Developer tools · 2026

Appothèque

A menu bar launcher for the Mac and iOS apps you are building.

Click an app: Appothèque checks your local files, builds only if something changed, then opens it.

Film · 21 seconds

Facts

Platform
macOS 26 or later
Built with
Swift, no dependencies
Licence
MIT
Version
0.5.1

Install

brew install --cask arsis-dev/tap/appotheque

Why

When you work on several apps at once, opening the current version of one usually means opening Xcode or a terminal, picking the scheme, building and waiting. Appothèque keeps a build recipe for each project and a fingerprint of its inputs. If nothing changed since the last successful build, the app opens immediately; otherwise it is rebuilt first.

What it does

  • Builds only when needed.

    Tracked files, untracked files that Git does not ignore, uncommitted changes, lockfiles, the recipe and the selected Xcode all count.

  • Shows what changed.

    The window lists the files modified, added or removed since the last successful build, next to the fingerprint of each build.

  • Keeps the previous build.

    Each successful build is stored separately. The previous one stays one click away, including after a failed build.

  • Never force-quits.

    When a newer build is ready, the running version is asked to quit normally, so its save dialogs still appear.

Limits

  • macOS 26 only.
  • The first launch always builds: an existing binary cannot be proven to match the sources.

Screenshots

The Appothèque window: an app whose code changed, the fingerprints of the two builds and the files modified since the last one
Window
The launcher: favourites and apps with their state, and the selected app with its Launch button
Launcher