Menuist: a Finder context menu extension for macOS 14 and later

The repository is a website, not the source code

The first thing the README says, in a callout marked as a tip, is a statement about the nature of the project.

Statement: This project is not open-source. This repository serves as the official website for collecting issues and user feedback. This approach is purely to save costs, as the app cannot pass the review without an official website.

That is the sort of sentence that deserves to be read twice, because it changes what the repository is. There is no source code here to build, no licence to comply with and no way to check what the app does with the permissions it asks for. The repository holds the README in English and Chinese, a CHANGELOG in both languages, an assets directory with the screenshots, an i18n directory, a docs directory, and the issue tracker. The GitHub licence field is recorded as unknown, which is consistent with there being no source to license.

The reason given is a distribution constraint rather than a philosophical one. An application distributed through the App Store needs an official website to pass review, and hosting one costs money, so the repository doubles as the site. That is a pragmatic reason, and it explains a pattern you will see with a lot of polished Mac utilities.

The application itself is written in Swift with SwiftUI, the topics list desktop-app, macos-app and swiftui-app among others, and the minimum OS requirement is macOS 14.0. The project page is at wangchujiang.com/rightmenu-master/, and the app is called Menuist, a name change that the README explains: based on user feedback that the original app name RightMenu Master was not ideal, AI was used to generate several name candidates and a vote was held, and the name changed from version 3.0 onwards.

Twenty five entries in the right-click menu

The feature list is long, and reading it as a list of the operations people repeat is more useful than reading it as a list of features.

The file operations are the core. Create New File lets you create files in specific formats and upload custom templates. There is a Cut and Paste menu for the Finder equivalents of the keyboard shortcuts. Copy To copies files or folders to a specified location, and Move To moves them. Copy File Path copies the absolute path of a file, and Copy Folder/File Name copies the name. Direct Delete removes files or folders from the menu. Create Desktop Shortcut sends files to the desktop as symbolic links.

The reporting and inspection items are the ones that save real time. Show Total Size displays the total size and the individual sizes of selected multiple files or folders. Quick Preview with Code Highlighting previews code files with syntax highlighting, QuickLook Preview for Apps adds preview support for application files, and a QuickLook Extension adds preview support for Icon Composer .icon format files.

Two entries are aimed squarely at developers. Common Applications quickly opens commonly used editors or command line tools, with Terminal and iTerm named. And the app recognises and adds an Open Remote Git URL menu, automatically detecting a Git repository and offering to open its remote address. Common Scripts lets you create custom scripts and add them to the right-click menu.

Then there are the odds and ends: Set Folder Icon Color, Create icns Icon for building macOS icon files, File/Folder Locked which locks files or folders via a menu shortcut only, File QR Code Sharing for sharing files by QR code and local network links, Quick Paste for pasting images into Finder folders, and Convert To for image format conversion.

The pattern to notice is that a Finder context menu is the most valuable place for an operation that is otherwise two or three steps: a template file to open, a path to copy, a size to check, a preview to see. The app is not trying to replace Finder, it is trying to shorten the distance to the actions Finder does not have.

The menu bar, which is the half that needs no permissions

The second surface is the macOS menu bar, and it is worth separating from the context menu because the two have different permission profiles.

Menu Bar Quick Navigation gives access to frequently used folders and applications from the menu bar. Frequently Used Folders lets you customise a list of folders for quick access, or to create new terminal windows in them. Folder Access History records and quickly exposes the history paths of folders. Website Navigation supports setting frequently used folders as website navigation, which points at a separate bookmarks project by the same author. And External Drive Display automatically shows external drives within the status bar menu.

That list is a different proposition from the context menu items. Opening a terminal window in a folder, jumping to a recently visited directory or launching an editor needs no access to the contents of those folders. The menu bar half is therefore the part of the app that keeps working after you have declined a permission prompt, and the part that works without any at all.

The distinction matters for how you set the app up. If the menu bar side is where most of your value is, you can leave the authorisation section empty and never grant a folder, and the app still does something useful. The context menu side is where the permissions come in, because creating a file in a directory, moving files out of it or deleting from it all touch the filesystem.

The repository also carries an i18n directory and a link to internationalization support in the README, which is unusual for a single developer Mac utility and suggests the localisation is a maintained part of the project rather than an afterthought.

Where the real engineering is: the Finder permission model

The FAQ is the most useful part of the README, because it documents the failure modes that a Finder extension has and that no amount of feature description would reveal.

The first is the partial menu not displaying. When permissions are passively confirmed and then denied, reauthorising permissions may cause the menu not to display, and in that case you need to restart the Finder extension. Restarting the computer achieves it, but that is cumbersome, and the README gives two simpler methods.

Method one is to execute killall Finder in the command line:

killall Finder

Method two is the system's Force Quit Applications feature, opened with the shortcut cmd, option and escape, where you find the Finder application and click the Relaunch button below.

The second FAQ entry is about frequent authorisation prompts, and the answer is in the app settings under Folder Authorization and Add Folder: try adding the root directory to avoid frequent authorisation prompts. That is a practical suggestion with a side effect, since authorising a root directory is broader than authorising the folder you actually work in, and it is a decision to make deliberately rather than a default.

The third is the one that decides whether the app is for you. After a restart, reauthorisation is required, and this is Apple's security policy for Finder extensions. The author tried Full Disk Access first and found that it does not work: even with Full Disk Access enabled, the directory still has to be selected manually and the permission granted in Finder. The README says this process is very cumbersome for personal use, and that since App Store submission requires compliance with sandbox security policies, there is not yet a better solution.

That is a candid admission of a platform limitation, and it is the single most important thing to know before installing. A Finder extension holds a authorisation record that macOS can invalidate, and this app cannot work around it.

Presets, templates and custom scripts

The application describes itself as a highly configurable Finder extension, and the configuration surface is where the real power sits for anybody who uses Finder seriously.

The preset operations are mentioned as coming with the application: a set of useful actions that are already set up, so that the extension is useful before you configure anything. Create New File works in specific formats, and you can upload custom templates, which is the part that matters for development work. A template directory in your project, a template file for a new note, a template for a new source file: the action becomes one click instead of a trip to the shell.

Custom scripts are the other half. You create a script and add it to the right-click menu, which means any script you already have can be run against whatever you have right-clicked. That is the extension point that makes the tool fit an existing workflow rather than imposing one.

The Copy functions are described as various, and the list in the features covers the absolute path, the folder or file name, and the quick paste of images. Together with Show Total Size and the two QuickLook items, these are the operations that would otherwise mean opening a terminal or a separate inspector window.

Given the configuration surface and the number of items, there is a real question of how much of this to switch on. A context menu that has grown to thirty entries is slower to use than the menu it replaced, because reading the menu becomes the cost. The application is described as configurable for a reason, and turning off the items you do not use is likely to matter more than any single feature it offers.

Where Menuist is the wrong tool

There are clear cases where this application is the wrong answer, and they are worth naming before you install it.

If you need to know what the software does with the files it can reach, this is the wrong project, because the source is not published and there is nothing to read. The repository is a website and an issue tracker. That is a reasonable choice for a developer distributing through the App Store, and it is a poor fit for an organisation with a policy about the software it installs on managed machines.

If your work is on shared or locked down folders, the authorisation model is a problem in practice rather than in principle. The README says reauthorisation after a restart is required, that Full Disk Access does not remove the step, and that the manual selection in Finder is very cumbersome.

If you are on an older macOS, the application does not run. The stated minimum is macOS 14.0.

And if you are looking for a file manager rather than a set of shortcuts, this is not one. It deliberately does not replace Finder, and it does not give you a different window for browsing. It gives you more entries in the window you already have.

The alternative approach is the one the system already provides: the Finder menu as it comes, the Terminal with a few shell aliases, and the preview panel that macOS already has for many file types. The difference in approach is that those approaches need no permissions, no extension, and no authorisation, and they are always there. What Menuist adds is the reduced number of steps for the operations it covers, and the price is an app that asks for access to your files and has to ask again after a restart.

Editorial conclusion

Menuist suits a Mac user who wants one click for the operations they repeat all day, creating a file from a template, copying an absolute path, previewing a code file, or opening a terminal in the current folder, and who wants those in the menu they already use rather than in a separate launcher. It does not suit anybody who needs to audit the code, because the project is explicitly not open source, and it does not suit a machine where granting folder permissions repeatedly is not acceptable, because the README is candid that macOS requires reauthorising directories after a restart and that Full Disk Access does not remove the step. Check three things before you buy it: that your macOS is 14.0 or newer, since that is the stated minimum, which Finder items you actually want added, since the context menu can get long fast, and whether the Folder Authorization section can be pointed at a root directory to avoid the repeated prompts the README describes. The last push to the repository was on 2026-10-15 and the newest release is v4.12.0.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. jaywcjlove/rightmenu-master on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases