macos-design-guidelines — Skills

What it does

[ ] App has a complete menu bar with standard menus

[ ] All actions have keyboard shortcuts

[ ] Menu items dynamically update (enable/disable, title changes)

[ ] Context menus on all interactive elements

[ ] App menu has About, Settings, Hide, Quit

[ ] Windows are freely resizable with sensible minimums

[ ] Fullscreen and Split View work

Requirements & configuration

Send notifications only for events that happen outside the app or require user action. Never notify for routine operations. Notifications must be actionable.

Set a reasonable width for the popover's content. Do not let the popover be wider than necessary. Content should not require scrolling unless the list is inherently long (e.g., a font picker).

1. No menu bar — Every Mac app needs a menu bar. Period. A Mac app without menus is like a car without a steering wheel.

3. Tab bars at the bottom — Mac apps use sidebars and toolbars, not iOS-style tab bars. If you need tabs, use actual document tabs in the tab bar (like Safari or Finder).

12. Notification spam — Mac apps that send excessive notifications get their permissions revoked. Only notify for events that genuinely need attention.

macos design guidelines

Source

Repository: https://github.com/ehmo/platform-design-skills

macos-design-guidelines FAQ

What does the macos-design-guidelines skill do?

Apple Human Interface Guidelines for Mac. Use when building macOS apps with SwiftUI or AppKit, implementing menu bars, toolbars, window management, or keyboard shortcuts. Triggers on tasks involving Mac UI, desktop apps, or Mac Catalyst. [ ] App has a complete menu bar with standard menus [ ] All actions have keyboard shortcuts

What does macos-design-guidelines require?

Send notifications only for events that happen outside the app or require user action. Never notify for routine operations. Notifications must be actionable. Set a reasonable width for the popover's content. Do not let the popover be wider than necessary. Content should not require scrolling unless the list is inherently long (e.g., a font picker). 1. No menu bar — Every Mac app needs a menu bar. Period. A Mac app without menus is like a car without a steering wheel. 3. Tab bars at the bottom — Mac apps use sidebars and toolbars, not iOS-style tab bars. If you need tabs, use actual document tabs in the tab bar (like Safari or Finder). 12. Notification spam — Mac apps that send excessive notifications get their permissions revoked. Only notify for events that genuinely need attention.

How do I install macos-design-guidelines?

Run: npx -y skills add https://github.com/ehmo/platform-design-skills --skill macos-design-guidelines --agent claude-code — the source lives at github.com/ehmo/platform-design-skills.

Maintain macos-design-guidelines?

Let people know it's listed here — add the badge (live metrics, light/dark aware) or a plain link to your README or docs.

[macos-design-guidelines on getagentictools](https://getagentictools.com/skills/ehmo-platform-design-skills-macos-design-guidelines?ref=badge)

npx agentictools info skills/ehmo-platform-design-skills-macos-design-guidelines

The second line is the CLI lookup for this page — handy in READMEs and docs.