Support editor discovery in ~/Applications on macOS

[amah853]

• Resolve editors from user or system Applications on macOS when the CLI is missing
• Add coverage for available-editor detection and launch path resolution

What Changed

The IDE Open button now also checks ~/Applications on macOS (not just /Applications) when looking for installed IDE apps.

If the editor’s CLI command isn’t on PATH, it can still show up as available if the .app bundle exists, and we launch it using open -a.

I also added tests to cover:

• detecting an editor installed in ~/Applications
• launching via open -a when the CLI isn’t available

Why

A lot of people install apps like Cursor / Zed into their user ~/Applications instead of the global /Applications.

Before this, the app could say “no installed editors found” (or only show editors installed in the global /Applications) even though the IDE is clearly installed. This makes the Open button feel broken for normal setups.

This keeps behavior predictable:

use CLI if it exists (best experience, supports --goto, etc.)
otherwise fall back to the macOS app bundle (still opens the right folder/file)

Checklist

• This PR is small and focused
• I explained what changed and why
• I included before/after screenshots for any UI changes
• I included a video for animation/interaction changes

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Note

Medium Risk
Changes editor discovery and launch behavior on macOS by falling back from CLI commands to .app bundle detection and open -a, which could affect which editors are listed/used when multiple installs exist. Scope is limited to external launcher logic with added test coverage.

Overview
Improves macOS editor integration by discovering .app bundles in ~/Applications (and /Applications) when an editor’s CLI command is missing, so editors can still appear as available.

Updates resolveEditorLaunch to fall back to open -a <App.app> on darwin and strips any :line:column suffix for app-bundle launches. Adds tests covering user-Applications discovery, HOME-missing behavior, and the new launch fallback path.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 1954320. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

Note

Support editor discovery in ~/Applications on macOS

• Adds resolveMacApplicationDirectories and resolveMacEditorApplication to locate .app bundles under ~/Applications and /Applications when no CLI is on PATH.
• On darwin, resolveAvailableEditors now considers an editor available if its .app bundle exists, even without a CLI.
• On darwin, resolveEditorLaunch invokes open -a <AppPath> <filePath> when a CLI is missing but the .app bundle is found.
• Behavioral Change: when launching via macOS app bundle, line/column position arguments are stripped — only the file path is passed.

^{Macroscope summarized 1954320.}

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[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

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^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit bbfbb23. Configure here.}

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved

This PR adds a well-scoped, low-risk feature for macOS editor discovery in ~/Applications. The changes are self-contained, additive (existing behavior preserved as fallback), and thoroughly tested.

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[amah853]

Whoops! Sorry about that.

apps/server/src/process/externalLauncher.ts:138 now always includes /Applications, even when HOME is missing or blank.