What is applescript-open-app?

A macOS app-control skill that opens, activates, or quits an application by name using built-in system commands.

It is for opening apps such as Xcode or Safari, starting a new app instance when requested, and quitting running apps.

It provides a simple way to control desktop apps from the terminal, including a fallback when the faster launch method does not work.

applescript-open-app — Skill by IvanCampos

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods

npx agentmods add skills/ivancampos/agents/applescript-open-app

Any agent

npx skills add IvanCampos/agents --skill applescript-open-app

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/IvanCampos/agents

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 61 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 499 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5	$0.00061	$0.00499
Opus 5	$0.00030	$0.00249
Sonnet 5	$0.00012	$0.00100
Haiku 4.5	$0.00006	$0.00050

Measured 3d ago against content hash 457983985cdd, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

applescript-open-app scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 2 executable files (scripts/open_app.sh, scripts/quit_app.sh), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/applescript-open-app/SKILL.md · 61 lines

What it actually says

AppleScript Open App

Overview

Use a performance-first launch path for opening apps (open -a) with AppleScript fallback for compatibility, and AppleScript for graceful quits.

Quick Start

Prefer scripts/open_app.sh for a reliable one-liner interface.
Prefer scripts/quit_app.sh for quitting an app.
Pass the app name exactly as it appears in Finder (for example, "Xcode", "Safari", "Final Cut Pro").

scripts/open_app.sh "Safari"

scripts/quit_app.sh "Discord"

Tasks

Open an app by name

Run scripts/open_app.sh "<App Name>".
The script uses fast LaunchServices activation first, then falls back to AppleScript activation only when needed.
If the app is not installed, surface the AppleScript error and ask for the correct name.

Open a new instance (only when asked)

Use open -na "<App Name>" only if the user explicitly requests a new instance.
Otherwise use AppleScript activation.

Quit an app by name

Run scripts/quit_app.sh "<App Name>".
The script checks whether the app is running before sending quit, avoiding slow error-path exits for already-closed apps.
If the app is not installed, surface the AppleScript error and ask for the correct name.

Handle ambiguous names

If multiple apps share a name, ask for the exact display name or bundle id.
If a bundle id is provided, use AppleScript with application id.

osascript -e 'tell application id "com.apple.Safari" to activate'

AppleScript snippet

osascript -e 'tell application "Safari" to activate'

osascript -e 'tell application "Safari" to quit'

Resources

scripts/

open_app.sh: Fast open -a launch/activate with AppleScript fallback.
quit_app.sh: Graceful AppleScript quit with running-state guard.

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

3d ago First seen · 61 lines · 61 tokens per session scan A 457983985cdd

Subscribe to this mod's changes

applescript-open-app is a skill published in the GitHub repository IvanCampos/agents (5 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 61 tokens to every session and 499 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

agent agent-skill agent-skills agents codex macos

applescript-open-app