appify

Turn TUI apps into real macOS applications.

On Linux, terminal apps are just... apps. They get their own windows, their own Alt+Tab entries, their own launcher icons. On macOS, they're second-class citizens—buried in terminal tabs, invisible to Cmd+Tab, forgotten by Spotlight.

appify fixes that. Generate native .app bundles from any TUI. Your btop becomes a proper System Monitor. Your weechat gets its own Dock icon. GPU-accelerated rendering via an embedded Ghostty terminal engine—no existing Ghostty installation required.

Features

• Zero Dependencies: Single binary. Generated apps embed their own terminal engine—no Ghostty installation required.
• Native Experience: Real macOS applications (Swift + GhosttyKit), not shell script wrappers.
• GPU Accelerated: Ghostty's Metal-based renderer under the hood.
• Customizable: Custom names, bundle IDs, and icons (.icns or .png).

Installation

Homebrew

brew install --cask mattrobenolt/stuff/appify

Build from source

zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseFast -p /usr/local

Usage

appify [options] <command> [command-args...]
appify [options] -- <command> [args...]

Options

• -n, --name <n> - App name for Cmd+Tab/Dock (default: derived from command)
• -o, --output <path> - Output directory (default: current directory)
• -i, --icon <path> - Path to icon file (.icns or .png)
• -b, --bundle-id <id> - Bundle identifier (default: com.withmatt.appify.<n>)
• --cwd <path> - Working directory for the command
• --width <points> - Initial window width in points
• --height <points> - Initial window height in points
• --ghostty-config <path> - Ghostty config file to bundle with the app
• --shell - Run command through sh -c for shell features
• -h, --help - Show help message
• -v, --version - Show version

Notes:

• Options accept --opt=value. Use -- to pass through args that look like options.
• Shell mode requires quoting the command string.

Examples

# Simple usage
appify btop

# With custom name and icon
appify btop --name "System Monitor" --icon ./monitor.icns

# Full customization
appify weechat --name "WeeChat" --bundle-id "com.matt.weechat" --output ~/Applications

# Pass arguments to the command
appify nvim -u init.vim
appify --name "WeeChat" -- weechat --dir ~/irc

# Shell features
appify --shell 'cd /dir && ./run'

Good Candidates

Apps that work best are destinations, not context-dependent tools:

• System monitors: btop, bottom, htop, zenith
• Chat/IRC: weechat, irssi, gomuks
• Email: aerc, neomutt
• Music: cmus, ncmpcpp, spotify-tui
• RSS readers: newsboat
• Calendar/TODO: calcurse

Apps that need a working directory context (like lazygit or nvim) are less ideal since appified apps launch from Finder/Spotlight without that context.

Requirements

Generated apps require:

• macOS 11.0+

Building from source requires:

• Zig 0.15.2
• Xcode

License

MIT