OpenUpdater is a lightweight macOS menubar app that scans the apps in your /Applications folder, finds newer versions, and updates them in a click. It isn’t limited to App Store or any single package manager — it covers regular Mac apps: GitHub releases, Sparkle-based apps, and direct downloads.

OpenUpdater provides a crowdsourced, community-maintained set of update sources. Coverage grows as people add recipes, so OpenUpdater can keep up with apps that have no built-in updater of their own.

Features

• 🔍 Automatic scanning — reads your installed apps and checks each for a newer version.
• 🔄 Per-app re-scan — re-check a single app on demand, so updates applied elsewhere are picked up right away.
• ⬆️ One-click updates — download, verify, and replace an app in place. Update one, several, or all at once.
• 🧩 Works with many sources — GitHub Releases, Sparkle appcasts (auto-detected), and direct HTTP/JSON/XML/YAML version feeds.
• 🪶 Lives in your menubar — a quick popover for a glance, plus a full window for the details.
• 🔔 Release notes — jump straight to an app’s changelog before you update.
• 🙈 Ignore lists — silence an app entirely, or skip just one version you don’t want.
• 🧭 Spot the gaps — see which apps have no update source yet, and report them in a click to help grow coverage.
• 🧪 Pre-releases — opt into beta/pre-release builds on a per-app basis.
• 🌿 Release channels — for apps with more than one stream (Firefox/Thunderbird ESR, LibreOffice Fresh/Still, Blender LTS, …), pick which one to track per app.
• 🔐 Optional GitHub token — raises GitHub’s rate limit for faster, more reliable checks (stored encrypted in your Keychain).

Installation

1. Download the latest OpenUpdater.dmg from the Releases page.
2. Open the DMG and drag OpenUpdater into your Applications folder.
3. Launch it from Applications. OpenUpdater appears in your menubar (the two-arrows icon).

[!NOTE]
The first time you open it, macOS may ask you to confirm. If it’s blocked, right-click the app in Finder and choose Open, then confirm.

Requirements: macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.

Usage

Click the menubar icon for a quick popover, or open the full window for the details, tabs, right-click actions, and Preferences.

See docs/usage.md for the full guide, including how updates install and the optional Background Helper.

Contributing

Coverage grows through community-maintained update recipes — request an app, author one in the app, or open a pull request. Most ways need no fork.

See docs/contributing.md for the recipe format and all the ways to help.