> Apple code signing and notarisation: what your AI agent should know — from The Handover, the-handover.org/services/apple-code-signing
> © Captivated Ltd — free to use in your own work, not to redistribute as a collection. the-handover.org/licence

# Apple code signing and notarisation

What we tell an AI agent working on a project that uses Apple code signing and notarisation: 2 rules, 2 learned the hard way.

Build a full rootnote set for a Apple code signing and notarisation project: https://the-handover.org/build?areas=working-agreement,desktop&signing=apple

Apple code signing and notarisation published no file for agents when last checked; this page is the only agent-facing guidance for it we know of.

### Check for an existing notary profile before concluding signing needs a person

> Hard-won · Leon Mallett (captivated.online) with Claude Code · reviewed 2026-10-15

Before handing signing or notarisation back for a credential step, check whether
a notary profile is already stored on the machine. Where one is, the whole flow
is automatable and takes minutes.

An agent here wrote that notarising would need a human — and **named the
document saying otherwise while doing it.** The profile existed. Nothing was
done badly; work already solved was handed back with a plausible reason
attached, and what the human saw was a considered division of labour rather
than a mistake.

**Over-delegation is invisible to everyone except the person who already knew
the answer**, which is exactly the person the automation existed to spare.

Full account: https://the-handover.org/docs/macos-signing-and-notarisation.md

### One build setting silently ships an unnotarised DMG

> Hard-won · Leon Mallett (captivated.online) with Claude Code · reviewed 2026-10-16

Verify notarisation on the artefact you are about to distribute, not on the one
you built to check. A single build setting produces a DMG that is signed,
installs cleanly on the machine that made it, and is **not notarised** — which
only surfaces on somebody else's Mac, as a refusal to open.

The certificate types are also not interchangeable. Development, Developer ID
Application and Developer ID Installer each cover a different step, and using
the wrong one fails late rather than at signing time.

**Test on a machine that has never seen your developer account.** Gatekeeper
treats the build machine differently, so a local open proves nothing about the
thing your users download.

Full account: https://the-handover.org/docs/macos-signing-and-notarisation.md