OpenWith

Manage macOS "Open With" defaults — from a window or from the terminal.

Releases · License

OpenWith is a small Rust-based macOS tool for inspecting and managing default apps for file types. It lets you see which app is currently set as the default for each file extension and update those associations from one place, without repetitive clicks or guessing bundle IDs.

It ships as two front ends over the same Rust core, sharing one change history — use either, or both.

OpenWith.app — a native window, with a menu-bar popover

openwith — a CLI, with a full-screen TUI

Install

• openwith (formula) — the openwith command: CLI plus interactive TUI. Pick this if you live in the terminal or want to script/dotfile your associations.
• openwith-gui (cask) — OpenWith.app: a native windowed app with a menu-bar popover. Pick this if you'd rather point and click.

CLI / TUI

brew install ColeMei/openwith/openwith

If you prefer installing from source with Cargo, install Rust via rustup, then run:

cargo install --git https://github.com/ColeMei/openwith openwith-cli

For local development builds from this repository:

cargo install --path crates/openwith-cli

GUI app

brew install --cask ColeMei/openwith/openwith-gui

Or download the .dmg from the latest release.

[!IMPORTANT] The app is currently unsigned (no Apple Developer ID), so on first launch recent macOS versions claim "OpenWith.app is damaged and can't be opened". It isn't — that's Gatekeeper's message for unsigned apps, and right-click → Open no longer bypasses it. Clear the quarantine flag once and it launches normally:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/OpenWith.app

Updates. The app checks GitHub for a new release once a day (Settings → Updates → Check automatically; off means it never asks). When one is out, a toast, the menu-bar popover and Settings offer Update to X…, which shows the release notes and, on Install, downloads the update, verifies its signature against the key built into the app, replaces OpenWith.app in place and relaunches. Nothing installs without that press. If installing isn't possible, it opens the release page instead. Beta-channel pre-releases always install from their release page. Replacing the app resets a custom Finder icon on it, as any reinstall does.

To build it from source instead: cd crates/openwith-gui && npm install && npm run tauri build.

Installed the cask as openwith (pre-v0.5.2)? It was renamed: brew uninstall --cask openwith && brew install --cask ColeMei/openwith/openwith-gui.

The GUI

Four tabs — Extensions, Apps, Schemes and Profiles — plus a settings pane. Click any row to change its default; drop a file on the window to look its extension up.

The Apps tab turns the question around: pick an app, see everything it can open, and claim any of it in one click. The menu-bar popover keeps a lookup field, recent changes and per-entry undo one keystroke away (⌥⌘O by default, rebindable).

The terminal

Quick Start

openwith                    # Launch interactive TUI (extensions view)
openwith list               # Same as above
openwith apps               # Launch interactive TUI (apps view)
openwith current pdf        # Show default app for .pdf
openwith set md Typora      # Set Typora as default for .md
openwith set md abnerworks.Typora  # Bundle IDs work too
openwith current -s http    # Show the default browser
openwith set -s http Firefox      # Set the default browser
openwith history            # Recent changes, last 7 days (recorded by CLI and GUI alike)
openwith history --all      # Everything still retained (90 days / 500 events)
openwith undo               # Revert the most recent change

Run openwith --help to see all commands.

Interactive TUI

Run openwith with no arguments to browse all file extensions, see their current defaults, and change them interactively. Press Enter on any row to pick a new default from the apps that actually declare support for it — Tab widens the list to every installed app.

Tab at the top level switches between the two views:

• Extensions — browse all file extensions, see their current default app, and change defaults via an app picker
• Apps — browse all installed apps in a master-detail view, see which extensions each app supports and which it's the default for

Press ? inside the TUI for keyboard shortcuts.

Export & Import

You can export your current associations to a TOML file and import them on another machine — making your "Open With" preferences portable, like a dotfile.

openwith export -o openwith.toml    # Export
openwith import --dry-run openwith.toml  # Preview what would change
openwith import openwith.toml       # Import on a new machine

The export includes a [schemes] table for URL handlers (browser, mail client). Import is idempotent: associations already set correctly are left untouched, apps that aren't installed are skipped, and every change reports what it replaced — so the same config works across machines with different setups and is safe to run from a dotfiles script.

Scripting

openwith list prints a plain table instead of launching the TUI when its output is piped, and --plain / --json force either format:

openwith list --json | jq -r '.[] | select(.app == "Preview") | .ext'
openwith current pdf --json

Shell completions

openwith completions zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_openwith"   # zsh
openwith completions bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/openwith
openwith completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/openwith.fish

How It Works

1. Scans /Applications, /System/Applications, and ~/Applications for .app bundles
2. Reads each app's Info.plist to discover supported file extensions and URL schemes
3. Queries and sets defaults via native macOS Launch Services APIs

Caveats

• macOS associates defaults with file types (UTIs), not extensions. Some extensions share a type: .env resolves to public.plain-text, the same type as .txt, so changing one changes the other. openwith warns you and lists the affected sibling extensions whenever this happens.
• Finder occasionally caches icons/defaults; if a change doesn't appear immediately, relaunch Finder or log out and back in. The association itself is applied instantly.

License

MIT

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to linux.do