Sign the macOS bundle, or it arrives "damaged"

The first release could not be opened: macOS said "WarpEngine Store is damaged
and can't be opened. You should move it to the Bin."

Not a wording problem — an integrity one. electron-builder found no signing
identity and skipped signing, so the bundle kept only the linker's ad-hoc
signature on its main executable, with no resource seal. `codesign --verify` said
"code has no resources but signature indicates they must be present", and
Gatekeeper reports that as damaged and offers no way past it, unlike an
un-notarised app which can at least be approved.

`scripts/after-pack.js` now signs the bundle itself during packaging. Measured on
a copy unzipped from the artifact with the quarantine flag set by hand:

  before  code has no resources but signature indicates they must be present
  after   valid on disk; satisfies its Designated Requirement

and the identifier is ours rather than `Electron`. `syspolicy_check` is down to
its expected "adhoc signed" warning. A downloaded copy still has to be approved —
that is Gatekeeper policy for anything un-notarised, and notarisation needs a paid
Developer ID — so the README and the release notes lead with the one command that
does it.

Two smaller things the failure turned up:

- The self-test was passing silently. With a copy of the app already open, the
  second process lost the single-instance lock and exited 0 with no output, which
  reads exactly like success. It now uses its own user-data directory and skips
  the lock, and it caught a real launch failure immediately afterwards.
- The README claimed right-click ▸ Open was enough. It was not, and I had not
  checked it — replaced with what the measurements support.

v1.0.0's attachments are withdrawn rather than left downloadable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

README.md

@@ -27,10 +27,27 @@ Grab the package for your machine from the
 and open it. On first run, if there is no store on the machine yet, the window
 offers to download one — that is the whole setup.
 
-The macOS build is **not signed or notarised**, so the first open needs
+### Opening it on macOS
-*right-click ▸ Open* (or *System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security*). Nothing the
+
-store itself downloads is affected: those files are fetched by Python, which does
+The build is ad-hoc signed but **not notarised**, so macOS asks before running a
-not set the quarantine flag.
+copy that came from a browser. The reliable way through:
+
+```sh
+xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/WarpEngine Store.app"
+```
+
+If macOS offers *Open Anyway* under **System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security** after
+a blocked attempt, that works as well. Notarisation is the only thing that removes
+the step entirely, and it needs a paid Apple Developer ID.
+
+Nothing the store itself downloads is affected: Python fetches those files, and
+Python does not set the quarantine flag.
+
+**v1.0.0 could not be opened at all** — it reported *"is damaged"*. The bundle had
+never been signed; only its main executable carried the linker's ad-hoc signature,
+so there was no resource seal and Gatekeeper refused it outright rather than
+asking. `scripts/after-pack.js` signs the bundle during the build now, and the
+result verifies as `valid on disk`.
 
 ## Use
 
@@ -61,6 +78,10 @@ npm run dist:mac           # or dist:win / dist:linux
 is ESM-only, and older Node cannot `require()` it. The packaged app carries its
 own runtime.
 
+`npm run uitest` runs with its own user-data directory and without the
+single-instance lock. Otherwise a copy the user already has open swallows the test
+process, which exits 0 and reads as a pass.
+
 Both test scripts accept a sandbox store instead of the real one, which is how
 this repository is tested without touching a working installation:
 
@@ -95,10 +116,17 @@ too — that is why the indirection is there.
 
 ## Verified, and not
 
-Exercised on macOS (arm64): the store is discovered, the catalog lists, a sync
+Exercised on macOS (arm64), with the packaged app from the release rather than a
-installs, the window renders the installed state, and `npm run uitest` passes with
+dev run: the store is discovered, the catalog lists, a sync installs, the window
-the grid rendered and both languages in the picker. The bootstrap download was run
+renders the installed state, and `npm run uitest` passes with the grid rendered
-into an empty directory and the resulting store answered the bridge.
+and both languages in the picker. The bootstrap download was run into an empty
+directory and the resulting store answered the bridge.
+
+The signing was measured rather than assumed, by setting the quarantine flag on a
+copy unzipped from the release artifact: `codesign --verify --deep --strict` is
+clean, and `syspolicy_check` reports only the expected *"adhoc signed"* warning.
+A quarantined copy is still stopped until it is approved — that part is Gatekeeper
+policy, not a fault in the package.
 
 **Not tried on Linux or Windows.** The paths and the launch behaviour are written
 for them, and the store CLI itself has the same gap — `.desktop` and `.lnk`

main.js

@@ -60,6 +60,13 @@ async function guarded (fn) {
 // would otherwise be noticed: the main process log stays empty.
 const SELFTEST = process.argv.includes('--selftest')
 
+// A test run must never be swallowed by a copy the user already has open: it gets
+// its own user-data directory and skips the single-instance lock. Without this the
+// second process exits silently with status 0, which reads as a passing test.
+if (SELFTEST) {
+  app.setPath('userData', path.join(app.getPath('temp'), 'warpstore-gui-selftest'))
+}
+
 async function selftest () {
   const result = await win.webContents.executeJavaScript(`(() => ({
     cards: document.querySelectorAll('.card').length,
@@ -215,7 +222,7 @@ ipcMain.handle('app:openExternal', async (_event, url) => {
 
 // --- lifecycle ------------------------------------------------------------
 
-if (!app.requestSingleInstanceLock()) {
+if (!SELFTEST && !app.requestSingleInstanceLock()) {
   app.quit()
 } else {
   app.on('second-instance', () => {

package.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
   "name": "warp-engine-desktop-gui",
   "productName": "WarpEngine Store",
-  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "version": "1.0.1",
   "description": "Graphical client for a WarpEngine desktop store: install the catalog into your own application menu.",
   "license": "MIT",
   "author": "Teletype Games <games@teletype.hu>",
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@
         "AppImage",
         "deb"
       ]
-    }
+    },
+    "afterPack": "scripts/after-pack.js"
   },
   "allowScripts": {
     "electron@43.4.0": true

scripts/after-pack.js

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+'use strict'
+// Ad-hoc sign the macOS bundle after packing.
+//
+// Without this the bundle carries only the linker's ad-hoc signature on the main
+// executable, with no resource seal — `codesign --verify` says "code has no
+// resources but signature indicates they must be present". That runs fine
+// locally, but a browser download adds the quarantine flag, Gatekeeper evaluates
+// the broken seal, and macOS reports the app as *damaged* rather than merely
+// unverified. The first release shipped exactly that.
+//
+// An ad-hoc signature is not a Developer ID and does not notarise anything: the
+// user still has to right-click ▸ Open the first time. It is the difference
+// between "unidentified developer" and "move it to the Bin".
+
+const { execFileSync } = require('node:child_process')
+const path = require('node:path')
+
+exports.default = async function afterPack (context) {
+  if (context.electronPlatformName !== 'darwin') return
+  if (process.platform !== 'darwin') {
+    console.log('  • ad-hoc signing skipped  reason=codesign only exists on macOS')
+    return
+  }
+
+  const app = path.join(context.appOutDir, `${context.packager.appInfo.productFilename}.app`)
+  // --deep is the pragmatic choice for ad-hoc signing a bundle with nested
+  // frameworks and helpers; Apple discourages it for real identities, where the
+  // inner-to-outer order matters.
+  execFileSync('codesign', ['--force', '--deep', '--sign', '-', app], { stdio: 'inherit' })
+  execFileSync('codesign', ['--verify', '--deep', '--strict', '--verbose=1', app], { stdio: 'inherit' })
+  console.log(`  • ad-hoc signed   ${app}`)
+}