Apps list: the apps in a folder of their own (#76)

[Anubhav-Rai]

Fixes #76.

What

The Apps list now finds apps installed in a folder of their own, the way Adobe's suite installs them (/Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2026/Adobe Photoshop 2026.app). It looks one level down into each applications folder, as Launchpad and Spotlight do. It still never looks inside a bundle, so an app's own helpers stay out.

Why it missed them

WindowCatalog.findInstalledApps() listed only the .app bundles sitting directly in /Applications, /Applications/Utilities, /System/Applications, /System/Applications/Utilities and ~/Applications. Anything in a subfolder was never seen.

How

• New pure file: the scan moves to Sources/SillHost/InstalledApps.swift, a small enum on FileManager and Bundle only, so a check can compile it on its own. findInstalledApps() now just passes it the same five folders.
• Folder rules:
  • In each folder: the .app bundles directly in it first, then the .app bundles in each plain subfolder, one level down.
  • Not followed: symbolic links to folders, other kinds of packages, folders more than one level down, and anything inside a bundle.
• Unchanged from before: first bundle ID wins and the list is sorted by display name.
• Safari edge case: names starting with a dot are skipped, but .skipsHiddenFiles is deliberately not used. /Applications/Safari.app is a symbolic link into its cryptex that macOS flags as hidden, and that option dropped Safari from the list (I caught it comparing old vs new on a real Mac).

How I tested it

• New check: Tests/checks/installed-apps builds a fake applications folder in a temporary directory and checks 13 cases:
  • a suite's folder (App menu don’t look in folders #76)
  • a folder too deep
  • a helper inside a bundle
  • a dot-named folder
  • a symbolic link to a folder
  • a Safari-style hidden-flagged link to an app
  • two bundles with one ID
  • several folders, a missing one, the sort and the name
• The check catches the bug: dropping the subfolder scan fails the App menu don’t look in folders #76 case, and putting .skipsHiddenFiles back fails the Safari case.
• On a real Mac (macOS 27, MacBook Pro M5), with the same five folders: 90 apps before, 92 after. The two new ones are an app and its uninstaller in ~/Applications/IB Gateway 10.50/, and nothing that was listed before went missing.
• swift build -c release is clean, and Tests/checks/run-all.sh passes.
• CLAUDE.md lists the new file in Layout and the new check.

Not tried: an actual iPad's Apps list with the Adobe suite installed (I don't have it). The device gets the same [AppInfo] as before, just longer.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Saffsanity]

From a pass over all the open pull requests (nothing is decided yet): #135 fixes #76 the same way (the same new InstalledApps.swift and installed-apps check) and is proposed to close as a duplicate of this one, since this one keeps Safari listed, and #135 searches to any depth where this one stops one level down (its own example, /Applications/Adobe/Creative Suite/Photo.app, would be missed), so that depth is worth taking here; #66 (and #72 and #73, built on it) appends Finder at the end of the findInstalledApps body this PR replaces, so whichever lands second moves that line after InstalledApps.find.

[Saffsanity]

Thank you for this. To get it ready to merge, two commits now sit on top of yours on this branch (your commit is unchanged): a merge of the current main (#142, #153; no conflict), and 8167830, which adds:

• Any depth. The scan walks each applications folder a level at a time at any depth instead of stopping one level down. The depth comes from Apps drawer: find applications in nested folders #135 by @GreedyC (credited as co-author on the commit), so its example, /Applications/Adobe/Creative Suite/Photo.app, is found. Each folder is read by name, so of two bundles with one ID the shallower one wins, and at one depth the one in the folder first by name.
• Never inside a framework. As before, nothing inside a bundle or another package is read. A framework is a bundle but not a package, so the walk would otherwise enter it (Sparkle's keeps an Updater.app inside).
• Links. A link found inside a folder is never followed, so a link back up cannot loop. A folder in the list that is itself a link (~/Applications on another disk) is resolved first and read, as main read it.
• Comments. The doc comment no longer says Launchpad and Spotlight show apps this way, and findInstalledApps notes that both Utilities folders are now read twice, harmlessly, since the first bundle ID wins.
• The check. 18 cases (two folders down, a package's and a framework's inner apps, a dot-named app below the top, a link back up, a folder given as a link, one app twice at one depth). It counts failures instead of stopping at the first and removes its temporary folder. A mutants.py with 12 one-line mutants, each caught, joins CI's mutants matrix; CLAUDE.md's Layout line and Tests/checks/README.md describe it.

Checked: the check 18 of 18 and its mutants 12 of 12, Tests/checks/run-all.sh installed-apps addresses, swift build -c release (only the known CaptureProbe warning), and a loopback synthetic host listing 122 apps on a Mac where main lists 119 (IDLE, Python Launcher and an Edge web app added, none lost). It merges once CI passes on this head.