Platypus 5.0

Last updated November 23rd, 2015
by Sveinbjorn Thordarson



What is Platypus?

Platypus is a Mac OS X developer tool that creates application wrappers around scripts. In other words, it generates native applications that execute a bundled script. Interpreted scripts can thus be run transparently from the graphical window environment, integrating seamlessly with the standard OS X user interface.

Platypus is written in Objective-C / Cocoa and is free, open source software distributed under the terms and conditions of the BSD license. The source code is available as a separate download on the Platypus website and is also available on GitHub.

While Platypus is free, it is the product of countless hours of work spanning well over a decade. If you find Platypus useful, please make a donation to support further development.


How does Platypus work?

Platypus creates a Mac OS X application bundle (.app) which contains an executable file and your script. When the application is launched, the executable file gets the script interpreter and other settings (authentication requirements, output type etc.) from configuration files within the bundle. The script is then executed according to those parameters. Script output can subsequently be presented to the end-user in a variety of ways, ranging from progress bars and menus to windows with text output.

The Platypus application and any applications it generates require Mac OS X 10.7 or later and are 64-bit Intel binaries. If you want to target 10.6 and/or 32-bit systems, version 4.9 continues to work just fine. If you want to target 10.4 and PowerPC users, you can use version 4.4.


How do I use Platypus?

Using Platypus is simple enough. You type in the name you want to assign to the application in the "App Name" field and then locate your script via a navigation dialog by pressing the "Select" button (or alternatively, drag the script or type in the path manually). You can then create an application by pressing the Create button.

Platypus has a number of advanced features that are explained in detail in the documentation. If you are offline, you can view documentation by opening Platypus and selecting Platypus Documentation from the Help menu. The documentation is quite detailed and includes step by step tutorials, examples, an FAQ section, and in-depth explanations of advanced features.

Platypus has a command-line interface counterpart, platypus, which can be installed from the Preferences into /usr/local/bin/platypus. The man page for the command line tool is available both from the terminal and as an HTML document accessible from the Help menu.


Version History

29/11/2015 - Version 5.0

09/03/2015 - Version 4.9

07/07/2013 - Version 4.8

27/02/2012 - Version 4.7

26/01/2012 - Version 4.6

11/12/2011 - Version 4.5

17/08/2010 - Version 4.4

25/07/2010 - Version 4.3

18/05/2009 - Version 4.2

15/05/2009 - Version 4.1

22/6/2008 - Version 4.0

25/07/2006 - Version 3.4

24/02/2006 - Version 3.3

06/05/2005 - Version 3.2

06/05/2005 - Version 3.1

13/01/2005 - Version 3.0

29/11/2004 - Version 2.8

16/11/2004 - Version 2.7

11/10/2004 - Version 2.6

23/08/2004 - Version 2.5

11/08/2004 - Version 2.3

03/05/2004 - Version 2.2

27/04/2004 - Version 2.1

17/02/2004 - Version 2.0

21/11/2003 - Version 1.8

17/11/2003 - Version 1.7

14/08/2003 - Version 1.6

29/07/2003 - Version 1.5

18/06/2003 - Version 1.4

15/06/2003 - Version 1.3

13/06/2003 - Version 1.2

11/06/2003 - Version 1.1

09/06/2003 - Version 1.0