mas-cli

Root privilege usage has been overhauled. mas now:

• requires root privileges only when absolutely necessary
• requests root privileges if they have not yet been granted
• allows root privileges granted during a call to mas to remain valid pursuant to the user's sudo credential timeout setting
• calls sudo from the executable mas binary, obviating the need for the now-removed zsh wrapper
• allows all commands to work properly if they are called with a root effective user
  • this includes commands that previously worked properly only if called with a non-root effective user (i.e. not called via sudo)

What's Changed

🚀 Features

• Omnibus: sudo from Swift, non-expiring sudo credentials, macos-15-intel GHA runners, docu

Workaround installd/PackageKit restriction (#1029) via a methodology found by @alienator88.

The workaround requires root privileges for get/purchase, install, lucky & update/upgrade.

Automatically requests root privileges via running sudo in an executable shell wrapper around mas.

Root privileges may also be supplied by running sudo mas … on your command line.

What's Changed

🚀 Features

• Executable zsh wrapper around executable binary that uses sudo when appropriate by @rgoldberg in #1086

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Workaround installd/PackageKit access restriction introd

• outdated & update now default to using the inaccurate but faster pre-3.0.0 outdated app detection logic
• outdated & update now have --accurate & --accurate-ignore-unknown-apps flags to use the accurate but slower outdated app detection logic first released in 3.0.0
  • The accurate logic can result in dialog boxes being opened for apps whose installers cannot be downloaded, because either:
    • The app was installed for a different Apple Account than the current one
    • The installer is no longer available from the App Store
      • --accurate-ignore-unknown-apps skips all apps that are unknown to the App Store
      • --accurate exists because some apps are unknown to the

What's Changed

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Ignore TestFlight apps in outdated & upgrade by @rgoldberg in #1056

Changes

• Create a hard link instead of a symlink when creating pkg installers by @rgoldberg in #1051
• Rename searcher & search result types & variables by @rgoldberg in #1055
• Update git version comment to 2.52.0 by @rgoldberg in #1059

Full Changelog: v3.0.0...v3.0.1

This version (3.0.0) does not fix the recent errors for get, install, lucky, purchase, update & upgrade caused by macOS 26.1, 15.7.2 & 14.8.2. They will be fixed in the forthcoming mas 4.0.0.

mas 3.0.0 is being released with many other previously completed changes so that they can be used without the disruptive change to core mas functionality in mas 4.0.0.

Numerous problems in the detection of app updates have now been fixed. Unfortunately, this has rendered mas outdated slower, and mas update a decent amount slower. The commands will run faster if you supply app ID arguments to limit the apps that must be checked.

Bundle IDs are now accepted in lieu of ADAM IDs (formerly kn

What's Changed

🚀 Features

• Accept multiple app ID & search term arguments for all relevant commands by @rgoldberg in #841

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fix search result order by @rgoldberg in #922

Changes

• Improve URL parsing error handling by @rgoldberg in #843
• Fix network warning by @rgoldberg in #899
• Improve test resource handling by @rgoldberg in #846
• Standardize file headers by @rgoldberg in #847
• Improve output code by @rgoldberg in #850
• Improve linting

What's Changed

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Only interact with apps under /Applications or MAS-designated large app drive by @rgoldberg in #840

Changes

• Always install all dependencies in Brewfile as now only support building on macOS 13+ by @rgoldberg in #824
• Use local time zone for info dates by @rgoldberg in #826
• Improve MASError.notSupported description by @rgoldberg in #829
• Improve code spacing by @rgoldberg in #830
• Indent with tabs instead of with spaces by @rgoldberg in #831
• Do not d

What's Changed

Changes

• Upgrade Xcode to 16.3 on GHA macos-15 runners by @rgoldberg in #817
• Remove the homebrew-core bump step from release-published.yml by @rgoldberg in #820
• Remove @retroactive by @rgoldberg in #821

Full Changelog: v2.2.0...v2.2.1

What's Changed

🐛 Bug Fixes

• When upgrading apps, don't short circuit when encountering any app ID that is unknown to the MAS by @rgoldberg in #767

Full Changelog: v2.0.0...v2.1.0

What's Changed

🚨 Requires macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or Newer

mas previously required macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or newer to run.

mas now requires macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or newer.

This was to migrate threading from third-party PromiseKit to native Swift Concurrency, which facilitated migrating the source of the list of apps installed from the MAS from a now-broken Apple private framework to the public (and working) Spotlight metadata.

The threading migration should (probably negligibly) improve the performance of mas, but, more importantly, facilitate future development.

Requiring macOS 10.15 also allows mas to use other newer frameworks & libraries / current versions of already used frameworks & libraries, as 10.15 was a watershed macOS (mainly because of Swift

Improvements for users:

• Use Mac App Store region throughout, instead of using it in some places & the macOS region in others (#689 by @rgoldberg)
• Add mas region command: displays the region of the Mac App Store (#689 by @rgoldberg)
• Add mas config command: displays mas config & related system info, mainly for bug reports (#698 & #702 by @rgoldberg)
  • Update Bug Report form (#700 by @rgoldberg):
    • Modify to expect config info from mas config
    • Simplify the input fields & instructions
• Whenever an app name is missing, substitute the same fallback property values throughout mas (<