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Install on macOS

There are two disk images: one for Apple Silicon (Xol-<version>-macos-arm64.dmg) and one for Intel (Xol-<version>-macos-x64.dmg). Use the one that matches your Mac.

Install

  1. Open the disk image. Double-click the .dmg you were sent. A window opens with the Xol icon and an Applications shortcut.
  2. Drag Xol into Applications. Do not run Xol from inside the disk image window. A copy that runs from the disk image cannot update itself; see Updates.
  3. Eject the disk image, then open Xol from your Applications folder.
  4. Approve it once. macOS blocks the first start because the build is not notarized. The next section explains how to approve it.

The one-time approval

Development builds of Xol are not signed with an Apple Developer ID and are not notarized by Apple. They carry only an ad-hoc signature, which every Apple Silicon program needs in order to run at all. macOS therefore stops the first start of a copy that came from a browser download.

  1. Open Xol. macOS says it could not verify the app. Choose Done.
  2. Open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security and scroll to the Security section.
  3. Next to the line about Xol, press Open Anyway, then confirm with your password or Touch ID.
  4. Xol starts. macOS remembers the approval.
  1. In Finder, open Applications.
  2. Hold Ctrl and click Xol (or right-click it), then choose Open.
  3. In the dialog, choose Open again.
  4. Xol starts. macOS remembers the approval.

Why the prompt appears

Gatekeeper checks files that carry a quarantine mark. The browser, Mail or AirDrop adds that mark to anything it downloads. Because the build is not notarized, Gatekeeper has nothing from Apple to check it against, so it asks you. The prompt is about the missing notarization, not about the contents of the file. If you were given a SHA-256 checksum with the installer, you can compare it in Terminal: shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Xol-0.2.0-macos-arm64.dmg.

Why updates do not ask again

From launcher 0.2.2 on, Xol updates itself. macOS does not show the prompt again for those updates, and nothing is being bypassed:

  • The update is downloaded by Xol, not by a browser, so the file never receives a quarantine mark. Gatekeeper only assesses quarantined files.
  • Before Xol uses the download, its size and SHA-256 must match a release record signed with a key that is built into the app.
  • The new Xol.app is copied out of the verified disk image, and its bundle identifier, its version and its code signature are checked before the swap.

The full sequence is on Updates. The update from 0.2.0 or 0.2.1 to 0.2.2 is still manual, because the updater that runs is the old version's.

Not yet confirmed on a user's Mac

The self-update path was exercised on an automated macOS 14 build machine for both architectures: a quarantined image, a staged copy without the quarantine mark, the swap, the signature check, and a start of the new app. The full loop from a running, installed copy on a tester's Mac has not been observed yet.

Where Xol keeps its data

~/Library/Application Support/Xol. Your instances, worlds, settings and the downloaded game files live there, not inside the app. See File locations.

Removing Xol

Drag Xol from Applications to the Trash. Your data folder stays. See Reset and uninstall for a complete removal.

If something goes wrong