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BundleHound

Your tools ask for a bundle ID. Your Mac doesn’t show it.1

Activity Monitor’s process list, with no column for the bundle ID.

Set a rule in AeroSpace to float a window:

{ if = 'test %{app-bundle-id} = bundle ID', run = 'layout floating' },

When does a bundle ID come up?

Whenever a tool has to point at one app, and only that one.

Window managers

Float System Settings in AeroSpace:

on-window-detected = [
  { if = 'test %{app-bundle-id} = com.apple.systempreferences', run = 'layout floating' },
]

Automation

A Hammerspoon hotkey that brings up Mail:

hs.hotkey.bind({"cmd", "alt"}, "M", function()
  hs.application.launchOrFocusByBundleID("com.apple.mail")
end)

Mac admins

A configuration profile that manages Slack’s settings:

<key>PayloadType</key>
<string>com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap</string>

And many more…

You can’t guess it

Messages com.apple.MobileSMS

System Settings com.apple.systempreferences

Slack com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap

The bundle ID is not the name.

BundleHound

The menu bar with BundleHound’s icon among others, its list of apps open under it, shown in its light and dark appearance split on a diagonal: light at the top left, dark at the bottom right.

BundleHound lists every app on your Mac with its bundle ID.
Double-click, and it’s on your clipboard.

Type a few letters

Part of a name or part of an ID. The list narrows as you type.

BundleHound’s window with apple typed in its search field, the list narrowed to the apps whose name or bundle ID contains it.

Double-click. Done.

The ID is on your clipboard. Or right-click for Copy as Format, and get the line your tool expects:

BundleHound’s row menu, open on a selected app: Copy Bundle ID, Copy as Format, Get Info, Open, Exclude, Reveal in Finder. 
{ if = 'test %{app-bundle-id} = com.tinyspeck.slackmacgap', run = 'layout floating' },

Templates for AeroSpace, Hammerspoon, Finicky, Rectangle, BetterTouchTool, AppleScript, open -b, defaults and more, or a format of your own with {bundleID}. For one app or several at once.

Everything about an app

Press ⌘I: where it lives, its version, who signed it, its entitlements, the processors it runs on, the URL schemes it answers to. Every value has a copy button.

An app’s information, its General and Signing sections. An app’s information further down: entitlements, designated requirement, architecture, URL schemes and automation.

Side by side

Select a few apps and ⌘I puts them next to each other.

Two apps’ information side by side, the window shown dark on its left half and light on its right half.

A flag when an app’s files change

BundleHound checks each app’s code signature. If an app’s files no longer match what its developer signed, the row turns red. Sometimes that’s a harmless patch, sometimes it’s worth a closer look. The call is yours.

And the rest

  • In the menu bar, the Dock, or both.
  • Keyboard first: ⌘C to copy, ⌘I for information, Escape to close.
  • Install or delete an app, and the list follows.

Quiet about your Mac

BundleHound works offline. The one thing it can go online for, App Store details about the apps you got from the App Store, stays off until you say yes. No account, no analytics.

Privacy policy

Get BundleHound

For Mac.

Coming soon to the Mac App Store.

Footnotes

  1. The Mac can provide the bundle ID via a Terminal command. ↑