Turn a local HTML project into a Mac app.

Best fit

• Package internal tools, local viewers, and offline utilities for macOS.
• Turn static-site output from tools like Astro, Hugo, or Eleventy into a desktop app shell.
• Build file or folder handlers that open content from Finder and pass it into JavaScript.
• Show local macOS notifications, update badges, and run background utilities from the menu bar.
• Ship a standard .app bundle that you can sign or notarize in your own release pipeline.

Not a fit

• Server-backed web apps that only make sense when connected to hosted backend infrastructure.
• Remote-site wrappers where the main goal is opening an online URL inside a thin shell.
• Apps that need broad arbitrary save-back access outside the opened file or folder scope without explicit user-approved flows.
• Teams that need a full cross-platform desktop framework or a custom native shell from the start.

Bridge API

Read startup items from window.HTMLtoApp.launchItems and listen for later opens with htmltoapp-open. Editor-role builds also expose window.HTMLtoApp.fs for scoped write-back inside the opened item.

const launchItems = (window.HTMLtoApp && window.HTMLtoApp.launchItems) || [];

window.addEventListener("htmltoapp-open", (event) => {
  const detail = event.detail || {};
  handleLaunchItems(detail.items || [], !!detail.replaceExisting);
});

What your page receives

• Files and folders opened from Finder can be delivered into the running app.
• Each item includes the original path plus loadable URLs for media or folder listings.
• Editor-role apps can also read and write inside the opened file or folder tree.
• The same handling pattern works for startup items and later open events.
• You keep the UI in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript instead of building the first integration in Swift or Objective-C.

Notifications

Use the standard browser-style Notification API from local HTML. HTML to App forwards supported notification requests into native macOS notifications in the exported app.

• Request permission with Notification.requestPermission().
• Create notifications with new Notification(title, options).
• Enable Dock badge controls only after notification permission is granted.
• Use it for timers, completed exports, background task status, and local reminders.

Dock and menu bar status

Update the Dock tile badge, create a menu bar icon, regenerate menus on popup, and keep a generated utility running after its main window closes. Remove the menu bar item with menuBar.hideIcon() when users need to start over.

const appBridge = window.HTMLtoApp;

async function notify(title, body) {
  if (!("Notification" in window)) return;
  const permission = await Notification.requestPermission();
  if (permission === "granted") new Notification(title, { body });
  return permission;
}

async function requestBadgePermission() {
  if (!("Notification" in window)) return "denied";
  return await Notification.requestPermission();
}

async function setDockBadge(value) {
  const permission = await requestBadgePermission();
  if (permission !== "granted") return;
  appBridge?.setBadge?.(value);
}

setDockBadge("3");

const appBridge = window.HTMLtoApp;
let paused = false;

appBridge?.menuBar?.setIcon({
  title: "TA",
  tooltip: "Task Agent",
  imagePosition: "left",
  closeToMenuBarOnWindowClose: true
});

appBridge?.menuBar?.setMenu(() => [
  { id: "open", title: "Open Window" },
  { id: "paused", title: "Paused", checked: paused, toggle: true },
  { title: "More", submenu: [{ id: "quit", title: "Quit" }] }
]);

appBridge?.menuBar?.onItemClick((event) => {
  if (event.id === "open") appBridge.showWindow();
  if (event.id === "paused") paused = event.checked;
  if (event.id === "quit") appBridge.quit();
});

// Remove the menu bar item when the user wants to start over.
// appBridge?.menuBar?.hideIcon?.();

Compatibility today

• Both HTML to App and the generated HTML apps it exports work on macOS 10.13 and newer.
• The cleanest results come from self-contained local HTML projects linked by relative paths.
• The builder works offline, and generated bundles only touch the network when your own HTML asks them to.
• Generated apps stay sandboxed and do not gain broad file-system access by default.

Deployment expectations

• The export is a standard .app bundle that fits into your own signing and notarization flow.
• Finder handlers plus camera, microphone, or location access are opt-in per build.
• If you need confirmation for a specific macOS release or hardware rollout, contact support before production use.