SiliconScout

A macOS utility that scans your installed applications and reports whether each one is Apple Silicon (arm64), Intel (x86_64, runs via Rosetta 2), or Universal (both).

Why this matters

Apple has confirmed that Rosetta 2 will be removed starting with macOS 28 — only a small set of older, unmaintained games will retain any Rosetta functionality after that point. Apple recommends that users "update your Intel-based apps, plug-ins, extensions, and other add-ons for Apple silicon" for "optimal performance and future compatibility."

SiliconScout helps you find which apps on your Mac are still Intel-only so you can update or replace them before support ends.

Source: Apple Support — About Rosetta and Rosetta 2

Download

Download the latest release

Unzip and drag SiliconScout.app to your Applications folder.

First launch: macOS will block the app because it is not notarized. Open Terminal and run:

xattr -cr ~/Downloads/SiliconScout.app

Then double-click the app as normal. You only need to do this once. If you moved the app to /Applications first, adjust the path accordingly.

Features

• Scans /Applications, /System/Applications, and ~/Applications
• Detects Apple Silicon, Intel, Universal, and Unknown app binaries
• Handles shell-script launcher apps (e.g. JetBrains, .NET tools) by following the script to the real binary
• Filter by architecture with one click
• Search by app name
• Right-click any app for:
  • Show in Finder — reveals the app in Finder
  • Get Info — shows Kind, Version, Bundle ID, Size, Location, and dates (mirrors Finder's Get Info panel)
  • Copy Name / Copy Path
  • Export All as CSV — saves results to a .csv file (opens in Numbers or Excel)
• Refresh button to re-scan at any time
• Version number shown per app in the list

How it works

For every .app bundle, SiliconScout reads the Mach-O CPU slices via Foundation's Bundle.executableArchitectures. For apps that use a shell-script launcher (common in JetBrains and .NET tools), it parses the script, resolves the real binary, and inspects it via lipo.

Build from source

Requires Xcode 15 and macOS 13 or later.

git clone https://github.com/shaqmughal/SiliconScout.git
cd SiliconScout
xed .

Select the SiliconScoutApp scheme and press Run. A command-line version is also available:

swift run siliconscout

Running tests

swift test

36 unit tests covering architecture classification, lipo fallback, script-launcher resolution, CSV formatting, and app scanning.

Support

If SiliconScout is useful to you, buy me a coffee ☕.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.