Install MacGet

Before you install

Three things worth knowing before you double-click anything.

You need macOS macOS Tahoe 26.4 or later. MacGet is built against Tahoe APIs and will not launch on earlier systems. Check with → About This Mac.

Download only from the official releases page. The only place MacGet is published is the GitHub releases page. A build of a download manager from anywhere else is not one you should trust.

MacGet is not notarized, and macOS will tell you so. Apple notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account ($99/year). MacGet is free and un-funded, so it ships without it. That has one visible consequence — a warning the first time you open the app — and it is worth being precise about what that warning does and doesn't mean.

It means Apple has not scanned this specific build. It does not mean macOS detected anything wrong with it. What you get instead is a different set of guarantees: the full source is public, releases are built from it, Hardened Runtime is enabled, and every automatic update is checked against an EdDSA signature before it is allowed to install. If that tradeoff isn't one you want to make, building from source is always an option.

Installing

Homebrew (recommended)

Requires macOS Tahoe 26.4 or later on Apple silicon. The cask removes the quarantine attribute after install, so there is no Gatekeeper prompt and no “Open Anyway” step — the “First launch — the Gatekeeper prompt” section below doesn't apply to you.

Manually, from the DMG

1. Download macget.dmg from the releases page.
2. Open the DMG.
3. Drag Macget into your Applications folder.
4. Eject the DMG.

Keep the app in /Applications. The browser extension's native-messaging host is registered at the path MacGet last launched from, so a stable location keeps browser capture working.

First launch — the Gatekeeper prompt

Open MacGet from Applications. macOS will refuse the first time and show:

“Macget” can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.

This is the expected behaviour described above. To get past it:

1. Click Doneon the dialog. Don't move the app to the Trash.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
3. Scroll to the Securitysection. You'll see a line saying “Macget” was blocked. Click Open Anyway.
4. Authenticate with Touch ID or your password, then click Open on the final confirmation.

MacGet opens, and macOS remembers the decision. Every later launch is normal — you will not see this again for this app.

The terminal alternative

If you would rather not click through System Settings, you can remove the quarantine attribute directly:

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

Worth understanding what that actually does, because it's a command people paste without reading. When you download a file, macOS tags it with an extended attribute called com.apple.quarantine. That tag is what triggers the Gatekeeper check on first open. The command removes the tag recursively from the app bundle, so the check never fires.

It is the same decision as clicking Open Anyway — you are telling macOS you trust this app — but it is worth being deliberate about it. Run it against apps you have chosen to trust, from a source you verified, and never as a reflex on anything that fails to open.

Checking it worked

MacGet should open to an empty download queue. Paste a direct file URL into the Add sheet and start it; you should see chunks appear with live progress. If the app bounces in the Dock and quits, you are most likely on a macOS older than macOS Tahoe 26.4.

Updates after this

You don't come back here to update. MacGet uses Sparkle, which checks a signed appcast feed on a schedule and offers new versions in-app. You can also check on demand from MacGet → Check for Updates… in the menu bar.

Every update is signed with an EdDSA key and the signature is verified before installation, so a tampered or corrupted download is rejected. This is independent of Apple notarization — it is why auto-updates are still trustworthy on an un-notarized build. Updates install without repeating the Gatekeeper step.

Uninstalling

To remove MacGet completely:

1. Quit MacGet, then drag /Applications/Macget.app to the Trash.
2. Delete its data directory, which holds the queue, settings, learned host limits, and any partial downloads:

   rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Macget

3. If you saved download credentials, remove the Macget entries from Keychain Access.
4. If you installed the browser extension, remove it from your browser too.

Still stuck?

The documentation covers configuration and troubleshooting in more depth. If something is genuinely broken, open an issue — and for anything security-related, please follow the security policy rather than filing publicly.