Mini apps as Mac apps
Availability: macOS desktop only.
A mini app with a screen of its own can also run as its own Mac app: a Dock icon, a window, a menu bar and a place in Cmd+Tab, Spotlight and Launchpad. Localix stays the host. Each app has one project of its own, its conversations are the app's history, and the agent works beside the mini app in each of them. Everything runs in Localix, on the same data you see in the workspace.
Mini apps stay tabs in the workspace until you choose otherwise; nothing becomes an app on its own.
Install a mini app as an app
Any of these does the same:
| Where | Do this |
|---|---|
| A mini app's tab | Right-click the tab and choose Install Name as App. |
| The tab strip | With the mini app's tab on screen, click the app button at the right of the tabs. |
| The mini app's rail button | Right-click it and choose Install Name as App. |
| The command palette | Run Install Name as App. |
| The store, installing | Install as app in the menu beside Get: made once the install lands. |
| The store, installed | Add desktop app on the mini app's page; Remove desktop app takes it away. |
The app's icon is the mini app's own icon, the one its mini-app.json names and the store shows,
drawn at every size the Dock uses. A mini app that names no icon cannot become an app until it has
one; Localix says so. Localix creates the app in ~/Applications/Localix Apps, makes the app's
project and opens it. From there it is an ordinary Mac app: keep it in the Dock, open it from
Spotlight or Launchpad, or drag it anywhere you keep apps.
The app's project is named after the app and lives in ~/.localix/apps/<name>. It appears in the
workspace's project switcher like any other project, so you can open the app's conversations from
Localix too, and its permissions, agent and mode are the project's own.
A mini app offers one app, whichever of its tabs you install it from: a board and a task card of the same mini app open the same app, on the mini app's main screen.
Use the app
The window shows the mini app's main screen with the conversation beside it. The agent there is the same agent as in the workspace, so a game's opponent, a board's planner or a tool's operator works the way it does in a tab. The app opens on the conversation you last used in it.
The title row beside the window buttons is the app's path, as in Localix: the app's name, then the conversation. Open the conversation to see the app's history and switch to an earlier one.
- New chat at the right of the title row starts a new conversation in the app: a new game, an empty board.
- Open in Localix (Shift+Command+O, in the app's menu) shows the same conversation in the workspace.
- When an agent in the app's conversation waits for you, a number appears on the app's Dock icon.
- The window remembers its size and position. It uses the same glass and theme as the workspace.
Localix runs in the background
The app needs Localix. When Localix is not running, opening the app starts it in the background: the app's window appears and Localix keeps no window of its own on screen. Open Localix from its Dock icon or menu-bar icon to see the workspace.
Quitting Localix quits its apps, as quitting a browser closes its installed web apps. If Localix stops unexpectedly, an open app starts it again and reconnects.
Open, reinstall or remove
When a mini app is already an app, the same places offer Open Name App and Remove Name App. Removing moves the app to the Trash; the mini app itself stays in Localix. Deleting the app in Finder does the same.
After a Localix update, its apps are brought up to date on the next launch and keep their names and icons. To pick up a new icon, remove the app and install it again.
Removing the app keeps its project and history. Installing the app again reopens them. Deleting the project in Localix hides it there; the app brings it back the next time it opens.
If you turn a mini app off or remove it, its app still opens and shows its conversations, and the Event Center keeps one entry saying the mini app is turned off. The entry clears itself once the mini app is on again.
Limits
- macOS only. The Windows and Linux desktop apps, and Localix in a browser, keep mini apps as tabs.
- A mini app needs a screen of its own (the button it adds to the rail) to become an app. A Claude Code plugin has no screen, so it cannot become an app.
- Installing with the desktop app from the store does not undo the install when the desktop app cannot be made; the store says why beside the app.
- A development build keeps its apps separately, in
~/Applications/Localix Dev Apps, and they need the development servers running.