MacRAR

Free, open-source native macOS archive manager with Liquid Glass UI for macOS 15 Sequoia + macOS 26 Tahoe.

Developed with Claude (Anthropic AI). Independent project — not affiliated with RARLAB, win.rar GmbH, or any other party.

• License: MIT (this app). RAR/UnRAR engine: © RARLAB / Alexander Roshal, distributed under their own license.
• Bundle ID: com.bechou.winrar
• Min macOS: 15.0 (Sequoia)

Features

• Extract RAR / ZIP / 7z / TAR / GZ / BZ2 / ISO archives (via bundled unrar + system tools)
• Create RAR archives (requires user-installed rar CLI; built-in auto-installer fetches it from RARLAB on opt-in)
• Finder right-click Services: Compress with MacRAR… / Extract with MacRAR
• Quick Look preview for archive contents
• Liquid Glass UI on macOS 26 Tahoe; graceful material fallback on macOS 15 Sequoia
• Universal binary (Apple Silicon + Intel)
• Drag-and-drop both directions, multi-volume archives, password / header encryption, SFX, recovery records, comments, repair, lock, rename / delete entries

Install

Download the latest DMG from Releases. Drag MacRAR.app → Applications.

First launch only: right-click MacRAR.app → Open → Open (one-time Gatekeeper bypass — MacRAR uses ad-hoc signing, no paid Apple Developer ID).

After first launch the app self-configures: file associations, right-click Services menu, quarantine cleanup.

For archive creation (extract works out-of-the-box), install the RAR CLI:

brew install rar

Or use the built-in installer: MacRAR → Settings → RAR CLI → Download & Install from RARLAB. Or download manually from rarlab.com/download.htm.

Build from source

brew install xcodegen create-dmg
make project          # generate Xcode project from project.yml
make build            # build Release
make sign             # ad-hoc sign + auto-install /Applications + register Services
make dmg              # package signed .app into DMG

Disclaimer & third-party notices

MacRAR is an independent open-source project developed with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic AI). It is NOT affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by RARLAB, win.rar GmbH, Alexander Roshal, Anthropic, or any other party.

"RAR", "WinRAR", and related marks are trademarks of win.rar GmbH. The RAR compression algorithm and the rar / unrar binaries are proprietary software © RARLAB / Alexander Roshal — distributed under their own license. MacRAR merely provides a graphical user interface that invokes those tools.

The bundled unrar binary is redistributed under the UnRAR component exception of RARLAB's EULA. The rar binary is NOT bundled; users obtain it directly from RARLAB at their own discretion (manual download or via the in-app installer that fetches the unmodified package from rarlab.com).

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. The authors and contributors of MacRAR shall not be liable for any data loss, archive corruption, license-key misuse, or any other damages arising from the use of this software, the bundled UnRAR, or any third-party RAR CLI invoked by it.

You are solely responsible for complying with the licensing terms of any third-party software you use through MacRAR — including the RAR/UnRAR license agreement with RARLAB. Source code is available on GitHub for full transparency.

Acknowledgments

• Claude (Anthropic) — pair-programming partner for the entire stack
• RAR / UnRAR by RARLAB (Alexander Roshal) — the underlying engine
• Sparkle 2 — macOS auto-update framework (MIT)
• swift-subprocess (Apple) — async process spawning

Why no Apple Developer ID?

This is a hobby/community project. Users see a one-time Gatekeeper prompt on first launch. Source is on GitHub for full transparency.