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appkit-interop

✓ Official★ 4,081

by openai · part of openai/plugins

Bridge macOS SwiftUI into AppKit narrowly. Use when implementing representables, reaching NSWindow or panels, handling menus, or using the responder chain.

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🧩 One of 7 skills in the openai/plugins package — works on its own, and pairs well with its siblings.

This is the playbook your agent receives when the skill activates — you don't need to read it to use the skill, but it's here to audit before installing.

AppKit Interop

Choose The Smallest Bridge

  • Use pure SwiftUI when the required behavior already exists in scenes, toolbars, commands, inspectors, or standard controls.
  • Use NSViewRepresentable when you need a specific AppKit view with lightweight lifecycle needs.
  • Use NSViewControllerRepresentable when you need controller lifecycle, delegation, or presentation coordination.
  • Use direct AppKit window or app hooks when you need NSWindow, responder-chain, menu validation, panels, or app-level behavior.

Workflow

  1. Name the capability gap precisely.

    • Window behavior
    • Text system behavior
    • Menu validation
    • Drag and drop
    • File open/save panels
    • First responder control

  2. Pick the smallest boundary that solves it.

    • Avoid porting a whole screen to AppKit when one wrapped control or coordinator would do.

  3. Keep ownership explicit.

    • SwiftUI owns value state, selection, and observable models.
    • AppKit objects stay inside the representable, coordinator, or bridge object.

  4. Expose a narrow interface back to SwiftUI.

    • Bindings for editable state
    • Small callbacks for events
    • Focused bridge services only when necessary

  5. Validate lifecycle assumptions.

    • SwiftUI may recreate representables.
    • Coordinators exist to hold delegate and target-action glue, not as a second app architecture.

References

  • references/representables.md: choosing between view and view-controller wrappers, plus coordinator patterns.
  • references/window-panels.md: window access, utility windows, and open/save panels.
  • references/responder-menus.md: first responder, command routing, and menu validation.
  • references/drag-drop-pasteboard.md: pasteboard, file URLs, and desktop drag/drop edges.

Guardrails

  • Do not duplicate the source of truth between SwiftUI and AppKit.
  • Do not let Coordinator become an unstructured dumping ground.
  • Do not store long-lived NSView or NSWindow instances globally without a strong ownership reason.
  • Prefer a tiny tested bridge over rewriting the feature in raw AppKit.
  • If a pattern can remain entirely in swiftui-patterns, keep it there.

Output Expectations

Provide:

  • the exact SwiftUI limitation being crossed
  • the smallest recommended bridge type
  • the data-flow boundary between SwiftUI and AppKit
  • the lifecycle or validation risks to watch