Macnite Desktop

A native macOS app that wraps Macnite — pick the Mac apps you want, click Install, and Macnite runs Homebrew for you. No Terminal needed.

• Browse 14,000+ apps and tools from the Homebrew catalog
• Install, uninstall, and update with one click
• See everything you've installed via Homebrew in one place
• Live install log so you can see what's happening
• Free, open source, no accounts, no tracking
• Built with Tauri 2 — Rust core, system WebView frontend, ~10 MB bundle

The web version is still the easiest way to try Macnite (no download, copy/paste a command). The desktop app is for people who'd rather click a button than touch Terminal.

Requirements

To run the built .app:

• macOS 11 or newer
• Homebrew (Macnite will prompt you if it's missing)

To build from source you also need:

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• Rust (curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh)
• Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)

Getting started

git clone <this repo>
cd MacniteDesktop
npm install
npm run icon       # one-time: generate app icons from logo.svg
npm run dev        # opens the app with hot reload of HTML/CSS/JS

To produce a distributable .app and .dmg:

npm run build
# Output: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/{macos,dmg}/

Project layout

.
├── dist/              # web assets bundled into the app
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── styles.css
│   ├── app.js         # frontend logic, talks to Rust via invoke()
│   ├── shared.js      # catalog loading + helpers
│   ├── popular.js     # curated list of popular apps
│   ├── popular-fonts.js
│   ├── logo.svg
│   └── wordmark.svg
├── package.json
└── src-tauri/
    ├── Cargo.toml
    ├── build.rs
    ├── tauri.conf.json
    ├── capabilities/default.json
    ├── icons/         # populated by `npm run icon`
    └── src/
        ├── main.rs
        └── lib.rs     # brew install/uninstall/upgrade/list commands

The frontend is plain HTML/CSS/ES modules — no bundler. Tauri exposes its JS API on window.__TAURI__ (via withGlobalTauri: true in tauri.conf.json), so app.js calls Rust commands with window.__TAURI__.core.invoke('install_packages', …) and streams output via window.__TAURI__.event.listen(…).

If you open index.html directly in a browser (outside the Tauri shell), the catalog still loads but install actions are disabled.

Rust commands

Defined in src-tauri/src/lib.rs:

Command	What it does
brew_installed	Returns true if brew is on the system
brew_location	Returns the resolved brew binary path
list_installed	{ casks, formulae } of installed packages
list_outdated	Output of brew outdated --json=v2
install_packages	Streams brew install [--cask] <token> for each package
uninstall_packages	Streams brew uninstall [--cask] <token> for each
upgrade_packages	Streams brew upgrade [--cask] <token> for each
upgrade_all	Streams brew upgrade

All streaming commands emit LogLine { stream, line } events on the event name the frontend passes in.

Install & update via Homebrew

Macnite ships as a Homebrew cask through the seanblowers/homebrew-macnite tap. One-line install:

brew install --cask seanblowers/macnite/macnite

To update later:

brew upgrade --cask macnite

Macnite's own Updates tab will list macnite once a newer release is published. Run brew upgrade --cask macnite from Terminal to apply it — the cask quits the running app to replace it, so the upgrade has to come from outside Macnite.

The cask strips the macOS quarantine attribute on install (postflight xattr), so the unsigned DMG opens cleanly on first launch — no Apple Developer ID required.

Publishing a release

1. Bump version in package.json and src-tauri/tauri.conf.json.
2. Build the DMG:

   npm run build
   # → src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/Macnite_<version>_aarch64.dmg

3. Create a GitHub release tagged v<version> here and attach the DMG.
4. In the homebrew-macnite repo, bump version and sha256 in Casks/macnite.rb:

   shasum -a 256 src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/Macnite_<version>_aarch64.dmg

   Commit + push. Existing users get the update on their next brew upgrade.

Optional: signing & notarization

If you later get an Apple Developer ID ($99/year), you can sign + notarize so Macnite shows as a trusted developer in About boxes and right-click → Open prompts. With a .env containing:

APPLE_ID=you@apple.id
APPLE_PASSWORD=<app-specific password from appleid.apple.com>
APPLE_TEAM_ID=<10-char Team ID>
APPLE_SIGNING_IDENTITY=Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID)

…run npm run release instead of npm run build in step 2. Everything else stays the same — the cask's postflight xattr is harmless on a signed bundle.

Distribution notes

• The app contains no telemetry and makes no network requests other than fetching the public Homebrew catalog from formulae.brew.sh.
• The first installed copy survives subsequent upgrades — Homebrew operations run as the user, no privilege escalation, no daemon.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.