Never fight Gatekeeper again.
GreenLight lives in your menu bar, automatically detects apps blocked by macOS Gatekeeper, and lets you clear them with one click.
Every developer knows this pain.
You download an app, double-click it, and macOS tells you it "can't be opened." Then begins a ritual you never signed up for.
The Gatekeeper Wall
You download a perfectly safe app. macOS blocks it with a vague warning because it's "not from the App Store."
The Terminal Ritual
You open Terminal, type a cryptic command you Googled, and pray you got the path right.
$ sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/MyApp.app
Rinse & Repeat
The app updates? Blocked again. Downloaded another tool? Same dance. Every. Single. Time.
Three steps. Zero Terminal.
GreenLight runs silently in your menu bar and handles everything automatically.
Auto-Detect
Dual-channel detection monitors your system in real-time. The instant Gatekeeper blocks an app, GreenLight knows.
AutomaticInstant Notify
A native macOS notification appears with the app name and action buttons. No extra window, no interruption.
< 5 secondsOne-Click Fix
Tap "Fix & Open" right from the notification. GreenLight removes the quarantine flag and launches the app. Done.
No sudo neededBuilt for power users who value their time.
Every feature is designed to get out of your way and just work.
Dual-Channel Detection
Two independent detection channels work simultaneously — LogStream monitors system logs in real-time while FSEvents watches file system changes. If one misses it, the other catches it. Zero gaps.
Menu Bar Guardian
Always-on indicator in your menu bar. Green when clear, red when something needs attention. Click to see your full dashboard.
Native Notifications
Real macOS notifications with action buttons — Dismiss, Fix, or Fix & Open. Works even when you're deep in focus.
Smart Deduplication
Installing one app can trigger 7+ system events. GreenLight merges them into a single notification. No alert fatigue.
First-Run Quick Scan
The moment you install GreenLight, it scans Downloads, Desktop, and Applications to find every blocked app on your system. Instant value, no waiting.
Stop doing it the hard way.
See how GreenLight compares to the alternatives.
| Capability | Terminal (Manual) | Sentinel | GreenLight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto-detect blocked apps | — | — | ✓ |
| Push notifications | — | — | ✓ |
| One-click fix from notification | — | — | ✓ |
| Menu bar always-on guardian | — | — | ✓ |
| First-run system scan | — | — | ✓ |
| No Terminal needed | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drag & drop fix | — | ✓ | — |
| Free & open source | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Built in public. Inspectable by anyone.
Security tools should be transparent. GreenLight is fully open-source under MIT license.
100% Swift
Built natively with SwiftUI — no Electron, no web views. Under 2,000 lines of code.
Privacy First
No analytics. No telemetry. No network calls. Everything runs locally on your Mac, period.
Minimal Footprint
Less than 30 MB memory, under 1% CPU when idle. One external dependency. That's it.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about GreenLight.
What is GreenLight?
GreenLight is a free, open-source macOS utility that automatically detects apps blocked by macOS
Gatekeeper and removes the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute with one click. It runs
silently in your menu bar and uses dual-channel detection (LogStream + FSEvents) to monitor your system in
real-time. Built with Swift and SwiftUI, it's under 2,000 lines of code.
Does GreenLight require admin or sudo privileges?
No. GreenLight removes the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute using xattr
without requiring sudo or admin privileges for apps in standard locations like
~/Downloads, ~/Desktop, and /Applications. Only root-owned system
apps would need elevated permissions, which is extremely rare in practice.
How does GreenLight detect blocked apps?
GreenLight uses two independent detection channels working simultaneously. Channel A monitors macOS
system logs (syspolicyd) via LogStream for real-time Gatekeeper denial events. Channel B
watches file system changes via FSEvents to detect new .app files with quarantine attributes.
Both channels feed into a 3-second deduplication window that merges duplicate events into a single
notification.
Is GreenLight safe to use?
Yes. GreenLight is fully open-source under the MIT license — anyone can inspect the complete source code on GitHub. It makes zero network calls, collects no analytics or telemetry, and runs entirely on your local machine. Resource usage is minimal: less than 30 MB memory and under 1% CPU when idle.
What macOS versions does GreenLight support?
GreenLight requires macOS 13 Ventura or later. It is built with Swift 5.9+ and SwiftUI, using the native
MenuBarExtra API introduced in macOS 13. It runs on both Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) and
Intel-based Macs.
How is GreenLight different from Sentinel?
Sentinel is an excellent manual tool for removing quarantine attributes via drag-and-drop. GreenLight takes a fundamentally different approach: automatic detection. It monitors your system in real-time and proactively sends you a native macOS notification the moment Gatekeeper blocks an app. With Sentinel, you need to know an app is blocked and manually drag it into the tool. With GreenLight, you're alerted automatically and can fix it with one click directly from the notification.
Ready to clear the way?
Download GreenLight and never wrestle with Gatekeeper again. Free forever, because security tools should be.