Release Mac App

Mac App Release

Attribution: Sourced from steipete/agent-scripts by Peter Steinberger.

Use for Sparkle-updated macOS apps (menu bar apps, utilities, etc.).

Rules

• Work from the app repo.
• Read .mac-release.env; it is the repo-owned release manifest.
• Never print private key material.
• Prefer Keychain Sparkle signing. SPARKLE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE is an explicit override only.

Release Manifest (.mac-release.env)

Required fields:

• MAC_RELEASE_APP_NAME - app name
• MAC_RELEASE_REPO - owner/repo
• MAC_RELEASE_BUNDLE_ID - bundle identifier
• MAC_RELEASE_VERSION_FILE - path to version file
• MAC_RELEASE_APPCAST - path to appcast XML
• MAC_RELEASE_FEED_URL - public appcast feed URL
• MAC_RELEASE_DOWNLOAD_URL_PREFIX - download base URL
• MAC_RELEASE_APP_ZIP - app zip artifact name
• MAC_RELEASE_PACKAGE_CMD - build/package command

Release Checklist

• appcast entry has URL, length, Sparkle signature
• downloaded enclosure verifies with Sparkle
• extracted app passes codesign, spctl, and stapler validate
• GitHub release has app zip + dSYM zip
• release notes match the changelog section
• after verified release, bump changelog to next patch Unreleased

Key Commands

# Check app code signing
codesign -dv --verbose=4 /path/to/App.app

# Verify notarization
spctl -a -vv /path/to/App.app

# Verify stapling
xcrun stapler validate /path/to/App.app

# Check zip contents
unzip -l App.zip

# Sign appcast entry (Sparkle)
sign_update App.zip private_key.pem

1Password Integration

If the release requires secrets via 1Password:

• Set MAC_RELEASE_OP_ITEM + MAC_RELEASE_OP_FIELDS in .mac-release.env
• Secrets are read once via op inside one persistent tmux session
• Never expose or echo secret values
• Follow the one-password skill for tmux session rules