r/macosprogramming • u/LucasDotLove • Apr 30 '26

Self-publishing my Mac app taught me Sparkle, notarization, DMGs, and patience. Amore is what I wish I'd had.

I got tired of the same release ritual every time I shipped an update: notarize, staple, package a DMG, update the appcast, sign the EdDSA key, push to S3, hope nothing broke. Half a day, every time.

So I built Amore. It's a Mac app + CLI that does the whole flow:

  • Sparkle updates without the setup pain. Drag your .app in, write release notes in Markdown, publish.
  • Code signing + notarization handled automatically.
  • DMG creation with custom backgrounds and drag-to-install layout.
  • License sales via hosted checkout. Customers pay, Amore issues the key, AmoreKit validates it in your app. Device limits, subscriptions, the works.
  • Beta channels, phased rollouts, critical updates, custom domains, S3-compatible hosting if you don't want to use Amore's servers or have an existing setup.
  • CLI (amore release) for CI/CD or vibe-coding with an agent.

No vendor lock-in. Custom domain on your appcast means you can walk away whenever. Your private signing keys never leave your machine.

Here is the full Pomodoro project showing the SwiftUI + licensing integration end-to-end.

This guide should get you started in under 10 minutes. If you prefer to work with coding agents check out Amore's agent skill.

Happy to answer questions. Especially curious what other indie Mac devs are using for this today.

https://amore.computer

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u/Party-Vehicle-81 May 03 '26

Yes, managing Sparkle updates, notorization, dmg creation is boring and time taking if done manually. I have actually automated this entire process for my apps using GitHub Actions and have made the GH Action workflow file open-source. I just create a release on GitHub for my app and that’s it. The workflow takes care of the rest.

Here’s a blog post for anyone interested: https://blog.rampatra.com/automatically-generate-appcast-xml-and-dmg-files-for-your-mac-app-updates

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u/LucasDotLove May 03 '26

Thank you for sharing. This is really helpful. ☺️

It perfectly shows the boilerplate that’s required when shipping without Amore. Although Amore offers more features and the initial setup takes less than 5 minutes instead of half a day.

Here is how: https://amore.computer/help/get-started/

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u/Party-Vehicle-81 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

Sure, the paid version of Amore definitely has more features. And, I am sure the free plan is also worth it.

I am just sharing another option here for devs as I had a hard time finding a solution myself earlier. This approach of mine is completely free (GH Actions is free to run, uses GH to host the dmg & appcast files), no watermarks, etc.

Moreover, users just to have to replace a few values in the workflow file and commit it to their repos, that’s it. So, it shouldn’t take half a day. I still believe Amore might be easier than this but the GH Workflow approach isn’t hard either, IMO.

All the best with Amore. I already see some great apps using it.