tchigher / macforge

:computer: 📦 Application, plugin and theme discovery and manager for macOS

MacForge is an open-source plugin manager for macOS. It lets you discover, install and manage plugins to improve the user experience of macOS without the need for manually cloning/building or copying files.

Installation

• Download the latest beta release
• Unzip the download if your browser does not do so automatically
• Open MacForge
• MacForge will ask to be moved to /Applications
• MacForge may ask to install or update helper tools
• Disable System Integrity Protection
• Start installing and using plugins

Functionallity notes

• Loading plugins into system applications requires that System Integrity Protection is disabled
• Loading plugins into some applications may require Apple Mobile File Integrity to be disabled
• Loading plugins into some applications may require the plugin must be signed and in the /Library directory

Requirements

• MacForge supports macOS 10.10 and above
• Plugins distributed through MacForge may have different application and system requirements

Features

• Install plugins simply

  • Drag and drop plugins onto MacForge to automatically install them
  • MacForge can open files with the .bundle extension to automatically install them

• Featured

  • browse a few hand picked quality plugins

• Manage

  • Delete plugins (Trash can)
  • Show plugins in Finder (Eye icon)
  • Enable/Disable plugins (Check box)
  • Toggle plugins between single user and all users (User icon)
  • Search for plugins (by name or ID)
  • MacForge automatically detect existing plugins located in

• Discover

  • Browse existing plugins
  • Search though all existing plugins (by name, bundle ID)
  • See what each reposityory has to offer
  • Add or remove reposityories
  • It's easy to host your own repository on GitHub!
  • Discover, download and update plugins

• Changes (coming soon)

  • See new and recently updated tweaks

• Updates

  • Check what installed plugins have updates
  • Quickly update all plugins

• System Info

  • Show some basic information about the installation
  • Blacklist applications from loading plugins

• Preferences

  • Option to automatically keep plugins up to date
  • Miscillaneous settings

• And much more...

Creating a plugin

• Download and install MacForge
• Open MacForge
• Open Xcode and navigate File > New > Project...
• Search for MacForge Plugin
• Select it and press Next
• Enter a Product Name and target bundle id e.g. com.apple.loginwindow and press Next
• Select a location for your project and press Create
• Add your code
• You can find header dumps of most Apple Applications HERE
• Build your code
• Open your plugin with MacForge

Submitting a plugin

• Head over to the MacForge plugin repository
• Fork the project
• Add your compiled and zipped plugin to the bundles folder
• Edit packages_v2.plist to include your submission
• Submit a pull request

Troubleshooting

• Having problems? Submit an issue here: submit

Uninstalling

• Trashing MacForge will stop it from loading into applications
• If you want a mostly full clean select Preferences from the sidebar, then click Uninstall MacForge. Log out and back in for changes to fully apply.

Developement

• Wolfgang Baird (@w0lfschild) (MacEnhance)