Compile MacDown for Apple silicon
Restores "Recent Documents" to the MacDown Dock icon in Sequoia and drops the Rosetta 2 dependency (macOS 27 will be the last to fully support it). Install Xcode and brew then run:
#!/bin/bashset -euo pipefail echo
"Installing dependencies..."brew install ruby@3.2
# Add Ruby and gem binaries to PATH (avoids duplicate lines in ~/.zshrc)echo
"Configuring Ruby path..."LINE='export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby@3.2/bin:/opt/homebrew/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/bin:$PATH"' grep -Fxq "$LINE" ~/.zshrc || echo "$LINE" >> ~/.zshrc export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby@3.2/bin:/opt/homebrew/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/bin:$PATH"
# Uninstall any outdated Bundler versionsecho
"Cleaning bundler..."[ -d /opt/homebrew/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0 ] && gem uninstall -aIx bundler || true echo
"Installing bundler and CocoaPods..."gem install bundler cocoapods echo
"Cloning MacDown..."git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/MacDownApp/macdown cd macdown
# The next 4 commands are only necessary if you want the last official pre-release version, 0.8.0d71 (1079) # rather than the default 0.8.0d32 (1111) version:git checkout v0.8.0d71 git submodule update --init --recursive
# Work around broken Slovak localization file in v0.8.0d71echo
"Replacing broken Slovak localization file..."echo '"DUMMY_KEY" = "DUMMY_VALUE";' > MacDown/Localization/sk.lproj/Localizable.strings echo
"Removing outdated Gemfile.lock..."rm -f Gemfile.lock echo
"Installing Ruby dependencies..."bundle install echo
"Installing CocoaPods dependencies..."ruby -e 'require "logger"; exec "pod", *ARGV' install echo
"Building PEG Markdown parser..."make -C Dependency/peg-markdown-highlight -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu) echo
"Opening Xcode..."open MacDown.xcworkspace cat <<EOF
Setup complete. When Xcode opens, press Cmd+B to build; find MacDown.app via Product > Show Build Folder in Finder > Products/DebugEOF
Notes
Inspired and informed by Daniil-Gusev's guide.
Tested on a clean macOS 15.6 Sequoia install with Xcode 16.4.
If copied to another Mac, "'MacDown.app' is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash." may appear on first launch; resolve via
xattr -rc /Applications/MacDown.app
.See also:
❧ 2025-08-06