Independent Mac apps

Code that sparks.

CodeCinder makes small, native apps for the Mac. Built in Swift and designed to feel like they came with macOS.

See the apps Get in touch

The apps

Three Mac apps in development. Follow along, or email to hear when they ship.

Illustration with sample files and sizes.
In development

Mothball

An uninstaller for macOS. Dragging an app to the Trash leaves its caches, preferences and support files behind. Mothball finds them, so the app is gone for good.

  • Finds the files an app leaves scattered across your Library folders.
  • Shows what it found and how much space it takes before anything is removed.
Illustration with sample bookmarks.
In development

BookHerd

One set of bookmarks for every browser on your Mac. Edit them once in BookHerd, and it writes the changes into each browser's own bookmarks.

  • Keeps a single master set of bookmarks and folders.
  • Works with each browser's built-in sync, so your bookmarks still reach your other devices.
Illustration with sample windows.
In development

Hovercard

Window previews for the Mac Dock. The Dock shows you an icon; Hovercard shows you what's behind it, right where you're already pointing.

  • Live thumbnails of every open window when you hover an app's icon.
  • Play, pause and skip in Apple Music and Spotify without leaving what you're doing.
  • Upcoming Calendar events at a glance, in a later update.

Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later

What makes a CodeCinder app

Right now, everything CodeCinder makes is for the Mac. Every app is held to the same four rules.

native

Native, not wrapped

Written in Swift with SwiftUI and AppKit, not a web page in a window, so it opens fast and stays light.

focused

One job, done well

Each app fixes one everyday annoyance, then gets out of your way.

at-home

At home on your Mac

Follows macOS conventions: light and dark mode, keyboard shortcuts, the menu bar and system settings.

maintained

Kept up to date

Updated for new macOS releases by the person who wrote it.

How an app gets made

The same four steps, from first idea to every update after launch.

  1. Notice

    Start from a small annoyance that shows up every day on a real Mac.

  2. Build

    Prototype natively, keeping the app small and the interface familiar.

  3. Test

    Use it daily on real Macs and every supported macOS version.

  4. Ship and maintain

    Release it, listen to feedback, and keep it current.

Hi, I'm Michael.

I've spent my career in IT, keeping servers, networks and offices running. CodeCinder is where I build the Mac apps I want on my own desk.

It's a one-person studio: the person who writes the code also answers your email.

SwiftSwiftUIAppKitXcodeEventKitmacOS 13+

Say hello

Questions, ideas for the next app, or want to know when the first one ships? Email me.