list-macOS-apps

Inventory macOS applications from Homebrew, the Mac App Store, and local Applications folders. Print a sorted inventory or export it to CSV, Markdown, and JSON.

Features

• Lists Homebrew casks.
• Lists Mac App Store applications when mas is available.
• Lists manually installed .app bundles from /Applications and ~/Applications.
• Optionally includes Homebrew formulae.
• Exports the same canonical inventory to CSV, Markdown, and JSON.

The inventory combines package-manager entries with .app bundles found in Applications folders. It removes manual-app duplicates for names reported by Homebrew casks and the Mac App Store.

Requirements

• macOS
• Bash
• brew for Homebrew sections
• mas for Mac App Store sections
• jq to match cask-installed .app bundles and avoid duplicate manual-app entries

The script does not install dependencies automatically. If a command is not available, the related section is skipped with a warning.

Usage

git clone https://github.com/alsd4git/list-macOS-apps.git
cd list-macOS-apps
./list-installed-apps.sh

To export all sections in all three formats, create an output directory and run:

mkdir -p ./inventory
./list-installed-apps.sh --with-formulae \
  --export-csv --export-md --export-json \
  --output-dir ./inventory

The command prints each section to the terminal and writes installed_apps.csv, installed_apps.md, and installed_apps.json into ./inventory. Review these files before sharing them. They contain names from your installed-app inventory.

Example

This preview comes from the real script with synthetic .app directories and mocked brew and mas commands. It does not contain a scan of a real Mac. Regenerate it with ./scripts/generate-readme-demo.sh.

Regeneration requires Python 3 for the SVG renderer; it uses only the standard library.

The matching synthetic JSON export is available at docs/demo-inventory.json.

Options

• --with-formulae: Include Homebrew formulae in the output.
• --export-csv: Export the inventory to installed_apps.csv.
• --export-md: Export the inventory to installed_apps.md.
• --export-json: Export the inventory to installed_apps.json.
• --output-dir DIR: Write export files into DIR.
• --help: Print usage information.

For a reproducible inventory of a mounted volume or a test fixture, set APPLICATIONS_DIRS to a colon-separated list of folders. When it is unset, the script scans /Applications and ~/Applications on the machine where it runs. Use a dedicated output directory, and check the destination before exporting.

Output model

All output formats are generated from a single internal inventory model so app names with spaces, Mac App Store entries, and manual-app deduplication stay consistent across console output and exports.

Development

Validation commands from the repository root:

bash -n list-installed-apps.sh
shellcheck list-installed-apps.sh
./tests/test-list-installed-apps.sh
./scripts/generate-readme-demo.sh

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.