliographic reference manager for macOS.

• Calibre - Cross-platform e-book manager and converter written in Python and C++.

• Clippy - Card-based clipboard manager with content-aware previews, AI transformations and a screenshot editor.

• CoinManager - Coinbase client for macOS.

• Cockpit - Native macOS workspace dashboard and daily heads-up display with a 24h dial and triage signals.

• Copy 2FA - Copies your newest 2FA code from Mail or Messages with one shortcut, plus a Touch ID authenticator.

• Cybokron Dock Groups - Groups apps and websites and opens, hides or closes a whole group from a popup over the Dock.

• Frit - Glaze recipe book for potters that reworks recipes when a material changes and tracks fired test tiles.

• Glim - File viewer for Markdown, PDFs, images, JSON, CSV and source code, built with Rust.

• GraphSketcher - Graph drawing and data plotting app from the Omni Group.

• Koru - Local-first workspace for notes, documents and files with peer-to-peer sync, written in Rust.

• Ledge - Turns the MacBook notch into a status area for now playing, a timer, your next meeting, weather and notes.

• LibreOffice - Cross-platform office suite written in C++, Java and Python.

• Memo Export - Exports your Voice Memos transcripts as Markdown with the audio, timestamped and Obsidian-friendly.

• PDF Archiver - Tag and archive PDF documents.

• Podcast Export - Exports your Apple Podcasts subscriptions as OPML and your listening history as notes and a spreadsheet.

• QGIS - Cross-platform geographic information system written in C++, Python and Qt.

• Quicksilver - Keyboard-driven launcher and productivity tool for macOS.

• Quickwords - Text snippets that expand as you type and run tedious tasks.

• Reading List Export - Exports your Safari Reading List as Markdown, a bookmarks file and an Instapaper-style CSV.

• Rem - Command-line tool to access the Reminders database.

• Right Folder - Shows open Finder folders, recent folders and favorites beside every Open and Save dialog.

• Rime - Distraction-free PDF reader that freezes everything outside the page into frosted ice.

• SelfControl - Blocks distracting websites for a set period of time.

• Sigil - Cross-platform EPUB e-book editor written in C++ and Qt.

• Skim - PDFKit-based PDF reader and annotator for macOS.

• Speech to Text - Press a shortcut, speak, and the text is pasted at the cursor, transcribed locally with whisper.cpp.

• StandLock - Stand-up break enforcer with a full-screen overlay and three discipline levels.

• Stash - Personal finance application for macOS.

• Text to Speech - Reads selected text aloud with a local Piper voice or an online voice, in a small floating player.

• TimeScribe - Offline working time tracker for macOS and Windows.

• Vienna - RSS and Atom feed reader.

• Yap - On-device voice dictation: press a hotkey, talk, and the text is pasted where you were typing.

Menu Bar Apps

• AnyBar - Menu bar status indicator you can control from scripts.
• app-menu - The missing Applications menu for macOS.
• Holeberry - Monitor and control your Pi-hole instances from the menu bar.
• Menew - Clipboard history, command palette, window layouts, screenshots, system monitor and meeting minutes in one menu bar app, with on-device AI.
• MRRDock - MRR from Stripe, RevenueCat, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Gumroad added up in the menu bar.
• Next Departures - Live next departures for your bus and train stops in the menu bar.
• StockDock - Stocks, ETFs, crypto and portfolio P&L in the menu bar, with real-time prices and alerts.

Screensavers and Wallpapers

• Clock.saver - Simple clock screensaver.
• Octosaver - Screensaver showing GitHub Octocats.
• Wallpapers - Mac app for downloading wallpapers.

Apple Sample Projects

Apple Sample Projects

Apple Open Source

Apple Open Source

See also

• mac-frameworks - Companion list of open-source macOS frameworks.

License

Released under CC0 1.0 Universal. By contributing, you agree to release your contribution under the same terms.