Why Edyt isn't on the Mac App Store

Edyt isn't on the Mac App Store. That's not an oversight, it's a direct result of how the app works.

What Edyt needs to work

Edyt reads text you select in any app, and types the result back into that same app. To do that, it needs macOS's Accessibility API, which lets it read the selected text in other apps and put the result back.

That's the permission Edyt asks you to approve on first launch.

Why that rules out the App Store

Every Mac App Store app has to run inside Apple's App Sandbox. The Accessibility API doesn't work inside that sandbox, no matter what permissions you grant. An App Store build of Edyt would open fine, but selecting text elsewhere and pressing a shortcut would do nothing.

We're not alone here. Alfred, Karabiner-Elements, and BetterTouchTool aren't on the Mac App Store either, for the same reason: they all reach into other apps to do their job.

What we do instead

Edyt is downloaded directly from edyt.app, signed with our Apple Developer ID, and notarized by Apple. Notarization is Apple's own malware and tamper check, run outside the Store. You'll still get the normal Gatekeeper prompt on first launch, and macOS will still ask you, directly, to approve Accessibility.

There's no version of "put Edyt on the App Store" that keeps the feature it's named after, so it's not something we're working toward.