Install Benthic on a Mac: Open Anyway, checksum and first launch
One disk image for Apple Silicon and Intel, one approval in System Settings, a short setup. Each step of installing Benthic, and why macOS asks the first time.
You download a new app, double-click it, and macOS refuses to open it. With Benthic that happens once, on the very first launch, and the reason is a plain one. This post goes through the whole installation: the download, that first launch, how to check that your file is the published one, the short setup and how updates arrive afterwards.
Download and drag
Benthic runs on macOS 13 or later. The download page has one disk image for every Mac, Apple Silicon and Intel alike. Open the downloaded file and drag Benthic onto the Applications folder.
Start Benthic from Applications, not from the disk image or the Downloads folder. That pays off later: the one-click update replaces the app where it is. If Benthic runs from somewhere else, it opens the new disk image in the Finder instead and leaves the dragging to you.
Why macOS blocks the first launch
Apple notarises apps whose developers pay for its developer programme. Benthic is free and not notarised, because notarisation needs that paid Apple developer account. So macOS does not know the app and blocks it the first time you open it. Nothing is wrong with your download; macOS wants you to decide.
You allow Benthic once:
- Launch. Double-click Benthic in Applications. macOS blocks the launch; close the message.
- Allow. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security and scroll down to the message about Benthic. Click “Open Anyway” and confirm.
That is the only time. Later launches open normally, and updates from inside the app need no new approval.
Check the file first, if you like
If you would rather not take the download on trust, compare its checksum. A SHA-256 checksum is a long fingerprint calculated from every byte of the file: change a single byte and the fingerprint looks completely different. The download page lists the checksum under “Good to know”. In Terminal, run:
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Benthic-*.dmg
If the string it prints matches the one on the download page, your file is exactly the published one. If it does not, delete the file and download it again.
The other route is to build Benthic yourself. The source code is on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 licence, and the README lists what you need (the Xcode Command Line Tools and uv) and the script that builds the app.
The first-run assistant
On first launch, a short assistant asks a few questions. Each has a reason, and you can change every answer later in Settings.
- Language. English or German. Menus, exports and the messages your AI assistant receives follow this choice.
- E-mail address. Recommended: Unpaywall requires a contact address with every request, and Crossref and OpenAlex answer requests that carry one in their “polite pool”. Benthic sends it with requests to these three services only.
- University and library proxy. If your library gives you an EZproxy or OpenAthens link, enter it here. When a paper has no free copy, its result then links through your university access instead of to the article page. “Test” opens an example article through the link, so you see straight away whether it works.
- Download folder. Where the PDFs go, by default
~/Documents/Benthic. A cloud folder such as iCloud or OneDrive works too. - Your library. An existing collection to import, so that Benthic never fetches a paper twice: your Zotero library (Benthic suggests it when it finds one, and Zotero may stay open), or a BibTeX, RIS, Markdown or text file. Or you start empty, and the library grows with every download.
Setup takes about a minute. To go through it again, use “Run setup again” in Settings › Sources and access, in the Contact and access box. After that, paste your first reading list under Check; this post explains what you can paste and how each reference is looked up.
Updates in one click
Benthic looks for a new version at launch and shows it at the top of the window. Click “Update now”, and Benthic downloads the new disk image from benthic.isoglu.com and compares its SHA-256 checksum with the release manifest. It then checks that the app inside really is Benthic, in the expected version and with an intact signature, replaces itself and restarts. If the checksum does not match, the file is discarded and nothing is installed. You do not have to approve anything in System Settings again. What changed is in the release notes.
To look for an update yourself, use “Check for updates” in Settings under General. The check fetches one small file without any identifier; nothing about you or your references goes with it.