A simple command line interface for the Mac App Store. Designed for scripting and automation.
Homebrew is the preferred way to install:
brew install mas
MacPorts works as well:
sudo port install mas
We provide a custom Homebrew tap with pre-built bottles for all macOS versions since 10.11.
To install mas from our tap:
brew install mas-cli/tap/mas
mas requires Swift 5 runtime support. macOS 10.14.4 and later include it, but earlier releases did not.
Without it, running mas
may report an error similar to this:
dyld: Symbol not found: _$s11SubSequenceSlTl
To get Swift 5 support, you have a few options:
- Install the Swift 5 Runtime Support for Command Line Tools.
- Update to macOS 10.14.4 or later.
- Install Xcode 10.2 or later to
/Applications/Xcode.app
.
Alternatively, binaries are available in the GitHub Releases.
Each application in the Mac App Store has a product identifier which is also
used for mas-cli commands. Using mas list
will show all installed
applications and their product identifiers.
$ mas list
446107677 Screens
407963104 Pixelmator
497799835 Xcode
It is possible to search for applications by name using mas search
which
will search the Mac App Store and return matching identifiers.
Include the --price
flag to include prices in the result.
$ mas search Xcode
497799835 Xcode
688199928 Docs for Xcode
449589707 Dash 3 - API Docs & Snippets. Integrates with Xcode, Alfred, TextWrangler and many more.
[...]
Another way to find the identifier for an app is to
- Find the app in the Mac App Store
- Select
Share
>Copy Link
- Grab the identifier from the string, e.g. for Xcode,
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12
has identifier
497799835
To install or update an application simply run mas install
with an
application identifier:
$ mas install 808809998
==> Downloading PaintCode 2
==> Installed PaintCode 2
If you want to install the first result that the search
command returns, use the lucky
command.
$ mas lucky twitter
==> Downloading Twitter
==> Installed Twitter
Please note that this command will not allow you to install (or even purchase) an app for the first time: use the
purchase
command in that case.
$ mas purchase 768053424
==> Downloading Gapplin
==> Installed Gapplin
Please note that you may have to re-authenticate yourself in the App Store to complete the purchase. This is the case if the application is not free or if you configured your account not to remember the credentials for free purchases.
Use mas outdated
to list all applications with pending updates.
$ mas outdated
497799835 Xcode (7.0)
446107677 Screens VNC - Access Your Computer From Anywhere (3.6.7)
mas
is only able to install/update applications that are listed in the Mac App Store itself. Usesoftwareupdate(8)
utility for downloading system updates (e.g. Xcode Command Line Tools)
To install all pending updates run mas upgrade
.
$ mas upgrade
Upgrading 2 outdated applications:
Xcode (7.0), Screens VNC - Access Your Computer From Anywhere (3.6.7)
==> Downloading Xcode
==> Installed Xcode
==> Downloading iFlicks
==> Installed iFlicks
Updates can be performed selectively by providing the app identifier(s) to
mas upgrade
$ mas upgrade 715768417
Upgrading 1 outdated application:
Xcode (8.0)
==> Downloading Xcode
==> Installed Xcode
β The
signin
command is not supported as of macOS 10.13 High Sierra. Please see Known Issues.
To sign into the Mac App Store for the first time run mas signin
.
$ mas signin [email protected]
==> Signing in to Apple ID: [email protected]
Password:
If you experience issues signing in this way, you can ask to sign in using a graphical dialog (provided by Mac App Store application):
$ mas signin --dialog [email protected]
==> Signing in to Apple ID: [email protected]
You can also embed your password in the command.
$ mas signin [email protected] 'ZdkM4f$gzF;gX3ABXNLf8KcCt.x.np'
==> Signing in to Apple ID: [email protected]
Use mas signout
to sign out from the Mac App Store.
mas
is integrated with homebrew-bundle. If mas
is installed, and you run brew bundle dump
,
then your Mac App Store apps will be included in the Brewfile created. See the homebrew-bundle
docs for more details.
Over time, Apple has changed the APIs used by mas
to manage App Store apps, limiting its capabilities. Please sign in using the App Store app instead, or any other system app. Subsequent redownloads can be performed with mas install
.
- βοΈ The
signin
command is not supported as of macOS 10.13 High Sierra. #164 - βοΈ The
account
command is not supported as of macOS 12 Monterey. #417
The versions mas
sees from the app bundles on your Mac don't always match the versions reported by the App Store for
the same app bundles. This leads to some confusion when the outdated
and upgrade
commands differ in behavior from
what is shown as outdated in the App Store app. Further confusing matters, there is often some delay due to CDN
propagation and caching between the time a new app version is released to the App Store, and the time it appears
available in the App Store app or via the mas
command. These issues cause symptoms like
#384 and #387.
Macs with Apple silicon can install and run iOS and iPadOS apps from the App Store. mas
is not yet aware of these
apps, and is not yet able to install or update them. #321
If you see this error, it's probably because you haven't installed the app through the App Store yet. See #46.
This redownload is not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled.
If mas
doesn't work for you as expected (e.g. you can't update/download apps), run mas reset
and try again.
If the issue persists, please file a bug.
All your feedback is much appreciated! β¨
mas
operates via the same system services as the Mac App Store. These exist as
separate processes with communication through XPC. As a result of this, mas
experiences similar problems as the pasteboard when running inside tmux
. A
wrapper tool exists to
fix pasteboard behaviour which also works for mas
.
You should consider configuring tmux
to use the wrapper but if you do not wish
to do this it can be used on a one-off basis as follows:
brew install reattach-to-user-namespace
reattach-to-user-namespace mas install
You can build from Xcode by opening the root mas
directory, or from the Terminal:
script/bootstrap
script/build
Build output can be found in the .build/
directory within the project.
The tests in this project are a recent work-in-progress. Since Xcode does not officially support tests for command-line tool targets, all logic is part of the MasKit target with tests in MasKitTests. Tests are written using Quick.
script/test
mas-cli was created by @argon. Code is under the MIT license.