Auto-Up

🖥 Auto-Up — Mac App Auto-Updater "Your Mac, always fresh & safe — without lifting a finger."

A beautiful, lightweight menu bar utility that keeps all your Mac apps up to date — App Store + non-App Store — with MacPaw-level polish and CleanShot-style simplicity.

Features

Core MVP Features

• One-Click Update All: Big friendly button in a minimal UI with update count always visible in menu bar
• Silent Auto-Update Mode: Background updates on a schedule (default: overnight), runs only on Wi-Fi & while plugged in
• Plain-Language Change Logs: Auto-summarized with AI: "Safari is faster and fixes a crash bug"
• Security Fix Priority: Detect CVE/security-related updates & install ASAP
• Update History + Undo: Timeline of updates with one-tap rollback (last version cached)
• Tahoe Compatibility: Flags macOS 26 incompatible apps to prevent crashes

Pro Features ($2.99/mo or $24/year)

• Multi-Mac Sync: Same update rules on all devices via iCloud
• Family Mode: Covers household Macs under one plan ($39/year for 5 devices)
• App Health Score: Green (up-to-date), Yellow (optional), Red (urgent)
• Version Pinning: Stay on a preferred version
• Silent Installer Support: No dialogs for supported apps

Supported Update Sources

• Sparkle feeds (built-in updaters)
• Homebrew casks (brew outdated --cask)
• GitHub releases (API v3 for open-source apps)
• App Store (coming soon)

System Requirements

• macOS 13.0 or later
• Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) or Intel processor
• 50MB free disk space

Installation

From Source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/autoup.git
cd autoup

2. Open in Xcode:

open AutoUp.xcodeproj

3. Build and run (⌘R)

From Package Manager

swift build
swift run

Configuration

Auto-Up creates its configuration files in:

• Database: ~/Library/Application Support/AutoUp/autoup.db
• Cache: ~/Library/Application Support/AutoUp/Cache/
• Preferences: Stored in macOS UserDefaults

Background Updates

To enable automatic background updates:

1. Open Auto-Up settings
2. Enable "Automatic updates"
3. Configure schedule (overnight recommended)
4. Set constraints (Wi-Fi only, plugged in only)

AI Summaries

Auto-Up can summarize changelogs using:

1. Local MLX model (privacy-first, requires M1+)
2. OpenAI GPT-4o-mini (set OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable)
3. Keyword extraction (fallback)

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Tahoe Compatibility

The app includes a built-in database of known macOS 26 (Tahoe) compatibility issues:

• Adobe Lightroom Classic v13.0-13.2 (crashes on startup)
• Fuji Camera Tethering (broken until September end)
• Parallels Desktop v18.0-18.1 (VM startup failures)
• VMware Fusion v13.0 (kernel panics)

Architecture

Core Components

• AppScanner: Discovers .app bundles in /Applications and ~/Applications
• UpdateDetector: Checks Sparkle feeds, Homebrew, and GitHub APIs
• InstallManager: Handles DMG/PKG/ZIP installations with rollback support
• ChangelogSummarizer: AI-powered changelog processing
• BackgroundScheduler: Manages automatic update scheduling
• TahoeCompatibilityChecker: Prevents incompatible app updates

Tech Stack

• UI: SwiftUI with menu bar integration
• Database: SQLite with encryption (SQLCipher)
• AI: MLX Swift for local processing, OpenAI for cloud fallback
• Background: BGTaskScheduler + network monitoring
• Monetization: StoreKit 2 for Pro subscriptions

Development

Project Structure

AutoUp/
├── Sources/
│   ├── App/                    # App entry point & delegates
│   ├── Core/                   # Scanner, detector, installer
│   ├── Models/                 # Data models
│   ├── Services/               # AI, background, Pro features
│   ├── UI/                     # SwiftUI views
│   └── Resources/              # Assets, Tahoe compatibility data
├── Tests/                      # Unit tests
└── Package.swift               # Dependencies

Dependencies

• SQLite.swift - Database layer
• MLX Swift - Local AI processing
• Sparkle - Self-updating
• PostHog - Analytics (opt-in)

Running Tests

swift test

Building for Release

swift build -c release

Privacy

Auto-Up respects your privacy:

• Local-first: All data stored on your Mac
• Opt-in telemetry: Anonymous usage stats only if enabled
• No app lists: We never see what apps you have installed
• Encrypted storage: Local database is encrypted with Keychain

Data Collection (Optional)

When telemetry is enabled, we collect:

• Update success/failure rates (anonymized)
• App scanning performance metrics
• Feature usage statistics

We never collect:

• Personal information
• App names or lists
• File paths or system details

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Open Source Components

The core UpdaterEngine is open-source under MIT license to encourage community contributions:

• Custom update sources
• Improved version detection
• New installer formats

Roadmap

Phase 1 (MVP - October 2025)

• Core app scanning & update detection
• One-click updates with rollback
• AI changelog summarization
• Tahoe compatibility checking
• Background scheduling

Phase 2 (Q1 2026)

• App Store update detection
• Advanced silent installation
• iOS companion app
• Enhanced family sharing

Phase 3 (Q2 2026)

• Enterprise features (MDM integration)
• Custom update sources
• Advanced reporting & analytics

Support

• Website: autoup.app
• Support: support@autoup.app
• Twitter: @autoUpApp

License

• App: Proprietary (commercial software)
• UpdaterEngine: MIT License (see LICENSE-ENGINE.md)

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Auto-Up — Keep your Mac fresh, secure, and running smoothly. ✨