MAC COMPANION

Required to use airshell on your iPhone. Free.

airshell needs a small menu-bar app running on the Mac you want to connect to. It bridges your iPhone to your shell. Install it once and forget it — it sits quietly in the menu bar.

After downloading

1. Open the airshell.dmg and drag airshell into your Applications folder.
2. Launch airshell. On first launch macOS may ask for permission to use the local network — say yes.
3. Look at your menu bar. The airshell icon will appear there. Click it.
4. A QR code will show with a 6-digit confirmation code.
5. Open the airshell app on your iPhone (same Wi-Fi) and scan the QR.
6. Enter the 6-digit code on your iPhone. You're paired.

Why is it not on the Mac App Store?

The Mac App Store requires apps to run in a sandbox that breaks menu-bar functionality and local network discovery. We distribute directly with Apple's notarization stamp, which means macOS Gatekeeper trusts the app — same security guarantees as App Store, just without the sandbox limitations.

Trouble installing?

If macOS says "airshell can't be opened because Apple can't check it for malicious software", that means the notarization stamp didn't reach your machine. Right-click the app → Open → Open (you'll only need to do this once). If that still doesn't work, email us.