Recent versions of macOS prevent the opening of downloaded apps that are not signed and notarized. Although an unsigned build may appear to work on your local machine, others will have issues. Others may see errors like "unidentified developer" or "damaged" application. Signing and notarizing requires a paid Apple Developer account.
The MIT Illuminations repo is setup to automatically sign and notarize builds after you do some one-time environment setup as outlined below.
- Sign into your Apple developer account in XCode
- Preferences -> Accounts -> [Your apple ID] -> Manage Certificates (bottom right)
- Click "+" icon in bottom left -> "Developer ID Application"
- You should see the new certificate listed. Click Done.
You now have a certificate for signing the app, which the build process will automatically find and use.
The notarization process needs to authenticate with Apple's servers, which requires your AppleID and password. You create an application specific password on your account instead of providing your main password.
Following the instructions here and then copy the password for the next steps.
Finally, you need to configure an environment file with a few account settings.
Create a new file in the root of the repo: .env.local:
APPLEID = "[email protected]"
APPLEIDPASS = "app-specific-password"
APPLETEAMID = "short-team-identifier"
Note: you can find the short Team ID on your Apple Developer account dashboard under "Membership Details".
npm run make-mac-release
The "signing" step might sit there for awhile because it's uploading the apps to Apple.
- Signing electron apps: https://www.electron.build/code-signing
- Notarizing electron apps: https://kilianvalkhof.com/2019/electron/notarizing-your-electron-application/