AppWrangler

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/icon.png" width="128" alt="AppWrangler icon">
</p>

<h1 align="center">AppWrangler</h1>

<p align="center">
  <b>Keep every app on your Mac in check — CPU, efficiency cores and memory, per app.</b><br>
  A free, open-source menu bar app for Apple Silicon Macs.
</p>

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS-13%2B-blue" alt="macOS 13+">
  <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Apple%20Silicon-native-black" alt="Apple Silicon">
  <a href="LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-GPL--2.0-green" alt="GPL-2.0"></a>
</p>

<p align="center">
  <a href="https://buymeacoffee.com/intarsolbit"><img src="https://cdn.buymeacoffee.com/buttons/v2/default-yellow.png" alt="Buy Me a Coffee" height="40"></a>
</p>

---

**Helps the app you're using stay fast, even on an 8 GB Mac with lots of apps open.**

- 🪄 **Works on its own.** Auto mode keeps the app in front at full speed and moves everything in the background to the efficiency cores. No rules needed.
- 🧊 **Rescues low-memory Macs.** When memory runs short, it can freeze the apps you haven't touched for a while, and each one wakes the moment you click it. It also tells you which app is eating your RAM and what to do about it.
- 🎛 **Puts you in charge when you want it.** Per-app CPU limits, efficiency cores and memory limits, with conditions such as "only on battery". You can also ask Claude to tune your Mac for you.

Free and open source (GPL-2.0), for macOS 13+ on Apple Silicon. It uses well under 1% of one core and never connects to the network.

```bash
brew tap intarso/appwrangler https://github.com/IntarsO/AppWrangler
brew install --cask appwrangler
```

Or download the zip from [Releases](https://github.com/IntarsO/AppWrangler/releases/latest). AppWrangler isn't notarized yet, so the first time, **right-click it → Open**.

<!-- DEMO: once recorded (scripts/record-demo.sh), show docs/images/demo.gif here, 720 px wide, in place of the panel image. -->
<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/panel.png" width="380" alt="The AppWrangler panel: CPU and memory charts, the Auto line, a card about an app Auto just froze with OK, Set manually and Leave alone buttons, the busiest apps and recent activity">
</p>

## What it does

| | |
|---|---|
| 🪄 **Auto mode** | On by default. The app you're using runs at full speed. Background apps move to efficiency cores, and only when your Mac is busy do they share the CPU fairly, so everything stays usable. Optionally, when memory runs out, it freezes apps you haven't used for a while, and they resume the moment you switch back. It adapts to what the Mac needs: background work runs free when there's room or you're away, apps are held sooner on battery or when hot, low-priority work like updaters is paused while you need the resources, and it learns which apps you usually use around now (kept on your Mac). |
| 🎛 **CPU limit** | Cap an app *and all of its helper processes* (Chrome tabs, Electron helpers, Safari web content…) at any share of the CPU. Optionally limit it only while it's in the background. |
| 🍃 **Efficiency cores only** | Move an app onto the Apple Silicon E-cores, with slower disk and network access. It stays usable while saving battery and heat. |
| 🧠 **Memory limit** | When an app's memory stays above your limit, get notified, or freeze, quit or force-quit it. (macOS doesn't let one app hard-cap another's memory, so AppWrangler watches and acts.) |
| 🚨 **Low-memory protection** | When your Mac runs short of memory, automatically freeze or quit apps you've marked as expendable, and resume them afterwards. **Free memory now** does it on demand. |
| ⏱ **Conditions** | Make any rule apply only on battery or on the charger, in Low Power Mode, when the Mac is hot, or during set hours and days. |
| 🔥 **Runaway alerts** | "Chrome Helper has used 150% CPU for 3 minutes" — a card in the panel and a notification with *Limit*, *E-cores* and *Ignore* buttons. |
| ❄️ **Freeze, quit, force quit** | Suspend any app instantly and resume it later. |
| 📊 **Impact** | How much CPU time and energy it saved, how often your Mac ran short of memory and how much it swapped, and what AppWrangler itself cost to run. |
| 💡 **Suggestions** | "Brave uses more than your 8 GB of RAM — here's what to do." Concrete recommendations, each with the reason, the benefit and a one-click fix. `appwrangler undo` takes changes back. |
| 🤖 **AI assistants (MCP)** | Ask Claude or OpenAI Codex what's slowing your Mac down and have it fix it, with your OK. Set up with one command: `appwrangler mcp install`. |
| ⌨️ **Command line & links** | `appwrangler suggest`, `show Slack`, `set Slack efficiency_cores=on`, `stats`, `prefs`… and `appwrangler://` links for Shortcuts. |
| 🖥 **Desktop widget** | CPU, memory, Auto mode, the busiest apps and suggestions on your desktop (macOS 14+), with **Pause**, **Auto** and **Free memory** buttons. |
| 📖 **Built-in help** | The full manual inside the app, searchable and offline, with a **?** next to every setting. |

<p align="center">
  <img src="docs/images/widget-medium.png" width="364" alt="Medium desktop widget: CPU and memory rings, Auto status, the busiest apps, the top suggestion and buttons">
  &nbsp;
  <img src="docs/images/help.png" width="440" alt="The built-in Help window showing the User Manual's Auto mode chapter, with topics and search in the sidebar">
</p>

## How it compares

| | AppWrangler | [App Tamer](https://www.stclairsoft.com/AppTamer/) | [AppPolice](https://github.com/fuyu/AppPolice) | Activity Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $14.95 (15-day trial) | Free | Free (built in) |
| Apple Silicon native | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (2016, Intel-era) | ✅ |
| Move apps to efficiency cores | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Per-app CPU limit | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Per-app memory limit (notify / freeze / quit) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Automatic background management | ✅ Auto mode | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Freeze idle apps when memory runs low | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| AI assistants (MCP) / command line | ✅ / ✅ | ❌ / AppleScript | ❌ | ❌ |
| Open source | ✅ GPL-2.0 | ❌ | ✅ GPL-2.0 | ❌ |
| Last updated | 2026 | 2024 (2.8.4); 3.0 in beta | 2016 | with macOS |

App Tamer is a polished, long-standing commercial app, and if you already use it, it does its job well. AppWrangler is for people who want something free and open source with memory handling and AI control. Facts checked in October 2026 against each project's own pages; [tell us](https://github.com/IntarsO/AppWrangler/issues) if something has changed.

## Get started

1. **Install** with Homebrew (above), the zip from [Releases](https://github.com/IntarsO/AppWrangler/releases/latest), or build it with Apple's free Command Line Tools: `./build.sh --install --run`.
2. **Click the lasso icon** in the menu bar. Auto mode is already working; the *Auto* line shows what it's doing, and **Suggestions** point out anything worth changing.
3. **Want more control?** Click an app and turn on **Limit CPU**, **Efficiency cores only** or **Memory limit**. It applies at once and every time the app runs.

👉 Read the full **[Getting Started guide](docs/getting-started.md)**.

## Documentation

- [Getting Started](docs/getting-started.md): install, first limit, launch at login, uninstall
- [User Manual](docs/user-manual.md): every feature and setting explained (also built into the app: **?** → Help)
- [Command-line reference](docs/cli.md)
- [AI assistants via MCP](docs/mcp.md): Claude Desktop, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Agents SDK
- [FAQ & Troubleshooting](docs/faq.md)
- [How it works](docs/how-it-works.md): architecture, for the curious and for contributors

## Built on AppPolice

AppWrangler is a fork of **[AppPolice](https://github.com/fuyu/AppPolice)** by Maksym Stefanchuk (2013–2015), a menu bar app that let you throttle an app's CPU with a slider. That project inspired AppWrangler, and its source is where AppWrangler began.

The original no longer built on modern macOS and its limiter didn't work on Apple Silicon. AppWrangler is a ground-up rewrite (Swift + C) that keeps the idea and adds:

- an Apple Silicon–correct real-time CPU limiter that covers helper processes;
- efficiency-core mode;
- memory limits and low-memory protection;
- conditional rules;
- runaway detection;
- "what is this?" descriptions;
- a CLI;
- a test suite.

See [NOTICE.md](NOTICE.md) and the [CHANGELOG](CHANGELOG.md) for details. AppPolice 1.x limits and AppPolice 2.x rules are imported automatically.

## Support the project

AppWrangler is free and always will be. If it saves your battery or your sanity, you can [buy me a coffee ☕](https://buymeacoffee.com/intarsolbit). Thank you!

## Building and contributing

```bash
xcode-select --install     # Command Line Tools — full Xcode is not required
./build.sh                 # → build/AppWrangler.app
./test.sh                  # unit + integration tests
./Tests/e2e/run.sh         # end-to-end tests against the built app
```

Contributions are welcome — see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) and our [Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). Please report security issues privately as described in [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md).

## License

AppWrangler is free software, licensed under the **GNU General Public License v2** ([LICENSE](LICENSE)), the same license as AppPolice. Original AppPolice code © 2013–2015 Maksym Stefanchuk; AppWrangler © 2026 AppWrangler contributors.