Managing macOS apps with mise

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

mise is a fast, flexible tool manager that can install and keep development tools in sync across machines. Its GitHub backend can also download arbitrary release assets, making it useful for managing macOS applications alongside your usual command-line tools.

mise downloads GitHub release assets, but it does not install DMG applications into /Applications. Add this custom global task to ~/.config/mise/config.toml:

 1[tasks."macos:install-dmg-app"]
 2hide = true
 3run = '''
 4set -euo pipefail
 5
 6install_path="${MISE_TOOL_INSTALL_PATH:?MISE_TOOL_INSTALL_PATH is required}"
 7dmg_pattern="${MACOS_DMG_PATTERN:-*.dmg}"
 8app_pattern="${MACOS_APP_PATTERN:-*.app}"
 9
10dmg="$(find "$install_path" -maxdepth 1 -name "$dmg_pattern" -type f -print -quit)"
11app_root="$install_path"
12
13if [ -n "$dmg" ]; then
14 mount="$(hdiutil attach "$dmg" -nobrowse -readonly |
15 awk '/\/Volumes\// {print substr($0, index($0, "/Volumes/")); exit}')"
16
17 cleanup() {
18 hdiutil detach "$mount" -quiet 2>/dev/null || true
19 }
20 trap cleanup EXIT
21 app_root="$mount"
22fi
23
24app="$(find "$app_root" -maxdepth 1 -name "$app_pattern" -type d -print -quit)"
25[ -n "$app" ] || { echo "No .app found in $app_root"; exit 1; }
26
27app_name="${MACOS_APP_NAME:-$(basename "$app")}"
28case "$app_name" in
29 *.app) ;;
30 *) app_name="$app_name.app" ;;
31esac
32
33ditto "$app" "/Applications/$app_name"
34'''

Then declare apps using mise’s GitHub backend:

MacOS on yshalsager

Managing macOS apps with mise