GitHub - Christian-Katzmann/app-it: A Claude Code + Codex skill that turns a local project into a macOS Dock-launchable app — native window, its own icon, no Electron. [The Windows version is in BETA]

Turn a local web project — or any hosted web app — into a macOS Dock-launchable .app bundle — a native window, its own Dock icon, and clean start/stop — without Electron, Tauri, or a rewrite.

Unofficial community project — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic or OpenAI. "Claude Code" and "Codex" are their respective owners' marks, named here only to say which assistants app-it plugs into. This is an independent open-source tool built by one developer.

A real app-it build, in motion. Fjord is an ordinary local web project (node server.js); app-it turns it into a native macOS app — double-click launches it, the window opens with its own Dock icon, and ⌘Q quits the app and frees the dev-server port. The actual generated app, not a mockup.

Status — Working, in daily use. The launcher templates are battle-tested across 12+ real projects; v0.1.0 is the first standalone, marketplace-installable release. macOS only, by design.

Windows beta — macOS is in daily use; Windows is an early beta, now with its first real-hardware fixes but still needing more. A complete sibling plugin (plugins/app-it-windows/), gated by a required windows-latest CI job (build · PowerShell lint · manifest parse · icon round-trip), mirrors the macOS contract with Windows primitives. The author runs only macOS, so for a long time it had never touched real Windows hardware; that changed with #8, the first run on an actual Windows machine, and a run of fixes since — a real start, not a finish line. If you're on Windows and want to help harden it, the doorway is docs/WINDOWS.md.

Local-first — app-it reads your project on your machine to choose a launcher strategy. It uploads nothing, runs no telemetry, adds no runtime dependencies, and never touches your business-logic source. The only thing it produces is an .app on your own Dock. For a hosted web app — a published Claude Artifact, a deployed dashboard, an internal tool — the supported networked path is explicit: wrap the hosted URL so the host handles login and keeps usage on each user's own account. See Privacy and Terms for the plain-language policy.

app-it is an assistant-agnostic plugin/skill. It works with Claude Code and Codex, and builds a small, repeatable launcher around an existing local project or hosted web app so that double-clicking starts the right runtime, opens a native window, keeps the Dock icon as your app, and cleans up when you quit.

What app-it is not

Not Electron, Tauri, or a native rewrite. It wraps your existing dev setup; it doesn't replace it, migrate it, or add a bundler to your dependency tree.
Not a general signed distribution system. No notarization, no App Store, no auto-update, no installer. A wrapper around a hosted web app is self-contained enough to zip and share, but it is still an ad-hoc-signed local bundle; recipients must trust the bundle and sign in with their own account.
Not cross-platform. macOS only — and on purpose. Windows is a genuinely different problem (WebView2, .lnk, .ico, SmartScreen), so it belongs in a separate plugin rather than a blurred promise. See Compatibility.
Not a hosted service. Nothing runs in the cloud and there is no live demo to visit — the proof is the apps on your own Dock (the Stack further down is real).

How it works

  WHAT YOU HAVE               WHAT APP-IT DOES           WHAT YOU GET
  ───────────────────────     ──────────────────────     ───────────────────────────
  a local web project         inspects it from disk,     YourApp.app on your Dock
  Vite React, SvelteKit,      picks a strategy, then     · its own icon
  Astro, Next, static, or ──▶ builds & signs a .app  ──▶ · native window, one click
  a hosted web app URL        around a WebKit shell      · ⌘Q quits & frees the port

Under the hood, app-it:

Inspects before it touches anything — project type, dev scripts, ports, browser-API needs, icon sources.
Picks a launcher strategy — a native Swift WKWebView shell by default (so the Dock icon stays yours), Chrome --app mode only when a project needs Chromium-only APIs.
Wraps a hosted web app without shared secrets — set external_url to a hosted link (for example, a published Claude Artifact); each user signs in within the app window and uses their own account.
Copies proven, hard-won templates into the project rather than re-deriving fragile launcher logic each time.
Builds and ad-hoc-signs a real .app — universal (arm64 + x86_64), Gatekeeper-friendly, with a generated .icns.
Gets the lifecycle right — closing the window (⌘W / red-X) leaves the dev server warm for a ~250 ms re-launch; ⌘Q quits the app and frees the port.
Writes a report explaining every change and exactly how to undo it.

Finished app? There's a lighter companion. app-it runs your project's dev server — perfect while you're still building. Once an app is done, it doesn't need one: the app-it-static companion serves the built output (dist/, build/, out/, …) so a finished app costs ~15 MB instead of a dev server's ~300–700 MB. Same native window, same Dock Stack — reach for it only when an app is done. How it works →

Requirements

macOS.
Claude Code or Codex for marketplace installation.
swiftc (Xcode Command Line Tools) for the native WebKit shell — xcode-select --install.
python3 (also from the Xcode Command Line Tools) for app-it-static's server mode.
Chrome only if a project needs the Chrome fallback path.

Install

Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace add Christian-Katzmann/app-it
claude plugin install app-it@app-it

Codex:

codex plugin marketplace add Christian-Katzmann/app-it
codex plugin add app-it@app-it

Then, from inside any local web project, ask your assistant:

Natural triggers work too: "make this clickable from the Dock", "give this an icon", "dockify this", "package this as a local app".

To wrap a hosted web app, point app-it at its URL rather than copied source. A Claude Artifact is the common case: use the hosted artifact link, since a raw .jsx file works as an ordinary local React app only when it does not depend on Claude's hosted runtime (window.claude, window.storage, MCP prompts, or Claude-provided auth).

Optional: for finished apps, also install the lighter companion — claude plugin install app-it-static@app-it (or codex plugin add app-it-static@app-it), then run /app-it-static.

Local development (before publication)

claude plugin marketplace add /path/to/app-it
claude plugin install app-it@app-it

codex plugin marketplace add /path/to/app-it
codex plugin add app-it@app-it

Manual skill install

Marketplace install is preferred. To copy just the skill folder:

./install.sh            # auto-detects Claude Code and/or Codex, asks before overwrite
./install.sh --dry-run  # show what it would do, write nothing

What it adds to a target project

All additions are additive and reversible:

scripts/app-it.config.json — single source of truth for the app(s)
scripts/desktop-build.sh, desktop-install.sh, desktop-quit.sh, desktop-doctor.sh, desktop-verify.sh, wrapper.swift, …
assets/<slug>-icon.png or .svg
desktop/<App Name>.app/ (gitignored — regenerated by the build)
docs/desktop-launcher.md and an app-it-report.md decision log
package.json scripts: desktop:build, desktop:install, desktop:quit, desktop:doctor, desktop:verify

Installed apps land in ~/Applications/App It/ by default. Drag that folder to the right side of the Dock once and every future appified app appears in its Stack automatically. Override with APP_IT_INSTALL_DIR.

By default, generated launchers use port_mode: "fallback" so sibling local apps can coexist by scanning upward from the preferred port. Use port_mode: "fixed" only when the app must stay on one exact localhost origin, such as browser storage or OAuth callbacks.

A real MyApps Stack, not a mockup. Every icon is an ordinary local web project app-it turned into a native app — its own icon, its own window, one click to launch. Do this a dozen times and your Dock fills itself.

Safety model

app-it only makes additive, reversible changes. It will not rewrite product logic, add runtime dependencies, require a terminal window to stay open, or assume an already-running dev server. It may start and stop local dev-server processes during verification. It never collects telemetry, sends project data anywhere, or handles secrets. See SECURITY.md.

Validate this repo

This is the one-command check: it validates manifest shape, shell syntax, template presence, plist syntax, Swift typechecking, and Claude plugin validation (when the claude CLI is available). CI runs the same script on macos-latest.

For launcher/runtime changes, also run the behavioral suite:

./scripts/test-fixtures.sh

It builds tiny fixture apps and checks the lifecycle app-it promises: bundle shape, runtime ports, ownership, doctor/verify JSON, warm reattach, and cleanup.

For AI agents

This repo is agent tooling, and agents are expected to work in it. Start with AGENTS.md — it names the non-obvious conventions (templates are canonical, trust disk over docs, the macOS-only boundary) and the safe first commands. Architectural decisions and their rejected alternatives live in docs/decisions/.

Community nudge

The app-it-static companion was inspired by feedback from the r/ClaudeAI launch thread, and the project keeps growing on community help. Thanks to:

TechExpert2910 for pointing out that finished apps shouldn't need a full dev server, and that Vercel/PWA-style workflows are far lighter — the nudge that became "serve the build locally, not a dev server."
K_M_A_2k for highlighting that deployed/static proof-of-concepts are often the standard workflow and are easier to share.
Vo_Mimbre for the corporate-environment caveat: external hosting like Vercel isn't always approved, which is exactly why a local static launcher earns its place even for finished projects.
Firnschnee for becoming the Windows beta's real-hardware tester — the first proof it actually runs, then a run of fixes each traced and verified on a real Windows 11 box: the window title, the app-it-host label stuck in the taskbar right-click menu, and a graceful path when the WebView2 runtime is missing (offer the installer instead of a dead window).
SohamKela for hardening the native window so a restored frame can't open off-screen or postage-stamp sized, adding first-class Vite + React, SvelteKit, and Astro dev recipes, and — most recently — the URL-only launcher that wraps a hosted web app (a published Claude Artifact is the common case) in a Dock window: no local server, no shared secrets, each recipient signed into their own account.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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