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Free guide · Claude Code

Build your own Mac app with Claude Code

Many people pay for small Mac apps that each do one job. Dave Ebbelaar released BAMA, a free set of skills that walks Claude Code from an idea, through a plan and tests, to a finished app on your Mac. This guide covers what you need, how to install it, and a first small app to try.

Arun Nagarathanam · 30 Oct 2026

Start here

What BAMA is

BAMA is short for Build Any Mac App. It is a free, MIT-licensed collection of skills on GitHub by Dave Ebbelaar. A skill is a set of written instructions that Claude Code reads and follows. BAMA's 21 skills cover the whole job of making a native Mac app: the idea, the plan, the code, the design and the finished app in your Dock.

Its README describes three steps. Claude Code can take screenshots of every screen of an app you like and list them. It turns those screens into user stories, small descriptions of what each part should do, each with checks you can tick off. Then it builds one story at a time, and before saving each one it takes a picture of every page in light and dark mode and runs the tests.

In his video, Dave says he built an app that replaces 10 apps he was using on his MacBook. That is his own result. Yours depends on the app you ask for.

Five minutes

Before you start

What you need

  1. 01A Mac on macOS 26 or later.
  2. 02Xcode 26 or later installed. It is Apple's app-building software and a free download from the Mac App Store. BAMA uses its tools in the background, and the README says you never open it.
  3. 03Claude Code, the agent that runs the skills.
  4. 04Only if you want to copy an existing native Mac app with the clone skill: computer use, which needs Claude Pro or Max.
Before you start: what BAMA's README asks for on your Mac.
Before you start: what BAMA's README asks for on your Mac.

Two commands

Install BAMA in Claude Code

Install

  1. Open Claude Code.
  2. Paste the first command below and press Enter. It adds BAMA's plugin marketplace.
  3. Paste the second command and press Enter. It installs the BAMA plugin with all 21 skills.
  4. Use one install route only. The README also offers an npx command in Terminal, but it warns that two routes install every skill twice.
Claude Code · The two install commands 
/plugin marketplace add daveebbelaar/bama
/plugin install bama@bama
Paste into: Claude Code, one line at a time

A small first win

Your first app: a window snapper

BAMA's specs folder has 12 written build plans for small Mac apps, taken from Dave's own menu bar app. Starting from one means Claude Code has a clear, small target.

Build it

  1. Make a new, empty folder for the app.
  2. Open BAMA's specs folder on GitHub (link at the end), open window-snapper.md and copy the file into your empty folder.
  3. Open Claude Code in that folder and send the prompt below.
  4. Read what Claude Code plans before it goes ahead, and answer its questions. If you lose track of where you are, type /bama: it looks at your project and picks the next skill.
Claude Code · Your first prompt 
Build the app in window-snapper.md with BAMA.
Paste into: Claude Code, in the folder with window-snapper.md
Claude Code · Not sure what comes next 
/bama
Paste into: Claude Code, same project
Step 4: typing /bama makes Claude Code pick the next skill for your project.
Step 4: typing /bama makes Claude Code pick the next skill for your project.

Other plans in the same folder include a window switcher, a launcher, clipboard history, screenshots and a screen recorder. Each works the same way: copy the file into an empty folder and name it in the prompt.

The map

The skills, in the order you meet them

Five stages, 21 skills

  1. 01Start: bama (finds where you are and calls the right skill), app-brief (turns an idea into a one-page brief), new-mac-app (a working starter app).
  2. 02Plan: research (helper agents look at the market, users, features, design and macOS), clone (screenshots every screen of an app you like), user-stories (the to-do list for the build, with checks).
  3. 03Code: swift-swiftui, os-integrations (hotkeys, menu bar, windows, screen capture), performance, improve-architecture, and the optional agent-cli so agents can drive your app.
  4. 04Design: ux-design, mac-design, design-system, layout-grid, design-kit, design-from-app (rebuilds the look of an app you like) and app-icon.
  5. 05Ship: build-and-verify (builds, installs and checks every page in light and dark), test-mac-app, and improve-loop (works through the list one story at a time).
All 21 BAMA skills. You rarely call one by name: /bama picks the next.
All 21 BAMA skills. You rarely call one by name: /bama picks the next.

Grow it

After the first app

Once the first version runs, you add to it by asking Claude Code in the same project. In his video, Dave grew his own app one piece at a time: a window snapper, then a switcher, then a launcher, then a home screen.

You can also start from an app you already like. This is the example prompt from the README. For a native Mac app it needs computer use (Claude Pro or Max), because Claude Code has to open the app and take the screenshots itself.

Claude Code · Clone an app you like 
Clone my to-do app as a native Mac app.
Screenshot every screen, write the user stories, and build milestone 1.
Paste into: Claude Code, a new empty folder
After the screenshots: a plan of user stories with checks, in milestones.
After the screenshots: a plan of user stories with checks, in milestones.

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