I build Kopi , a free, open-source (MIT) clipboard manager for macOS and Windows. It's written in Rust with Tauri 2 and React, and it's in alpha.

This post is about one decision that took more thought than any feature: how to ship a Mac app without paying Apple $99 a year. I wrote it up as a decision record in the repo ( ADR 0006 ), and this is the longer story behind it.

The problem: $99 a year to open without a warning

On macOS, an app downloaded from the internet opens without a Gatekeeper warning only if it is signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple. Getting that certificate means joining the Apple Developer Program, which costs $99 a year.

For a commercial app that's a normal cost of doing business. Kopi is free and open source, and I decided it won't pay that fee every year. So the question became: what's the best Mac experience I can ship without it?

Why "just don't sign it" doesn't work

My first thought was the obvious one.…