# Asset Catalog Tinkerer: a macOS app for opening .car files and pulling out their images > Asset Catalog Tinkerer is a Mac app that opens compiled asset catalog (.car) files, shows the images inside them, and lets you drag or export individual assets. It is aimed at developers and designers inspecting shipped apps, not at a build pipeline. **insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer** — An app that lets you open .car files and browse/extract their images. - Repository: https://github.com/insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer - Stars: 2,885 · Forks: 174 - Language: Swift - License: BSD-2-Clause - Published: 2026-09-10 · Updated: 2026-09-10 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/insidegui-assetcatalogtinkerer ## What problem Asset Catalog Tinkerer solves, and for whom A .car file is a compiled asset catalog. Xcode builds one from an .xcassets folder, and the result is a binary blob that ships inside an app bundle, usually under the app's Resources directory. You cannot open it in Preview, and you cannot read it as a folder. That is the gap this project fills: it opens the .car file and shows the images stored inside it. The audience is narrow and practical. Someone auditing a shipped iOS or macOS app to see which artwork it carries. A designer who needs the original image out of a build rather than out of a design file. A developer checking whether a particular asset actually made it into the bundle. The README frames the tool around exactly this: open a catalog, view the images, copy or export individual images, or export all of them at once. Since version 2.2 the app also reads theme store files, not only catalog files. Those hold assets for UI components, and the README points to /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemAppearance.bundle as an example location. It also reads ProKit theme stores found inside ProKit.framework, LunaKit.framework and other folders within pro apps. That second capability is the part that distinguishes it from a plain asset extractor, because theme stores are a different file family with their own contents. ## How the app reads a catalog and gets images out The workflow is deliberately manual, and that is the design. You point the app at a .car file. It parses the catalog and presents the images it finds. From there you either drag an individual asset out to another application or to the Finder, or you use the export path to write the whole catalog or a selection of images to a directory. The repository layout matches this: the Xcode project sits at the top level alongside an AssetCatalog directory and an act directory, with the app sources under Asset Catalog Tinkerer. A separate top-level entry exists for the QuickLook plug-in, which the README describes as shipping with the app so that asset catalogs can be previewed in QuickLook. That plug-in is a second surface on the same parsing work: instead of launching the app, you get a thumbnail in the Finder. Two limits follow from the mechanism. The README states plainly that the app was designed with images in mind and does not support some more modern asset catalog features, such as colors. It adds that support may or may not arrive in the future. So the tool is an image browser, not a general catalog inspector. If your catalog's interesting content is a colour set, a PDF, or a vector asset, the README gives you no reason to expect it to appear. ## Installing Asset Catalog Tinkerer on a Mac and opening a catalog The README gives two install routes. Homebrew is the shortest: the formula name is asset-catalog-tinkerer. ```bash brew install asset-catalog-tinkerer ``` After that, the app is available from your Applications folder or via Spotlight, depending on how you launched it. The other route is the release zip hosted in the repository, which the README links as AssetCatalogTinkerer_latest.zip under the releases directory. The README also links a Gumroad page where you can download and contribute any amount. Once installed, the first real use is to open a catalog from an app you already have. The README says the app can open any .car file, usually located within an app's Resources directory. Open the file the app presents, and the images inside should be listed. From there, drag an asset out to the Finder, or use the export action to write the entire catalog or the selected images to a directory. If you want the QuickLook path instead, the README says the bundled plug-in lets you preview asset catalogs in QuickLook, so selecting a .car file in the Finder and pressing space should show a preview rather than a generic icon. ## Where Asset Catalog Tinkerer is the wrong tool The unsupported asset types are the first real limitation, and the README is honest about it. Colours are named as an example of a modern feature the app does not handle. If you are trying to verify a design system's colour tokens inside a shipped build, this app will not do it, and the README does not promise a date for when it might. The second limitation is platform. The README describes a Mac app with a QuickLook plug-in, and nothing in the repository suggests a Windows or browser build. Searches for a Windows or online version of this tool are common enough to appear in the related searches list, but the project itself is a macOS application. If your machine is not a Mac, this project is not the answer, and you should not assume a web equivalent exists because people search for one. The third limitation is that this is a manual, interactive tool. There is no documented command line interface for scripting an extraction across hundreds of catalogs, and no documented headless mode. If your need is to pull assets out of every build in CI, the drag-and-drop model is the wrong shape of tool. It is built for a person looking at one catalog. ## How it differs from a plain .car extractor The obvious alternative is a command line extractor that dumps a catalog's contents to a folder. The difference is in what you get back. A batch extractor gives you files and a directory tree; you still have to open them to know what you have. Asset Catalog Tinkerer gives you a browsable view first, then lets you take only what you want, either by dragging individual assets out or by exporting a selection. That matters when the catalog is large and you are looking for one thing. It also matters because the app reads theme store files in addition to catalog files, which a generic .car extractor may not handle. The README's example locations, SystemAppearance.bundle for theme stores and ProKit.framework, LunaKit.framework and other folders within pro apps for ProKit theme stores, describe a class of files that a tool built only around .car parsing would miss. The trade-off runs the other way too. A scriptable extractor fits into automation and produces repeatable output; this app fits into inspection. Choose based on whether you are answering a question once or producing artifacts on a schedule. ## Maintenance, licensing and what an upgrade costs you The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-04-27. The most recent release is version 2.9, dated 2024-08-10, after version 2.7 in December 2021 and a 2.6 beta in 2019. The release cadence is therefore slow and uneven, which is worth knowing before you build a workflow around it: the gap between 2.7 and 2.9 was roughly two and a half years. The licence is BSD-2-Clause, a permissive licence that allows use and redistribution with the copyright notice and disclaimer retained. That is a permissive arrangement rather than a copyleft one, but the exact obligations depend on how you redistribute the app or a derivative, and that is a question for your own legal review rather than something this article can settle. Upgrade cost is low in the ordinary case. The app is distributed as a release zip and through Homebrew, so updating means either a new download or a brew upgrade. There is no documented migration step for catalogs or settings, and the README does not describe a rollback path if a new version regresses on a file you care about. If you depend on a specific behaviour, keeping the older release zip alongside the new one is the only fallback the project documents. ## Conclusion Adopt Asset Catalog Tinkerer if you are on macOS and need to look inside a .car file by hand: install it with brew install asset-catalog-tinkerer, open a catalog from an app's Resources directory, and drag out what you need. Skip it if you need colours, PDFs or other non-image asset types, or if you are looking for a Windows or browser tool, because the README describes a Mac app and does not document those platforms. Before relying on it, verify that your catalog opens and that the specific asset type you need appears; the README's own note on unsupported asset types is the boundary to test against. ## FAQ ### How do I install Asset Catalog Tinkerer on a Mac? The README gives two routes: run brew install asset-catalog-tinkerer with Homebrew, or download the latest release zip linked from the repository's releases directory. There is also a Gumroad download page where you can contribute any amount. ### Does Asset Catalog Tinkerer work on Windows or in a browser? The README describes a Mac app, and the QuickLook plug-in it ships with is a macOS feature. Nothing in the repository describes a Windows build or an online version, so there is no documented support for those platforms. ### Can Asset Catalog Tinkerer open theme store files as well as .car catalogs? Yes. Since version 2.2 it can read theme store files, not only catalog files. The README points to /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemAppearance.bundle as an example, and says ProKit theme stores inside ProKit.framework, LunaKit.framework and other folders within pro apps are also supported. ### Does Asset Catalog Tinkerer support colours and other non-image assets? No. The README states the app was designed with images in mind and does not support some more modern asset catalog features, such as colors, and adds that support may or may not be added in the future. ## Sources - [insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer on GitHub](https://github.com/insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer) - [Issues](https://github.com/insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer/issues) - [License: BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer/blob/main/LICENSE) - [README](https://github.com/insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer/blob/main/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/insidegui-assetcatalogtinkerer