launchd-panel

A macOS desktop app for inspecting and managing launchd jobs and plist files, built with Wails, Go, and React.

简体中文

Install

Download the latest darwin_universal.zip from GitHub Releases, extract it, and move Launchd Panel.app into your Applications folder.

The current build is not Apple-signed or notarized yet. If macOS blocks the first launch:

• right-click Launchd Panel.app in Finder and choose Open
• or allow it from System Settings -> Privacy & Security

Overview

launchd-panel is a macOS desktop app for inspecting and managing launchd jobs.

It is built with Wails, uses Go for launchctl, plist, and log handling, and uses React for the desktop workspace. The current product focuses on:

• browsing user, local, and system launchd jobs from one place
• providing real management actions for user-scoped LaunchAgent jobs
• editing plist data through a friendlier UI instead of raw XML only
• combining logs, runtime status, validation, and action history in one workspace

Current Features

Workspace Snapshot

• Scans the following locations into one unified workspace
  • ~/Library/LaunchAgents
  • /Library/LaunchAgents
  • /Library/LaunchDaemons
  • /System/Library/LaunchAgents
  • /System/Library/LaunchDaemons
• Merges runtime data from launchctl print and launchctl print-disabled
• Shows job status, exit code, disabled state, schedule, command summary, log availability, and history count
• Provides summary cards and navigation counters
• Supports filtering by navigation group, search keyword, and current selection state

Job Management

• Real write operations are available for ~/Library/LaunchAgents
• Supported per-job actions
  • start
  • stop
  • enable
  • disable
  • reload
  • validate
  • delete
• Supported batch actions
  • batch validate
  • batch disable
• System and global jobs are shown with real data but remain read-only

Configuration Editing

• Creating and editing jobs uses the same configuration drawer
• Three editing modes are available
  • guided mode
  • professional form
  • raw plist
• Guided mode groups interval, daily, weekly, and monthly schedules under one timed entry, and interval rules support seconds, minutes, hours, and days
• The professional form includes a visual StartCalendarInterval editor for common rules like every Friday at 17:50
• Structured editing is supported for
  • Label
  • Program
  • ProgramArguments
  • WorkingDirectory
  • RunAtLoad
  • KeepAlive
  • StartInterval
  • StartCalendarInterval
  • StandardOutPath
  • StandardErrorPath
  • EnvironmentVariables
  • WatchPaths
• Unmodified plist keys are preserved when saving from form mode
• New jobs can auto-fill friendly file names and suggested log paths
• You can save only, or save and immediately reload the job

Details, Logs, and History

• The detail drawer shows
  • status highlights
  • alerts and validation results
  • plist-derived fields
  • launchctl print runtime output
  • recent action history
• The log drawer supports
  • stdout
  • stderr
  • combined view
  • auto refresh
  • live tracking
  • downloading the current log view
  • clearing the current log file
• Action history is persisted locally and remains available after app restarts

Workspace Settings

• Theme modes
  • light
  • dark
  • follow system
• Remembers whether system jobs should be shown
• Can check the latest GitHub release on startup
• Can pre-download an update package and install it after restart
• Settings are persisted in the local config directory

Management Scope

Scope	Path	Capability
Current user agent	~/Library/LaunchAgents	full management
Local agent	/Library/LaunchAgents	read-only
Local daemon	/Library/LaunchDaemons	read-only
System agent	/System/Library/LaunchAgents	read-only
System daemon	/System/Library/LaunchDaemons	read-only

UI Structure

• The main screen uses a compact summary plus job table layout
• The left navigation switches between scope, status, logs, history, and related views
• Clicking a row opens the detail drawer by default
• The context menu and action dropdown can open details, editing, logs, or run actions directly
• Details, configuration, and logs all stay in the right-side drawer so the main table remains the primary workspace

Tech Stack

Backend

• Go 1.23
• Wails v2
• howett.net/plist

Frontend

• React 18
• Vite
• Ant Design
• Monaco Editor
• simplebar-react
• Tailwind CSS v4

Project Structure

launchd-panel/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── release.yml
├── app.go
├── main.go
├── settings.go
├── internal/
│   └── launchd/
│       ├── history.go
│       ├── service.go
│       ├── service_test.go
│       └── types.go
├── scripts/
│   └── sync-version.mjs
├── frontend/
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── vite.config.js
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── App.jsx
│   │   ├── style.css
│   │   └── components/
│   │       ├── ConfigurationPanel.jsx
│   │       ├── DetailPanel.jsx
│   │       ├── LogHistoryPanel.jsx
│   │       ├── Navigation.jsx
│   │       ├── PlistEditor.jsx
│   │       ├── ScrollArea.jsx
│   │       ├── SettingsPanel.jsx
│   │       ├── StatusTag.jsx
│   │       ├── SummarySection.jsx
│   │       └── TasksTable.jsx
├── build/
├── README.md
├── README.zh-CN.md
└── wails.json

Development

Requirements

• macOS
• Go 1.23 or later
• Node.js 18 or later
• pnpm
• Wails CLI

Install Dependencies

cd "frontend"
pnpm install

Frontend Development

cd "frontend"
pnpm dev

Desktop Development

wails dev

Build

Frontend Build

cd "frontend"
pnpm build

Desktop App Build

wails build

Tag Release

Push any tag, for example v0.1.0, to trigger GitHub Actions.

The workflow will:

• sync the tag version into wails.json and version.go
• build the macOS app with wails build -clean -platform darwin/universal -ldflags "-X main.appVersion=${VERSION}"
• repackage build/bin/launchd-panel.app as Launchd Panel.app inside the zip archive
• publish a GitHub Release and upload the zip plus SHA-256 checksum
• push the updated version files back to the default branch automatically

Notes

• The current version only allows write operations for user-scoped LaunchAgent jobs
• System and local jobs are hidden by default and can be enabled from settings
• Log viewing depends on configured StandardOutPath and StandardErrorPath values