SandboxPilotKit

The companion SDK for SandboxPilot — a macOS control center for your own Mac apps.

The app you want to control embeds SandboxPilotKit. The kit opens a loopback connection to the companion and lets it remotely:

• switch appearance (System / Light / Dark),
• switch language / localization (and relaunch),
• force right-to-left layout,
• resize, focus and screenshot windows,
• read and patch UserDefaults (live).

It carries no logging functionality — that is a separate product.

Installation

Swift Package Manager. Add the dependency and link SandboxPilotKit to your app target:

.package(url: "https://github.com/LeanBytes/SandboxPilotKit.git", from: "1.0.0")

…or reference it locally during development:

.package(path: "../SandboxPilotKit")

Usage

Start the kit once, early in your app's lifecycle:

import SandboxPilotKit

@main
struct MyApp: App {
    init() {
        SandboxPilot.start() // 127.0.0.1:8085 by default; DEBUG builds only
    }

    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup { ContentView() }
    }
}

SandboxPilot.start() is a no-op in release builds, so shipping apps never open a port.

Sandboxed apps

The kit works inside the App Sandbox. Add the outgoing-network entitlement to the app you're controlling:

<key>com.apple.security.network.client</key>
<true/>

Relaunching (used by language switching and the RTL toggle) goes through NSWorkspace, so it works sandboxed as well as un-sandboxed.

Requirements

• macOS 26+
• Swift 6.2+