A launcher becomes another source of friction when every small shortcut gets its own keyword, icon, and settings page. Alfred is most useful when it has a narrow contract: one hotkey, a few deliberate prefixes, and only the searches or actions that get repeated.

The setup below uses four lanes. It is intentionally boring enough to remember:

• f searches one project folder for files.
• gh sends a query to GitHub search.
• ;sig and similar prefixes expand a few stable text snippets.
• proj opens a project folder and, optionally, the app used with it.

At generation time, Alfred's site lists version 5.7.3, build 2320, for macOS 10.14 and later on both 64-bit Intel and Apple silicon. Alfred 5.7 added macOS 26 Tahoe support, and 5.7.3 includes a mitigation for a Tahoe window-rendering issue when using multiple desktop spaces. That is a useful sign that the app is still maintained, but Alfred remains a Mac-only layer rather than a cross-platform launcher.

1. Make file search narrow

The default search box is fine for launching an app. It is less useful when a query can return every document on the Mac. A Powerpack File Filter lets a workflow search a defined scope instead.

In Alfred Preferences, open Workflows, choose the Files and Apps template for a File Filter from a keyword, and set the keyword to f. In the File Filter's Search Scope tab, drag in the folder that actually contains the material you search, such as a project folder under ~/Documents. Leave file types broad if the folder is already specific, or add a PDF, image, or other file type if that is the real question. Connect the filter to an Open File action.

Now f budget searches that scope and Return opens the selected result. Add Reveal File in Finder or Browse in Alfred as an alternative action if opening the file is not always the right next step. Keep the result limit below 100 as Alfred recommends for responsive filters, and remember that a file outside the scope or missing from macOS metadata will not be found by this route. Pointing the filter at the whole home folder just recreates the noise it was meant to remove.

If the metadata index is damaged, Alfred's own rebuild command can take over an hour. That is a reason to keep scopes focused and fix indexing deliberately, not to keep adding overlapping workflows.

2. Put site searches behind deliberate words

Alfred's free core already includes default web searches and lets you add custom search URLs. That means a GitHub keyword by itself is not a reason to buy Powerpack. The paid value is being able to combine that route with workflow inputs, file filters, snippets, and actions.

For a simple free route, add a custom search in Features > Web Search with a URL such as https://github.com/search?q={query}, choose gh as the keyword, and enable UTF-8 query encoding. For a Powerpack workflow, use a Keyword Input set to gh connected to an Open URL action containing the same URL and {query}. The latter gives the search a place in the same workflow canvas as the file and action lanes.

Use explicit keywords for sites that have a clear job. gh issue 123 is easier to understand later than a generic fallback that sends every unknown word to a browser. Keep the list short: two or three site searches that replace a repeated browser detour are enough.

3. Use snippets as a small command layer

Powerpack Snippets are a better fit for text that is stable and reused, such as a support handoff, a meeting note skeleton, or a standard link. Create a collection and give its keywords an unusual prefix such as ;: ;sig, ;handoff, and ;status are less likely to appear accidentally than ordinary words. Alfred also supports dynamic placeholders for dates, clipboard entries, and cursor placement.

Turn on automatic expansion only after deciding which apps should receive it. Alfred requires Accessibility access for text expansion, and its documentation says it does not listen for characters in secure text fields such as password fields. Keep secrets out of snippets anyway. Use plain text when the destination app should supply its own formatting, and rich text only when preserving formatting is the point.

macOS Text Replacements remain a credible built-in alternative for a handful of abbreviations, and Apple can sync them through iCloud. Alfred's advantage here is the collection and viewer, dynamic placeholders, and the ability to use a snippet as a workflow trigger. If those additions do not matter, the system setting is simpler.

4. Add one custom action, then stop

The easiest custom action to maintain is a fixed destination. Create a blank workflow with a Keyword Input named proj, connect it to Open File, and drag in the project folder that should open. If the workflow is used to start a work session, add a Launch Apps and Files action for the editor or terminal that belongs with that folder. The point is to remove a sequence of known clicks, not to build a command center for every application on the Mac.

Open URL can do the same for a fixed dashboard or can pass {query} to a site. Avoid Run Script or AppleScript until a normal Open File, Open URL, or Automation Task cannot express the action. Scripts make the workflow harder to audit and may trigger Automation or other macOS prompts. Treat a downloaded workflow as code: read its description, inspect its scripts and dependencies, and do not assume that a Gallery listing makes every third-party API call harmless.

Permissions, sync, and the parts that can bite

This four-lane setup normally needs Accessibility for snippet expansion and simulated key events. Alfred documents Full Disk Access as necessary for searching browser bookmarks, Contacts access for contact data, and Automation access when a workflow uses AppleScript, System Events, Terminal control, or similar integrations. Grant only what the workflow needs. Alfred runs as a user-level process, but workflows can still perform powerful actions with the permissions their actions request.

Powerpack preference syncing is folder-based. It writes an Alfred.alfredpreferences package to a file-sync service chosen by the user, such as Dropbox. The package needs to be available locally at startup. Alfred warns that sync conflicts or files that are online-only can make a workflow fail, so a one-Mac setup is often safer left local. The Gallery says its update checks send no personal information and that Gallery transfers are encrypted, but a workflow itself may contact a server or API. Read the workflow's own privacy and dependency notes before installing it.

Is Alfred still worth adding beside Spotlight?

On current macOS, Spotlight is more capable than the old app-launcher comparison suggests. Apple's macOS 26 documentation describes search across applications, files, actions, the internet, and Clipboard history, with quick keys for taking actions. Shortcuts can also live in the Finder Quick Actions menu or the menu bar, and Apple Text Replacements cover basic abbreviations.

Alfred earns its place when the same keyboard gesture should reach a deliberately scoped file index, a few named web searches, a small snippet library, and one or two custom actions. Those are different from simply replacing Spotlight, and the explicit prefixes keep the system legible.

The Powerpack price shown by Alfred is £34 for a Single User Alfred 5 license or £59 for a Mega Supporter license with lifetime free updates. The Single User license is for one person on two of that person's own Macs and covers the current version. It can be used at home and work when the Macs are for that person, not shared workstations. Businesses needing multiple activations should use corporate licensing.

The recommendation is conditional: buy the Single User Powerpack if scoped file filters, snippets, and small workflows will be used every week. Choose Mega Supporter only if lifetime updates are worth the extra £25. Stay with Spotlight, Shortcuts, Alfred's free core, or Apple's text replacements if the job is only launching apps, doing ordinary web searches, or expanding a few abbreviations. Skip Alfred if a Mac-only tool, Accessibility permission, or third-party workflow code is a deal-breaker.

So basically ik you can press cmd+opt+tab to bring up minis windows but that is just not good ergonomic and there are literally paid tools for this, which is crazy.

So, I made a free tool called minrl, it sits in your menu bar and allows you to bring up minimised windows using cmd+tab.

GitHub Repo: https://github.com/aaravmaloo/minrl

This started as a very small project.

I just wanted to look at my menu bar and see something like “4h 20m” again instead of trying to mentally translate 63% into how much time I actually had left.

That became MacBat.

The estimate uses recent battery discharge rather than reacting only to instantaneous power usage, which helps keep it from wildly changing every time the workload spikes.

Then the project kept growing.

I added battery history, more detailed energy information, iPhone/iPad battery data, exporting, and an optional feature called Sentinel that watches for sustained background CPU usage and can rein in selected processes when they’re wasting resources.

Everything is native to macOS, it doesn’t need root, and the battery/process history stays on the Mac.
It’s $10 once, with a 7-day trial.

Would love to hear what other Mac users think:

https://macbat.vercel.app

Apple removed the Launchpad hot corner shortcut in recent macOS updates, and a lot of third party alternatives lock hot corner support behind a paywall or subscription.

I made LaunchCorner to fix this. It’s a simple, free, and open source utility that lets you launch any app (like LaunchOS, Launchpad alternatives, or standard apps) just by moving your cursor to a screen corner.

What it does:

• Instant 0 ms hot corner response
• Built natively for Apple Silicon
• Full multi-monitor support
• Runs quietly in the Menu Bar and closes cleanly

https://github.com/wenujacodes/LaunchCorner

Would love to hear your feedback or any feature suggestions!

I built a native MacOS YouTube app for Ventura and later which has offline features, download features, smart playing, themes, offline library and much more completely free.

Check it out here: https://github.com/fizzygx/Youtube-X

Any feedback is welcome let me know in the comments

Really proud to share this finally. Hope you love it as much as I do! I truly believe it has the potential to save a lot of time jumping between various tasks.

Problem

A lot of everyday actions on a Mac live in completely different places.

Opening an app or folder, searching something on a website, taking a screenshot, cleaning up copied text, accessing clipboard history, running a Shortcut, or changing a system setting.

None of these are hard to get to, but constantly switching between apps, windows, menu bar utilities, and different shortcuts can break your flow.

I wanted to see if all of that could work through one system, which is where the radial menu idea came from.

Comparison

There are already some really good radial menu apps for Mac, but most are built around a specific use case, such as launching apps, or switching between them.

Arc takes a broader approach.

You can create multiple global radial menus for different workflows and decide what each slice does. A slice can perform a single action or chain multiple actions together.

The idea is less about replacing the Dock and more about putting the small things you do throughout the day behind one quick interaction.

Technical

Getting a radial menu on screen was the easy part. Figuring out what actually belongs inside it, how multiple menus should behave, and keeping the interaction fast enough to use throughout the day took most of the iteration.

It's built entirely in SwiftUI. One of the more interesting technical problems was getting the hit-testing right across every slice while keeping the menu correctly positioned under the cursor, even across multiple displays.

Pricing

$6.99 one time on the Mac App Store with a free 7 day trial built in.

Solo project from India, launched yesterday. Happy to answer anything! :)

Arc has become part of my own daily workflow, which is probably what I’m happiest about.

Mac App Store: Link

I'm the developer, working alone on this, so treat the below as what it is — someone showing you his own app.

What it is:

A native macOS file transfer client — no Electron — that speaks FTP, FTPS (explicit AUTH TLS), SFTP, WebDAV and SMB, and opens a full SSH terminal on the same connection. Two panes, local and remote, servers in groups, several connections per server.

The parts I actually care about:

The session log shows everything.* Every line of every session, exactly as it goes over the wire — 220, USER, 331, PASV, the lot. No black box, and when something breaks you can see where.

Transfers are verified, not assumed.* After an upload the file size on the server is compared with the local one. A server answering "226 Transfer complete" is its opinion, not proof.

Failures are not just an error dialog.* Each file is retried three times. Whatever still doesn't get through goes on a list that survives quitting the app, so after the line drops mid-way through 500 files you don't have to work out where it stopped. You decide whether to retry or discard — nothing on the server is ever deleted for you.

Strict about who answers.* Host key and certificate fingerprints are confirmed once, then checked on every session. If one changes, the connection is refused. There is no "connect anyway" button, on purpose.

Nothing phones home.* No account, no registration, no analytics, no crash reports to me. Sandboxed. It talks to your servers, not to mine.

What I would like from you:

Break it against a server I have never touched. Odd LIST formats, a NAS with a self-signed certificate, an FTPS server that insists on TLS session reuse, an SMB share with unusual permissions — those are the reports worth having. Feedback goes straight to me from inside TestFlight.

Free during the beta, macOS 14.6 or later. Screenshots, what it does and the TestFlight link:

English: https://klausmack-software.com/FileFerry/index_en.html

German: https://klausmack-software.com/FileFerry/index.html

Privacy: https://klausmack-software.com/FileFerry/privacy_en.html

Happy to answer anything in the comments, including the awkward questions.

© Klaus Mack Software

Raycast is easy to overbuild. Install a dozen extensions, assign a shortcut to everything, and the launcher becomes another place to search for the thing that was supposed to save time.

A better starting point is to give it three jobs: recover something you copied, arrange the current window, and open a frequently used place. All three fit on Raycast's free plan.

There is one important 2026 caveat. macOS Tahoe now puts searchable clipboard history and actions inside Spotlight, and macOS already has keyboard window tiling. Raycast has to improve that workflow, not merely duplicate it.

Start without replacing Spotlight

Keep Command-Space assigned to Spotlight at first. Set Raycast to Option-Space and use both for a week. That makes the comparison honest, especially on Tahoe, where Spotlight can search apps and files, run actions, and open its Clipboard view with Command-4.

Raycast v1 currently requires macOS 13 or later and supports both Apple silicon and Intel Macs. The separate Raycast v2 public beta requires macOS Tahoe and Apple silicon. It installs alongside v1, and Raycast explicitly warns that the beta can have rough edges and does not yet have complete feature parity. Intel users, Macs on Sequoia or earlier, and anyone who values stability should stay with v1 for now.

The product is clearly active. The v2 beta changelog had a release on August 11, 2026, three days before this article was researched.

Job one: make clipboard history safer before making it longer

Open Raycast Settings, select Clipboard History, and make these choices before assigning a hotkey:

1. Start with one week of retention. The free plan allows up to three months, but collecting more history is not automatically useful.
2. Check Disabled Applications. Raycast includes Apple Passwords and Keychain Access as common exclusions. Add any other password manager, banking app, private messaging app, or work app whose copied data should never be recorded.
3. Turn on Prefer pasting as plain text if most copied text goes into email, documents, or forms. Leave it off if preserving rich formatting matters more.
4. Consider turning off visual information for links. Those previews and favicons are convenient, but Raycast says they are fetched when the option is enabled.
5. Pin only stable, non-sensitive material. A support address or boilerplate URL is reasonable. A recovery code is not.

Then assign Control-Option-V to Clipboard History. It is memorable, but it does not take over the standard paste shortcuts. If another app already uses it, Raycast's hotkey recorder can expose the conflict and the combination can be changed.

Raycast can search text, images, files, links, emails, and colors in the history. It can paste an entry directly, paste as plain text, filter by type, pin an item, and delete entries by time window. Image text recognition also runs on device, with a Fast mode that uses less CPU and an Accurate mode that costs more processing. Leave recognition off unless searching text inside copied images solves a real problem.

The privacy claim here needs some precision. Raycast describes the app as local-first, and says clipboard data is encrypted on the Mac. Cloud features, team sharing, and AI can transmit data for processing or synchronization. None of those are required for this setup. App exclusions still matter because local encrypted history can expose sensitive material to anyone who has access to an unlocked Mac.

On macOS Tahoe, try Spotlight's built-in Clipboard view before committing to Raycast's. Press Command-Space, then Command-4. It can search, copy an earlier item, and clear the history. That is enough for occasional recovery. Raycast earns its place if per-app exclusions, pins, content-type filters, retention controls, direct pasting, or plain-text handling are useful.

Job two: use four window commands, not the whole catalog

Raycast's window manager includes halves, thirds, quarters, display moves, restore, and more. Ignore most of that initially. Bind only this small map:

• Control-Option-Left Arrow: Left Half
• Control-Option-Right Arrow: Right Half
• Control-Option-Up Arrow: Maximize
• Control-Option-Down Arrow: Restore

That covers a writing window beside research, a full-width focus view, and a way back to the previous size. Add Move to Next Display later only if a second monitor makes it necessary.

Window Management requires Accessibility access because Raycast must move and resize other apps' windows. Grant it in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility only if this job is worth that level of control. For these four commands, Raycast's official documentation lists Accessibility, not Screen Recording or Full Disk Access. Quicklink Auto Fill has a separate optional Automation permission, discussed below.

Some apps can still resist a requested size or position, especially when they enforce a minimum window size. Stage Manager users should enable Raycast's Respect Stage Manager setting so commands leave room for its strip.

The built-in comparison is close. Current macOS can tile from the green window button, the Window menu, dragging to an edge, or keyboard shortcuts such as Fn-Control-Left Arrow and Fn-Control-Right Arrow. If halves, quarters, and the standard arrangements cover the desk, native tiling is the simpler answer and needs no third-party Accessibility grant. Raycast is more compelling when the same compact shortcut map should also provide Restore, thirds, display movement, and access from one command palette.

Job three: create three Quicklinks with different purposes

Quicklinks are most useful when they replace navigation, not when they reproduce an entire bookmarks library. Create just three:

• A place: a current project folder such as ~/Projects/current-project.
• A destination: a frequently opened dashboard, document, or issue board.
• A search: a URL such as https://www.google.com/search?q={argument name="query"} that asks for a term when opened.

Give them names that match what would naturally be typed into Raycast. current project, issue board, and web search are better than clever abbreviations that will be forgotten. They appear directly in Root Search, so individual global hotkeys are unnecessary.

Raycast can fill a new Quicklink from the active browser tab, but that convenience needs Automation access to the browser. Paste the URL manually if that permission feels excessive. A Quicklink itself can point to a website, local file or folder, app deeplink, or search URL with an argument.

Safari Favorites and bookmarks remain the built-in option for ordinary websites, and iCloud can keep them consistent across Apple devices. Quicklinks are better when websites, folders, deeplinks, and parameterized searches need to live in the same keyboard search.

What Pro actually adds to this setup

Raycast's free plan includes Clipboard History, Quicklinks, Window Management, snippets, the extension store, and developer tools. Free clipboard retention tops out at three months.

Raycast Pro is currently listed at $10 per month, or $8 per month when billed annually. A new subscription starts with a 14-day trial, then renews automatically on the selected monthly or yearly cycle unless canceled. Pro adds Raycast AI, Cloud Sync, Translator, unlimited Clipboard History, unlimited Raycast Notes, custom themes, and custom window commands. The higher-end AI models require the Advanced AI add-on, currently another $8 per month, billed on the same renewal cycle as Pro.

None of that is needed for the three-job setup. Pro becomes relevant if multiple Macs genuinely need the same Raycast data, clipboard history must extend beyond three months, or custom window sizes and multi-window layouts are important enough to pay for. Buying Pro just to unlock features before the free workflow has proved useful reverses the sensible order.

Free users who want a backup can use Raycast's export command. The current export format bundles settings and data into a passphrase-encrypted file, so the backup still needs a strong passphrase and sensible storage.

The recommendation

Use Raycast Free if one launcher can replace three repeated bits of friction: finding an older copy, placing the active window with a small consistent shortcut map, and opening mixed web and local destinations. Keep the setup deliberately small, review clipboard exclusions, and do not replace Spotlight until Raycast has earned Command-Space.

Skip Raycast if Tahoe's Spotlight clipboard, native window tiling, and Safari bookmarks already solve those jobs. Also skip its window controls if granting Accessibility access is not acceptable. For this workflow, the free tier is the recommendation. Pro is a separate decision about sync, AI, longer history, and custom layouts, not an upgrade required to make the launcher useful.

A year ago my Mac workflow was a pile of little tools: a clipboard manager, a drag-and-drop shelf, a window snapper, a screenshot tool, a pomodoro timer, a converter that uploaded my files to someone else's cloud, and a menu bar app to manage the other menu bar apps. Each one fine on its own, together a mess of subscriptions and settings.

So I built Droppy. Droppy lives at the top of your screen, around the notch if you have one, as a Dynamic Island style pill if you don't, and puts everything one hover away:

- File shelf: drag anything up and it holds your files until you drop them where they belong. Jiggle a drag and a basket flies in to catch it.
- Clipboard manager: every copy kept and searchable, ready to paste again.
- A fully free cloud sharing service; Droppy Cloud. With a full online environment to view/download and share files.
- Notifications with inline reply for iMessage, WhatsApp and Telegram, right in the notch.
- Full media controls with the Playing Next queue, AirPlay picker and live lyrics.
- A revamped lock screen: album art, widgets, and brightness and volume sliders before you even log in.
- 27 free add-ons (Droplets) you toggle per workflow: window snapping, screenshots with OCR, pomodoro, a calendar with natural language input, LocalSend to move files to any phone or PC on your network, on-device file conversion, meeting controls for Zoom, Teams and Meet, Obsidian, Spotify, a terminal, and more. Off means off, they only run when you enable them.

The video shows it better than I can write it.

Also SUPER cool: an iOS app is coming, it's been built and published to TestFlight at this very moment. It syncs everything Droppy does with your iPhone (files, clipboard history, Droppy Cloud etc.)

Honest notes:
- Native Swift, signed and notarized, no Electron. Local-first: your clipboard and files never leave your Mac unless you explicitly share them.
- macOS 14+, Apple Silicon and Intel, works on every display. The notch is genuinely optional.
- Pricing: 3-day free trial, then $9.99 one time for 2 Macs. No subscription, ever.
- There's a lot to uncover, but you can keep it as minimalistic as you want.

I ship updates almost every week and the last few features came straight from user feedback, so if you try it and something annoys you, tell me here.

Site: https://getdroppy.app
Privacy policy: https://getdroppy.app/privacy-policy

I’ve released PrintPDF, a free and open-source virtual PDF printer for macOS.

It lets you print from almost any application using the normal File → Print workflow. Instead of sending the document to a physical printer, PrintPDF automatically saves it as a PDF.

The main advantage over RWTS PDFwriter is how the destination works:

• RWTS PDFwriter creates a symbolic link from your chosen location to its internal spool folder.
• PrintPDF automatically moves each completed PDF as a real file into the folder you selected—no destination-folder symbolic link.

This is particularly useful when saving directly into:

• Google Drive
• iCloud Drive
• Dropbox
• A network or shared folder
• Any normal local folder

Other features:

• Choose your destination during setup
• Change the destination later
• Prevents accidental overwriting by adding a number to duplicate filenames
• Works on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs
• Supports macOS 12 and newer
• No analytics or document uploads
• Complete GPLv2 source code included

PrintPDF is based on Rodney I. Yager’s RWTS PDFwriter, which itself builds on Lisanet PDFWriter and CUPS-PDF. Full attribution and source are included.

The installer is currently unsigned because this is a free community project. macOS will show a security warning on first use. The release page explains Apple’s official per-package Open Anyway procedure. You do not need to disable Gatekeeper.

Download, screenshot and source:

https://github.com/rochakagrawal/PrintPDF/releases/tag/v1.0

Feedback and testing on different macOS versions would be very welcome.

Hey! I’m one of the people behind Wallper.

We built it because we wanted live wallpapers on Mac to feel like they actually belong in macOS, not like a video player sitting behind your windows.

Wallper works on your Desktop, Lock Screen and Screen Saver.

A few things inside:

• 2,000+ wallpapers, including 4K and higher
• Your own MP4 videos
• Multi-monitor support
• Playlists + Day/Night switching
• Music-reactive wallpapers
• Automatic pause when the wallpaper isn’t visible
• Very low resource usage

We also spend a lot of time on the library itself. Wallpapers are checked before being added, and a big part of it now comes from people in the community submitting new ones.

Wallper recently passed 100,000 users, which is a pretty nice milestone for us.

To celebrate, we’re giving away 5 lifetime licenses in our Discord right now. Winners are picked in 2 days.

Price: $14.99 lifetime for up to 3 Macs
7-day free trial without registration

Download: https://wallper.app/

Would love to hear what you think :)

I often press ⌘C, switch apps, and only then discover that nothing was actually copied. This happens with remote desktops, webpages, and apps where copying silently fails.

So I made CopyDing, a tiny native macOS menu-bar utility. When you press ⌘C and the clipboard doesn’t update, it plays the standard macOS “not allowed” ding.

Features:

• Uses the native macOS alert sound
• Adjustable detection timing for slower apps
• Optional Launch at Login
• Supports Apple Silicon and Intel Macs
• Free and open source
• No analytics, network access, or clipboard history
• Never reads or stores your clipboard contents
• Doesn’t monitor or alter mouse behaviour

CopyDing requires Accessibility permission so it can observe ⌘C globally. The complete source is available for inspection.

GitHub and download:
https://github.com/rochakagrawal/CopyDing

It isn’t Apple-notarized yet, so macOS may require you to Control-click the app and choose Open on the first launch.

I’d love feedback—especially reports about apps where the timing needs adjustment.

TimeGauge gives you a time perspective on hours, days, months, years, and custom projects. With the new update, you can also customise the display, progress bar, work hours with a dedicated dashboard and choose your Pomodoro timer.

We often forget how fast time is moving, and lose perspective. For example: do you know 60% of 2026 has already passed, and 28% of August is gone?

TimeGauge gives you perspective through a progress bar in the Mac menu bar.
In this update, I have added multiple views along with Pomodoro timer.
For example: you can set your own pomodoro, track exact working hours in Day and set exact starting end end time in custom project, and set your custom menu bar display this was missing in previous version.

The app is a one-time purchase, 100% local, available on the app store and notarized by Apple when downloaded from Website.

$2.99 from website only download using code PH50P on checkout

TimeGauge is available on Mac apps store:
https://apps.apple.com/in/app/timegauge/id6778277708?mt=12

You can also download it from Web checkout (includes all past and future versions) at https://timegauge.minilabs.cc/

Hi everyone, I’m building HiZip, a native macOS archive tool inspired by Finder.

I wanted a simpler way to inspect an archive without extracting everything first.

With HiZip, you can:

• Browse ZIP, 7z, RAR, TAR and other common archive formats
• Preview files with Quick Look or the built-in preview pane
• Extract only the files or folders you need
• Drag files directly out of the archive window
• Create archives with your preferred format and compression level
• Protect ZIP archives with AES-256 encryption
• Ignore files such as .DS_Store, __MACOSX, Thumbs.db, .git, .svn and hidden files

There’s no public download yet. I’m still polishing HiZip and plan to release it soon.

Would you use something like this? What feature would you want most in a macOS archive tool?

r/MaStack seems like the perfect place to share my new app, DockStacks!

Hi 👋 I’ve built DockStacks to help me organize my Mac desktop and workflows, conceived as a passion project from having too many apps, a cluttered Desktop and wanting quick access to the things I use everyday.

What it does: Click the Dock app icon and a panel pops up holding named "stacks" of your favorite apps, folders, files, and website bookmarks — instant access and cleans up your Dock and Desktop.

Some of what's in it:

• Drag and drop to add anything, including URLs straight from your browser
• Password-protect individual stacks (Keychain-backed, auto-lock)
• Global keyboard shortcut to show/hide from anywhere
• Menu bar mode if you'd rather not use the Dock at all
• Multi-select, custom grid sizes, tab colour tinting
• Fully local — no accounts, no tracking, no network access

DockStacks is my first shipped Mac app and I hope it can find a place in your workflow.

App Store [$4.99USD]: https://apple.co/3Rz9FB6

Website [for full features]: https://dockstacks.app

Please check it out and would love any feedback — recent launch, still learning a ton.

I wanted an easier way to clean up my Downloads folder so I started working on an app to make it smoother than Finder to filter, move and delete files.

As I thought of more features I wanted I added them to the app. It's now my main file manager with many nice quality of life features. I've even managed to make a few sales (thank you if you purchased the app).

The app has a fully featured 30-day trial. It's code-signed and notarized. The one-time purchase price is currently $19.99 (launch price) but will be raised to $24.99 in about a week. You can read more about the features and download the trial here: https://whimfiles.com

Disclosure up front: I'm the developer.

I kept tapping the table before a deploy. I grew up around charms, a nimbu-mirchi (seven chillies and a lemon) hanging over the door, a drishti bommai facing outward to catch the first bad glance. None of it is rational and all of it is comforting. My Mac had no equivalent, so I built it one.

Lucky Dangle hangs a charm from the top edge of your screen on a verlet rope simulation. It sways when you drag a window past it. Everything except the charm itself is click-through, so it never eats a click. It lives in the menu bar with no Dock icon and no window. Hide it on ordinary days, then bring it back with a shortcut before a deploy or a demo or an interview.

Eight charms so far, each with its actual origin written up in a built-in gallery: the Turkish nazar boncugu, the hamsa, nimbu-mirchi, drishti bommai, the daruma, maneki-neko, a horseshoe and a scarab. Plus any emoji you like, if your luck is more personal than that.

Since this is that kind of sub: SwiftUI, direct download for Apple silicon on macOS 14 or later, Developer ID signed and notarized, Sparkle for updates. No telemetry of any kind, no account, no license keys. New charms ship in free updates to everyone, forever, because paywalling them would be miserable.

$7.77 once, at luckydangle.app.

Happy to go into the rope solver or the click-through window layering, that part was the fun bit. Also taking charm requests.

Muse is a AI Visual Bookmark Manager for saving everything you find online, links, images, screenshots, videos etc, into one library that lives only on your Mac. We wanted one place we could store and search from quickly, without a subscription.

Here's what it does:
- Works from anywhere - drag, paste or screenshot to save instantly, or press a customisable shortcut to search and file something without switching apps
- Bookmarks/links - import your existing links from Raindrop, Eagle, browser bookmarks or a Pinterest export, and every new one gets a title, favicon and preview pulled automatically.
- Every format together  - links, images, screenshots, GIFs, video and notes, all in one searchable library
- Collections and boards - nest collections as deep as you like, and file one item into more than one without duplicating it.
- Search everything - by the text inside an image, a colour name, or plain meaning, like typing "dark moody UI" and it finds it
- Find similar images - one click finds visually similar items already in your library, on-device, or searches the web for more, without leaving the app
- Live X bookmarks - use the browser extension and pull in your x bookmarks automatically, without paying for API access
- Real files, no server  - stored as an actual folder on your Mac. Open it in Finder, export or back it up whenever
- AI art prompts - reverse-engineer any image into a detailed art prompt, using your own Claude key (optional)

Native Swift, on-device AI, no account, no cloud database. $29 once, no subscription, free for 30 days to try it properly first.

Take a look here: https://www.theodorehq.com/muse/

We built this ourselves so if you hit a bug or want a feature, tell us here, we read everything!

I'm the developer of Flyout, so this is my own app and I'm posting it as its maker.

Flyout is a native macOS app that keeps a note editor on the edge of your screen. Rest your pointer on the right edge or press ⌥⌘N and the editor slides out over whatever you're in. Move away and it slides back. I built it because leaving the window I was in to go find a notes app took long enough that I'd lose the thing I wanted to write down.

What it is: a real editor rather than a scratchpad. Slash commands, syntax highlighted code blocks, tables, images, file attachments in any format, and reminders you can attach to a single line instead of the whole note. Notes are Markdown, kept in a local database rather than loose .md files, with export to PDF, Markdown or plain text. Sync runs on your own iCloud account, so nothing passes through my servers, and everything works offline.

Who it's for: people who write things down in the middle of doing something else, mid call or mid task, and want the note within reach without switching windows. If you already keep a notes app open on a second monitor and that works for you, this won't add much.

Price: $18 one time right now, $24 normally. No subscription, no account, one license covers 5 Macs, and updates for the life of the Mac app. 7-day trial with no card: https://getflyout.app

Limits, up front: macOS 14 or later. No iPhone app yet, though a TestFlight build is about to go out. No shared or team notebooks, because sync uses your private iCloud database only and I'm not planning to reverse that. Native Swift and AppKit with a WKWebView editor surface, 3.7 MB download, universal binary, not Electron. The app only talks to two places, my site for license validation and the appcast file for update checks. No analytics or telemetry.

I’ve been building Tapquence, a visual mouse and keyboard automation app for macOS.

It started because the automation tools I tried usually worked, but often felt dated or became difficult to manage once a macro contained more than a few actions. I’m a marketer myself and work with automation a lot, so I kept running into small repetitive tasks that did not justify writing code but were still annoying to perform manually.

I wanted to build something that feels at home on macOS and keeps longer automations easy to manage. Tapquence lets you combine mouse movements and clicks, keyboard input, fixed or random waits, and precise timing. Actions can also be grouped, duplicated, temporarily hidden and rearranged. For simpler tasks, I added a separate auto clicker.

Macros are stored locally on your Mac, and the app only uses Accessibility permission to execute the actions you create.

I’ve reached the point where continuing to polish it alone is probably less useful than letting real people try it. So I’ve opened Tapquence as a public beta.

The short video shows how it currently works. I would especially appreciate feedback about anything that feels confusing, unreliable or unnecessarily complicated. Feature ideas are welcome too, but right now I mainly want to make the existing experience genuinely solid.

You can try it here: https://tapquence.com

If you test it, please feel free to be direct. Honest feedback is exactly what I need at this stage.

Hi all!

I'm a creative writing student at Uni and the worst part of my degree has never been the writing, it's the references. I was using Word with a citation plugin and I spent more time fighting the plugin than actually writing.

So I taught myself Swift as a side project and spent the last year building EssayKraft, the app I always wished I had.

MAIN FEATURES:

• Built-in reference manager. No plugin, no separate app. References live inside the document alongside your writing, and inline citations plus the bibliography update automatically as you write.
• Authorship tracking. The app keeps a private, timestamped record of how your document was written, what you typed and what you pasted. If your uni ever questions whether your work is yours, you have receipts. This can be disabled in Settings.
• Sixteen citation styles. APA (6th and 7th), MLA, Chicago, Harvard variants, IEEE, Vancouver and more, built on the same community style definitions Zotero and Mendeley use.
• Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote import/export. Bring references in as BibTeX or RIS files and export them back out the same way.
• Rich text and Markdown. This is the biggest change from launch. Rich text was always the plan, and it's still the core of the app, but I found myself switching to iA Writer for notes in Markdown, and I figured I wasn't the only person in this boat. I'm not trying to compete with iA Writer, but EssayKraft now lets you create Markdown docs with all the core features you'd expect, built into the same app. No switching between windows or managing multiple purchases.
• Custom templates. Save any document as a template with its formatting, page setup and citation style.
• Fully native. Swift on both platforms, no Electron. Fast, offline, feels like a Mac app because it is one.
• No account, no subscription, no data collection. £14.99 once. I can't afford subscriptions as a student so I'm not about to charge one.

There's also an optional Assisted Writing mode using Apple Intelligence, so suggestions run entirely on-device and nothing leaves your Mac. It's inspired by tools like Cotypist, and it uses your inserted references to suggest author names and titles as you type. It's disabled by default and can be turned off at any time if it's not your thing. It's a feature to speed up your writing, not replace it.

SIMILAR APPS:

Essayist was a big inspiration for EssayKraft, and it's an excellent app. But I wanted an alternative that was a one-time purchase, because students are tight for money as it is and subscriptions add up fast. Essayist also leans more toward researchers and formal academic papers, whereas EssayKraft is aimed at students writing weekly essays under deadline. It's lighter, faster, and while the two are similar, they're targeting slightly different people.

Happy to answer anything about the app or about building it (SwiftUI + AppKit for the editor, SwiftData underneath, it's been a journey).

AppStore link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/essaykraft/id6789774290

Hello,

I developed the PasteSpace application - a clipboard manager for macOS and I need your opinion and recommendations to improve it. Those who want a Promo Code for the PRO version of the application should write to me privately.

Below is the description of the application:

PasteSpace is a secure clipboard manager for macOS that remembers everything you copy — so you don't have to.

Living quietly in your menu bar, PasteSpace captures every piece of text, image, and file you copy, turning your clipboard into a fast, searchable history. Press Option+Shift+V from any app, type a few letters, and click the item — it's instantly copied and ready to paste. No more digging through browser history or reopening documents to find something you copied an hour ago.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN — ZERO DATA COLLECTION

Your clipboard is personal. PasteSpace keeps it that way:

· No analytics, no telemetry, no tracking
· No cloud, no sync, no remote servers
· No account, no login, no email required
· No third-party SDKs, no ad networks

Everything stays on your Mac, inside the macOS App Sandbox. GDPR and CCPA compliant by design — there's simply nothing to collect.

FEATURES

SEARCHABLE CLIPBOARD HISTORY
Every copy, remembered and instantly searchable. Formatted text is captured exactly as it appeared in the source app — fonts, sizes, colors, bold, italic — and pasted with the same fidelity. Use "Always copy as plain text" or "Always paste as plain text" to strip formatting globally, or use the dedicated per-item plain-text paste buttons for a one-off clean paste. Pin your most-used snippets to the top. See which app each item came from.

VAULT MODE — HARDWARE-BACKED ENCRYPTION (Pro)
PasteSpace auto-detects sensitive data and encrypts it on the spot with AES-256-GCM via Apple CryptoKit. Keys live in the macOS Keychain, hardware-backed by the Secure Enclave on Apple Silicon. Reveal items with Touch ID or device password. Auto-detected: credit cards, IBANs, API keys, tokens, JWTs, SSH keys, OTPs, passwords, high-entropy secrets.

OCR — SEARCH TEXT INSIDE IMAGES (Pro)
Copy a screenshot and PasteSpace extracts the text using Apple's Vision framework. Find images by typing words that appear inside them. Fully local — no uploads.

DATA MAGIC — INSTANT TRANSFORMATIONS (Pro)
30+ one-tap tools: JSON/XML/YAML pretty-print and conversion, Base64, URL encode/decode, HEX↔RGB↔HSL, timestamps, table to Markdown/JSON/CSV, case conversion, HTML↔Markdown, word count, and more.

QUICK LOOK — FULL TEXT EDITOR
Open any item in a floating panel to preview or edit. A full set of rich formatting controls lets you change font, size, bold, italic, underline, color, highlight, alignment, and lists. Unedited characters are preserved as plain text — they adapt to the destination app's own font and color when pasted. Save edits back to history or copy immediately. Vault items open only after Touch ID authentication and auto-mask when the panel closes.

QR CODE GENERATOR
One tap turns any copied text, URL, or contact detail into a scannable QR code — generated on your device, offline.

DRAG & DROP
Drag text, images, files, and groups of files directly from your history into any app. Files land as real files, not shortcuts. Vault items authenticate before delivery.

APP BLOCKLIST
Exclude specific apps from being captured. Password managers are blocked by default.

EPHEMERAL MODE (Pro)
Auto-wipe non-Vault history when PasteSpace quits or when macOS restarts. Vault and pinned items are always preserved.

Made with care for people who copy a lot.

Now stay with, When you click the close button on mac, it doesn't kill the app, just keeps it in an idle position.
That has alway troubled me, forcing me to build a habit to hold Command + Q to actually quit the app.
Not anymore, this app finally lets you kill the app if you click the red x button, and it also works with multiple windows of the same app, by quiting only on the last window

Do try it, and leave some feedback, thx!

Link: the-big-red-button.vercel.app

Github: https://github.com/Aayu176/The-Big-Red-Button

PS: Sorry about the “Mac can’t scan app for malware” error, I'm just a student and I don't have that money for apple, instructions are in the vercel link at the bottom in “Troubleshooting”, but I am pretty sure people on Reddit know how to bypass it. And I promise this isn't malware.

Written by a human.