PreviewSmith Helper
The companion helper for PreviewSmith.
PreviewSmith renders previews through a small helper that runs Xcode's preview bridge. It's downloaded separately and signed by the same developer.
Download 2026.1macOS 26.0 or later · 4.5 MB · released 2026-08-09
Finish installing the helper
Three quick steps to complete the install.
-
Unzip the downloaded file.
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Move PreviewSmithHelper to your Applications folder.
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Open it once to finish installing.
Why a separate download?
Because of the App Sandbox. Rendering a preview means running Xcode's preview bridge and reading the images Xcode writes into its own temporary directory, and a sandboxed app can do neither. Every executable inside a Mac App Store app has to be sandboxed too, so the helper cannot ship inside PreviewSmith itself.
It lives outside the app bundle instead, distributed outside the App Store as a notarized app signed by the same developer. The two check each other's code signature before they talk, so neither will connect to anything but its counterpart.
The helper is
app.previewsmith.viewer.helper, signed by team
74D9UBS5CF. It runs as a menubar item with no dock icon, and registers a launch
agent the first time you open it so it's there when PreviewSmith needs
it.
All versions
| Version | Released | Min macOS | Size | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026.1 (build 136) | 2026-08-09 | 26.0 | 4.5 MB | ZIP |
| Initial release of the PreviewSmith Helper app. Allows connection to Xcode and fetching of previews. SHA-256: e069628857dce6be407504888449df7c0e7a89b00c46c4527b447a1dc4b4c38c | ||||
| 2026.2 (build 156) | 2026-08-11 | 26.0 | 4.5 MB | ZIP |
| Bug fixes to allow for better xcode connection. SHA-256: 340650c0f789cb40ce2868d398224b4c89b26684eded2a787b17a5ce3d0bebc5 | ||||
| 2026.3 (build 156) | 2026-08-25 | 26.0 | 4.5 MB | ZIP |
| Allows use of XcodeOpenWorkspace to initiate the connection to Xcode. SHA-256: 9dd572ff4f58e074128c5f8e9ce82290460568828556fb23bffbb8ddd3520a72 | ||||
A machine-readable manifest of every version is available at /versions.json, described by /openapi.json.