Install Arbalète for Mac

The free app that puts Arbalète's sidebar at the left edge of Chrome's window, outside any page, with the command bar in the middle. For macOS 13 or later, with the Arbalète extension in Google Chrome. Published by PopArchi, an independent developer in France.

Download Arbalète for Mac Latest release notes

The file is called Arbalete.dmg and comes from the project's releases page, on GitHub. If Chrome warns that it is rarely downloaded, as any new app is, you can keep it from Chrome's downloads list.

macOS will take you through two alerts and its System Settings, then ask for your password: that is expected, as Apple has not checked this app. Each screen is shown below, in its words; allow a few minutes.

Arbalète will never ask you to turn off a protection of macOS (Gatekeeper), to change “Allow applications downloaded from”, or to paste a command in Terminal. If a page or a message tells you to, it does not come from Arbalète: download it from this page only.

Why has Apple not checked it?

Apple checks (“notarizes”) only the apps of developers in its paid program; Arbalète for Mac is not in it. So the first time you open each version, macOS blocks it until you allow it yourself, in its settings. The app is signed by its publisher, PopArchi, with its own certificate (not one of Apple's), the same for every version: what you allow it stays from one version to the next.

You can also do without it: without the app, the sidebar already works in Chrome's side panel.

Your version of macOS: Apple menu › About This Mac. Then follow its part.

On macOS 15 Sequoia or 26 Tahoe

Open Arbalete.dmg, then Arbalete in the window that appears. macOS does not open it yet:

“Arbalete” Not Opened
Apple could not verify “Arbalete” is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.

Click Done. macOS writes Arbalete without its accent, after the file's name: it is Arbalète.
Open System Settings › Privacy & Security (Apple menu › System Settings…) and scroll down to Security:

“Arbalete” was blocked to protect your Mac.

Click Open Anyway. The button stays there for about an hour after you tried to open the app; past that, open it again from the disk image.
macOS warns you once more: click Open Anyway, then confirm with your password or Touch ID. macOS asks for it: Arbalète never sees it.
Arbalète asks “Install Arbalète for Mac?”: click Install. It moves itself to your Applications folder and tells Chrome it may start it; nothing else on your Mac changes.

Back in Chrome, Arbalète Settings check the app's step by themselves. If you did not come through their Get the App button, click I Have the App there and allow Chrome's request, “Communicate with cooperating native applications”: it is this app.

Then eject the disk image; Arbalete.dmg can go to the Trash. You will not have to open the app: Chrome starts it.

On macOS 13 Ventura or 14 Sonoma

The warning is worded otherwise there. The simplest way is the one Apple describes.

Open Arbalete.dmg. In the window that appears, Control-click Arbalete, then choose Open. Do not choose to move the app to the Trash.
macOS warns you: click Open. If it offers no such button, open System Settings › Privacy & Security, click Open Anyway (offered for about an hour after you tried), then confirm.
Arbalète asks “Install Arbalète for Mac?”: click Install, as in step 4 above. Then eject the disk image.

Then, if you wish

Keyboard shortcuts (⌘T, ⌘L, Ctrl+Tab…; ⌘ is Cmd, ⌃ Ctrl, ⌥ Option, ⇧ Shift) and page previews in the switcher are turned on in Arbalète's settings. macOS then asks for a permission, which you may refuse:

Keyboard shortcuts: Accessibility. macOS shows “… would like to control this computer using accessibility features” and sends you to System Settings › Privacy & Security, where you allow it. The app then receives the keys pressed while Chrome is in front and acts on its shortcuts only, keeping or sending nothing. In password fields, Chrome turns on macOS's secure input: no app sees those keys.
Page previews: Screen Recording. macOS asks you to allow it, in System Settings › Privacy & Security; once allowed, the app restarts by itself. It pictures only Chrome's window in front and keeps small pictures in memory, never on disk. On macOS 15 and later, macOS may ask you now and then to confirm.

Updates and uninstalling

A new version: the extension tells you, with an arrow on its icon and in its settings; the one you have keeps working until then. Download it here and follow your macOS version's steps again: the new one takes the old one's place, and the permissions you gave stay. If Chrome names the file “Arbalete (1).dmg”, it is the same.
To uninstall: open Arbalète again from the Applications folder and click Uninstall. The app, and what it told Chrome, go to the Trash; your bookmarks, tabs and groups stay in Chrome. To remove the extension too: right-click its icon in Chrome, then Remove from Chrome.

For experts: check the file and the signature

Each release's page gives the file's SHA-256. To compare, in Terminal: shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Arbalete.dmg (this only reads the file).

The app is signed by the certificate “Arbalete Release Signing”, whose SHA-256 is 7d65fe648d3cdd400a7003f3adf3f06cfacea0a46af3ef05f6ca9ec4fbfbe356. codesign -d -r- /Applications/Arbalete.app prints the app's requirement, which ends with certificate leaf = H"b31837e8c047b0d283506bea0417f06658c2e994": any other signature is not ours.

From 0.1.4 on, each release is immutable on GitHub: its files can no longer change, and GitHub attests them. With the gh tool: gh release verify-asset v0.1.4 ~/Downloads/Arbalete.dmg -R poparchi/arbalete.

A problem while installing? Write to arbalete@poparchi.com, with your version of macOS and the message shown.