BAMA

# BAMA

Gives your coding agent 21 skills that clone an app you like, plan it and build it as a native Mac app in Swift and SwiftUI, with local data.

Made by daveebbelaar on GitHub. These notes are Mindket's, written from its README; the project's own files and license are in its repository.

## About

What it is: BAMA is a set of 21 skills for coding agents that turn an app you like into your own native Mac app. Your agent screenshots the screens, plans the work and builds in Swift and SwiftUI, with local data. You do not need the Xcode interface.

Who it suits: It suits people who want a native Mac app of their own and would rather direct an agent than write every line. Anyone not building a Mac app can skip it, and its Windows counterpart is BAWA.

```table
Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example
Software development | Solo developers | Rebuild an app they like as their own native Mac app | A to-do app rebuilt as a native Mac app
Product design | Designers | Rebuild the look of an app from its screenshots, with sizes, type and colors measured | A custom design kit with every part in every state
Startups | Founders with an idea | Turn an idea into a one-page brief, then a backlog of user stories | A brief and milestones before any code
Developer tools | Mac tool builders | Add a command line and MCP server so agents can drive the app | Claude Code driving a finished app
```

Where to use it: BAMA runs inside your coding agent and builds for a Mac.

- Claude Code: it comes as a plugin
- Codex: it comes as a plugin too
- A Mac on macOS 26 or later: where the app is built, installed and checked
- Your Dock: where the finished app ends up

```table
Use case | Who | What they get back
Clone an app | Indie developers | Screenshots of every screen and a screen index
Plan from stories | Product owners | A backlog with checkable acceptance criteria, grouped in milestones
Build in small steps | Developers | One story per commit, with page snapshots and tests before each one
Design to match | Designers | A look rebuilt from screenshots and compared pixel by pixel until it matches
```

How to set it up: You need a Mac that meets the requirements and an agent to run the skills.

- A Mac on macOS 26 or later
- Swift 6.2
- A coding agent such as Claude Code or Codex
- npx, which comes with Node.js

1. Check that your Mac meets the requirements.
2. Run the install command below to add the skills.
3. Open your agent and tell it which app you want.

```bash
npx skills@latest add daveebbelaar/bama
```

BAMA also comes as a plugin for Claude Code and for Codex.

How to use it: Tell your agent in plain words which app to rebuild and how far to go.

```text
Clone my to-do app as a native Mac app.
Screenshot every screen, write the user stories, and build milestone 1.
```

The bama skill reads where your project stands and routes you to the skill that fits next. The other skills cover the stages from brief to shipping.

```table
Tool | What it does
bama | Routes you to the right skill for where your project is
app-brief | Writes a short brief of one page from your idea
new-mac-app | Starts a working app from a template, with a Swift package, SwiftData and a build script
research | Runs parallel researcher agents on market, users, features, design and macOS APIs
clone | Screenshots each screen of an app and writes a screen index
user-stories | Builds a milestone-by-milestone backlog of stories, each with acceptance criteria you can check
swift-swiftui | Helps with Swift 6 concurrency, state, SwiftData and compiler errors
os-integrations | Adds global hotkeys, a menu bar, floating panels, Shortcuts and permissions
agent-cli | Optionally adds a command line and MCP server so agents can drive your app
design-from-app | Recreates the appearance of an app you admire, working from its screenshots
app-icon | Makes a Liquid Glass icon as an Icon Composer file
build-and-verify | Builds and installs the app, then captures each page in light and dark mode
```

Example: You ask your agent to turn your to-do app into a native Mac app. It screenshots every screen, writes user stories and builds the first milestone, one story per commit. Before each commit, light and dark snapshots are taken of each page, and the tests run.

For newcomers and experts: If you have never built a Mac app, you can start with one sentence. Install the skills, tell your agent which app you like, and it clones, plans and builds in steps. A first small thing to try is asking it to rebuild a to-do app.

Each skill is a focused set of instructions. Some cover Swift 6 concurrency, SwiftData and AppKit bridges, others cover Liquid Glass design and a 4 pt layout grid enforced by a code lint. The build stage works story by story, so every commit stays small and checkable. The trade-off is scope, since it targets one platform, macOS 26 or later, and one stack, Swift and SwiftUI.

```flow
The agent screenshots every screen of the app you like
Screens become user stories grouped in milestones
One story is built per commit
Page snapshots and tests check each commit
A native Mac app lands in your Dock
```

Good to know:

- Platform: macOS 26 or later and Swift 6.2
- Stack: Swift and SwiftUI, with local data and no Xcode interface
- Skills: 21 in total, grouped into Start, Plan, Code, Design and Ship
- Agent CLI: the command line and MCP server skill is optional
- Windows: use BAWA, the Windows counterpart
- License: MIT

```chart
Title: Skills per stage
Start: 3 skills
Plan: 3 skills
Code: 5 skills
Design: 7 skills
Ship: 3 skills
```

## On GitHub, 6 November 2026

- Stars: 1,619
- Forks: 200
- Watching: 14
- Open issues and pull requests: 1
- Language: Swift
- License: MIT
- Topics: agent-skills, ai-agents, app-clone, claude-code, claude-code-plugin, codex, computer-use, liquid-glass, macos, macos-app, native-apps, skills

## Links

- Code: https://github.com/daveebbelaar/bama
- Releases: https://github.com/daveebbelaar/bama/releases
- Issues: https://github.com/daveebbelaar/bama/issues
- Star history: https://www.star-history.com/#daveebbelaar/bama&Date

## Get the code

```
git clone https://github.com/daveebbelaar/bama.git
```

Then follow the setup in its README. Nothing in this kit runs by itself.

README.md  6 KB