Build a Feathers UI project as a macOS app

Feathers UI may be used to build desktop applications targeting Apple's macOS operating system.

Prerequisites

In addition to the dependencies specified in the Feathers UI installation instructions, building a macOS application with Feathers UI has some additional requirements.

  • An Apple computer running macOS. macOS apps cannot be built on other operating systems, such as Windows or Linux.

  • Install Xcode from the macOS App Store.

    • Launch Xcode at least once to "install additional required components".

Build

To build for the mac target, run the following command.

openfl build mac

Use the -debug flag to create a build to include extra debugging information, including full stack traces when there's an exception or crash.

openfl build mac -debug

The build's output will be written to the bin/mac/bin folder.

Your project.xml file may optionally specify an output folder different from bin.

<app path="Export"/>

In the example above, the output would be generated in Export/mac/bin instead.

Run / Debug

OpenFL provides the test command to compile and launch your project executable on macOS.

openfl test mac

Troubleshooting

In the future, common error messages and their solutions will appear in this section.

Did you get some other error message that you don't understand?

Configuring OpenFL to build for native targets, like macOS or Windows, can be a little tricky! Head over to either the Feathers UI community forum or the Feathers UI Discord. Explain which command you tried to run, be sure to mention that you are targeting mac, and post the error message (and any additional relevant output). Ideally, we can help you figure out a solution, and then we'll also add it to this troubleshooting section, so that everyone can benefit.