Platypus

Platypus is a developer tool for the Mac OS X operating system. It can be used to create native, flawlessly integrated Mac OS X applications from interpreted scripts such as shell scripts or Perl, Ruby and Python programs. This is done by wrapping the script in an application bundle directory structure along with an executable binary that runs the script.

Platypus makes it easy for you to share your scripts and programs with those unfamiliar with the command line interface, without any knowledge of the Mac OS X APIs -- a few clicks and you will have your own Mac OS X graphical program. Creating installers, maintenance applications, login items, launchers, automations and droplets is very easy using Platypus.

Supports shell scripts, Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, Expect, Tcl, AppleScript or any other user-specified interpreter
Executes scripts with administrator privileges via Apple's Security Framework
Can display graphical feedback of script execution as progress bar, text window with script output, droplet, WebKit HTML rendering or status item menu
Dragging and dropping files or text snippets on application, which are then passed to the script as arguments
Can create applications which run in the background (LSUIElement)
Set own application icon or select from presets
App bundle configuration for associated file types, identifier, version, author, etc.
Graphical interface for bundling support files with script
Command line tool for automating script application bundling and integrating platypus into your build process
"Profiles" which can be used to save configurations
Built-in script editor, or linking with external editor of choice
Extensive documentation and many built-in examples to help you get started.

Platypus is free, open-source software distributed under the terms and conditions of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License. Platypus is written in Objective C for the Cocoa application programming interfaces. The source is made available on GitHub

If Platypus makes your life easier or helps you be more productive, please donate to support further development.

Download Platypus

The latest version is Platypus 4.6. Platypus and Platypus-generated applications require Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and are Intel only 32-bit/64-bit fat binaries.

For a version that runs on 10.4 and PowerPC, press the "Old Versions" link below and get version 4.4.

Download Application | Source | Old Versions | GitHub

Links Documentation | man page | Version Log

Development

For help with development, you can subscribe to the Platypus Developer Mailing List and send in your query, or maybe give the documentation a once-over again. If you like Platypus, you may also be interested in a similar application of mine, Tapir, which allows you to easily make global Mac OS X menu items based on shell commands and scripts.