Hardlink · host

Hardlink for macOS

The host is the half that runs on the machine you leave behind. Install it on your Mac, set an access password, and the iPhone or Android app connects to it directly — peer to peer, end-to-end encrypted, with no server in the data path.

Download

Hardlink-1.0.0-development.dmg · 56 MB · macOS 13 or newer · Intel and Apple silicon

Download the .dmg →
This is a preview build, and macOS will refuse to open it. It is signed with an Apple Development certificate rather than a Developer ID one, and it has not been notarized — so once your browser has downloaded it, Gatekeeper rejects the app outright and may report it as damaged. Nothing is wrong with the download; a development certificate is simply not a distribution certificate. Step 2 below is what gets past it, and a properly signed and notarized build that needs none of this is the next piece of work.

Installing

  1. Open the .dmg and drag Hardlink onto Applications.
  2. Open Terminal and run this once, which removes the download flag macOS attached to the file: 
    xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hardlink.app
    Then open Hardlink normally.

Right-clicking and choosing Open does not work for this build, and neither does Open Anyway in System Settings. Those bypass the warning shown for an app with no signature; this app has a signature, from a certificate that is not valid for distribution, which macOS refuses differently.

First run

  1. Sign in with the same account you use on the phone.
  2. Grant Screen Recording so the phone can see the Mac. macOS quits the app when you grant it — that is expected, it is picking up the new setting. Reopen it.
  3. Grant Accessibility so the phone can move the pointer and type. macOS only allows this to be switched on by hand.
  4. Press Go online. The Mac shows an access password like K7QM-2X9Z-P4RT. Type that on the phone once.

What it needs