Make Anything Into an App on macOS

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If you've used macOS/MacOSX and never poked around the structure of an App, I have some mind-blowing information for you: it's just a folder. A folder with more folders, in fact!

How macOS Apps Work

The basic structure of a macOS app is a-like so: 

- MyCool.app/
  + Contents/
    + Info.plist
    + MacOS/
      + CoolApp
    + Resources/
      + AppIcon.icns
      + SomeOtherJunk.txt

This isn't just specific to applications! Kernel extensions, some plugins, and frameworks also follow this "actually a directory" format. These are called Bundles.[1]

Components of an App Bundle

Info.plist

The core component to a bundle is its Info.plist. All usable keys are provided in Apple Developer docs[2], but these should get you started: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8">
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>xyz.datagirl.cool-app</string>
    <!-- arbitrary, set by Xcode. prolly don't change it -->
    <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
    <string>6.0</string>
    <!--
         This can only be up to 15 characters! Use CFBundleDisplayName if you
         need a longer version for Siri and the sort.
      -->
    <key>CFBundleName</key>
    <string>CoolApp</string>
    <key>CFBundleVersion</key>
    <string>1.0.69</string>
    <!-- relative to Resources/ -->
    <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
    <string>AppIcon.icns</string>
    <key>CFBundleIconName</key>
    <string>AppIcon</string>
    <!-- relative to MacOS/. technically should be the same as your .app name -->
    <key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
    <string>CoolApp</string>
    <!-- APPL = we're an App -->
    <key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
    <string>APPL</string>
    <!-- Do we support Retina? (idk if this matters for our purposes) -->
    <key>NSHighResolutionCapable</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

The program itself

Make a program named the same as what you set CFBundleExecutable to in your Info.plist. This can be a macOS binary, or interpreted code, such as a shell script. You'll need to make sure it's executable, of course. Save it to the Contents/MacOS directory in your app.

App Icon

Generating an ICNS file is an exercise left to the reader.[3] Once you have it, save it with the same name you set as CFBundleIconFile in the Contents/Resources directory in your app.

Notes

  1. ↑ About Bundles, from the Bundle Programming Guide by Apple.
  2. ↑ Bundle configuration, from Apple Developer Documentation.
  3. ↑ But this gist worked well for me.
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