Add Electron App for Mac build

[leszko]

Summary

• Add macOS build job to the Electron app CI workflow, producing signed and notarized artifacts for every release
• Include Apple notarization via a new afterSign hook so the app passes Gatekeeper on user machines
• Extend update-latest-yml.js to generate latest-mac.yml for the macOS auto-updater
• Improve auto-updater error handling with user-facing dialogs on download failure and update errors

Release artifacts

Each release will now include 2 additional macOS files:

Artifact	Purpose
DaydreamScope-arm64.dmg	Installer for Apple Silicon Macs
DaydreamScope-*-arm64.zip	Update payload for Apple Silicon (required by electron-updater)

The ZIP files are required because electron-updater on macOS downloads ZIP archives (not DMGs) when performing in-app auto-updates.

All files are signed with Apple Developer ID credentials and notarized, so users will not see Gatekeeper warnings.

Testing

Tested all features on macOS including pipelines, WebRTC streaming, settings, plugins, and the auto-updater — everything works correctly.

[yondonfu]

There were a few updates to the Windows desktop app recently:

#435
#448

Can you double check if anything needs to be ported to Mac builds as well before starting to support them?

Also, while I think having a Mac build makes sense...I'm a bit wary of starting to support it without first considering these questions:

1. What if a plugin includes a pipeline that won't run on Mac? How should that be handled?
2. What if a plugin includes a pipeline that runs on Mac, but runs poorly? How should that be handled?

Curious if you have thoughts on this.

[leszko]

There were a few updates to the Windows desktop app recently:

#435 #448

Can you double check if anything needs to be ported to Mac builds as well before starting to support them?

Yes, they will work fine:

• Fix plugins lost after server restart in desktop app #435 => It's about installer; in Macos, we don't have the installer, because the installer would require the root access, which we don't want to require; therefore the uv dependencies are installed during the first start of the app, which is slightly worse UX, but I think it's still better than requiring root access for the App
• Fix desktop app running stale code and deps after updates #448 => This will work fine, because this change is not Windows-specific

Also, while I think having a Mac build makes sense...I'm a bit wary of starting to support it without first considering these questions:

1. What if a plugin includes a pipeline that won't run on Mac? How should that be handled?
2. What if a plugin includes a pipeline that runs on Mac, but runs poorly? How should that be handled?

Curious if you have thoughts on this.

IMO this is not a blocker for releasing the Electron app on macOS. However, it’s something we should consider more broadly in the context of plugins and environment compatibility.

I see two scenarios:
1. Installation failure
A plugin fails to install due to missing or unsupported dependencies (e.g., not available on macOS).

• This should already be covered by our current dependency checks.

2. Runtime failure
A plugin installs but fails at runtime (e.g., requires a GPU that isn’t available).

• If VRAM/GPU requirements are declared → the plugin won’t be shown as compatible.
• If they’re not declared → it may fail at runtime.

This isn’t macOS-specific. The same can happen on Windows without a GPU or with insufficient hardware. It’s a broader issue around clearly communicating plugin and pipeline requirements.

Also, I expect the macOS Electron app to be used mostly with Cloud for now, since most demanding pipelines require a GPU anyway.
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[mjh1]

@leszko small request, should we get an icon with a transparent background? 🙂 I noticed it when I built the app locally.

[leszko]

@leszko small request, should we get an icon with a transparent background? 🙂 I noticed it when I built the app locally.

Yeah, @yondonfu wdyt? Asking you, because you created the icon author 🙃

[yondonfu]

wdyt? Asking you, because you created the icon author

Will do tm!

[yondonfu]

@leszko

IMO this is not a blocker for releasing the Electron app on macOS. However, it’s something we should consider more broadly in the context of plugins and environment compatibility.

I think your points make sense. But, I'd like to double check that we've tested the installation and runtime failure scenarios before moving forward with supporting Mac releases. It's ok if certain plugins/pipelines don't work on Mac, but I'd like to verify that in the scenarios that you describe the installation/use of the plugins don't break the app installation for Mac users in a non-recoverable way (eg no way to get back to working install without needing to go into the CLI) as that would then become a pain to deal with support wise.

[leszko]

I think your points make sense. But, I'd like to double check that we've tested the installation and runtime failure scenarios before moving forward with supporting Mac releases. It's ok if certain plugins/pipelines don't work on Mac, but I'd like to verify that in the scenarios that you describe the installation/use of the plugins don't break the app installation for Mac users in a non-recoverable way (eg no way to get back to working install without needing to go into the CLI) as that would then become a pain to deal with support wise.

Ok, I actually like that you're pushing me to do more tests. I just discovered that the x64 can't work, because the torch wheels are not longer supported for Mac Intel Silicon. Therefore, removed the x64 builds. So, we'll distribute only arm64.

Re: Testing plugins, I've spent some time today testing them. And I think we're good to go. Here's how it works:

1. Installation

• I managed to install all plugins (expect of overworld) from https://app.daydream.live/plugins
• Overworld failed, because of the dependencies conflict (I think it's ok)

2. Runtime

• The following pipelines work: cosmic-vfx, color-generator, invert, yolo_mask, vfx-pack, kaleido-scope, matte-refiner
• The following pipelines fail to start (but I think it's ok): flashvsr, ltx-2, casual-forcing
• The following pipelines works poorly (but I still think it's ok): realesrgan, matte-refiner

The bottom line, is that installing/uninstalling plugins have not break the environment or anything.