mklaunchd

Generate launchd plists without the friction

mklaunchd is the macOS equivalent of mkunit for systemd. It removes the friction between "I have an idea for a background service" and "it is actually running." Take a Python script, Rust binary, Go service, or bash script and have it running as a launchd background service in under a minute.

mklaunchd creates the file and hands off to standard tooling. After generating a plist it prints the exact launchctl commands for you to run yourself — it does not wrap or replace launchctl.

Install

brew tap uradical/mklaunchd
brew install mklaunchd

Usage

# Generate a plist interactively
mklaunchd generate

# Generate from flags and write
mklaunchd generate \
  --label io.uradical.myservice \
  --binary /usr/local/bin/myservice \
  --scope user-agent \
  --write --yes

# Print to stdout for piping
mklaunchd generate \
  --label io.uradical.myservice \
  --binary /usr/local/bin/myservice \
  --stdout

# Validate plist XML
mklaunchd validate ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.uradical.myservice.plist

# Run deeper checks
mklaunchd doctor io.uradical.myservice
mklaunchd doctor --all

# Translate an exit code
mklaunchd error 78

After generate writes the plist, mklaunchd prints something like:

✓ Plist written to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.uradical.myservice.plist

-- Next steps

  launchctl bootstrap gui/501 ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.uradical.myservice.plist
  launchctl print gui/501/io.uradical.myservice
  launchctl list | grep io.uradical.myservice

  To stop the service:
  launchctl bootout gui/501/io.uradical.myservice

Plugins

Any executable named mklaunchd-<command> on PATH is automatically available as a subcommand:

brew install yourname/mklaunchd-monitor
mklaunchd monitor io.uradical.myservice

See docs/plugins.md for the plugin authoring guide.

Documentation

man mklaunchd

Or visit uradical.io/tools/mklaunchd.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/uradical/mklaunchd
cd mklaunchd
make install

Requires macOS 13+ and Xcode 15+.

License

MIT