PiqueMHL

This project is now superceded by my MHL Media Trust Tools

PiqueMHL was an experimental macOS Quick Look extension for .mhl Media Hash List previews. Forked from Pique

Select an .mhl file in Finder, press Space, and get a readable verification preview with creator metadata, source metadata, file counts, sizes, hashes, and the raw XML source.

Supported File Types

Format	Extensions
Media Hash List	.mhl

Media Hash List files are rendered as verification manifests with creator metadata, source metadata, file counts, total size, per-file hashes, and the raw XML source.

This project is aimed at XML-based Media Hash List files used in camera card verification and offload workflows.

Requirements

macOS 15.6 or later.

Installation

You can build from source with Xcode:

xcodebuild -project Pique.xcodeproj -scheme Pique -config Release

For local signing, copy Config/Signing.local.example.xcconfig to Config/Signing.local.xcconfig, set your team and signing identity there, and keep that local file out of Git.

Or use the pkg installer available in Releases.

Local Development

1. Copy Config/Signing.local.example.xcconfig to Config/Signing.local.xcconfig.
2. Set your own DEVELOPMENT_TEAM and CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY in that local file.
3. Run:

./install_local.zsh

4. Launch PiqueMHL.app once if needed.
5. Enable Pique MHL in System Settings > Login Items & Extensions > Quick Look Extensions.
6. Select an .mhl file in Finder and press Space to test the preview.

Enabling the Extension

On macOS 15.6 and later, Quick Look extensions may need to be explicitly allowed. When you first launch PiqueMHL, you may see a notification:

Go to System Settings > Login Items & Extensions > Quick Look Extensions and enable Pique MHL.

Troubleshooting

If .mhl files stop previewing in Quick Look after building in Xcode, the usual cause is a stale extension registration from Xcode DerivedData or ArchiveIntermediates.

Check the registered Quick Look entries:

pluginkit -m -A -D -v -p com.apple.quicklook.preview | rg piquemhl

The active installed extension should point to:

/Applications/PiqueMHL.app/Contents/PlugIns/PiqueMHLPreview.appex

If you see additional PiqueMHL entries from ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/..., remove the stale registrations and re-register the installed app:

pluginkit -r /Applications/PiqueMHL.app/Contents/PlugIns/PiqueMHLPreview.appex
pluginkit -a /Applications/PiqueMHL.app/Contents/PlugIns/PiqueMHLPreview.appex
pluginkit -e use -i io.macvfx.piquemhl.preview
killall Finder

Or use:

./refresh_quicklook.zsh

If needed, remove stale Xcode build products from ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ and repeat the commands above.

Recommended workflow:

1. Build/sign locally.
2. Copy the finished app to /Applications/PiqueMHL.app.
3. Re-register the installed extension with pluginkit.
4. Avoid relying on DerivedData build products as your active installed copy.

License

Copyright 2026 Declarative IT GmbH

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.