withoutBG for Mac

A free, private, native macOS app for background removal, powered by withoutBG Open Weights. Images are processed locally on your Mac — nothing is uploaded.

The desktop app is the primary product. It includes drag-and-drop processing and an optional Local API on http://127.0.0.1:8000 for automation (scripts, GIMP plugin, CI).

Background removal runs on-device via the bundled withoutBG Open Weights Core ML model (wbgnet_oss, fp32, v10). A MockProcessor is available behind the same BackgroundRemovalProcessor protocol for UI development without the model.

Features

Desktop

• Drop, open (⌘O), or paste (⌘V) up to 20 images
• Sequential auto-processing with Quick Look preview
• Responsive thumbnail grid with Photos-style selection
• Export transparent PNGs individually or as a zip
• Light / dark / system appearance
• Finder Services: Remove Background on selected images

Local API (optional)

• Start/stop from the menu bar extra or Settings
• POST /v1/remove-background — same inference engine as the desktop
• GET /health, GET /openapi.json
• Request log and operational metrics in the menu bar
• Loopback-only (127.0.0.1) — sandboxed, private

Downloads

Product	Audience	Scheme
withoutBG (primary)	Creators + developers	WithoutBG
WithoutBG Server (headless)	CI / automation-only	WithoutBGServer

Most users should install withoutBG. The headless server build is for environments that only need the HTTP API.

Requirements

• macOS 14+
• Xcode 16+ (Swift 5.9+)
• XcodeGen (brew install xcodegen)

Build & run

The Xcode project is generated from project.yml (gitignored).

xcodegen generate
open WithoutBG.xcodeproj

• WithoutBG — windowed desktop app with menu bar Local API controls
• WithoutBGServer — menu-bar-only headless distribution (LSUIElement)

# Primary app
xcodebuild -scheme WithoutBG -destination 'platform=macOS' build

# Headless server (advanced)
xcodebuild -scheme WithoutBGServer -destination 'platform=macOS' build

Release builds:

./scripts/release.sh                  # withoutBG DMG (primary)
./scripts/release.sh --server           # WithoutBG Server DMG (headless)

Monorepo layout

withoutbg-mac/
├── Packages/WithoutBGCore/     Shared inference, model, settings, product links
├── Apps/
│   ├── WithoutBG/              Primary desktop + embedded Local API
│   └── WithoutBGServer/        Headless menu-bar distribution
├── project.yml
└── scripts/release.sh

Inference

Both the desktop queue and Local API serialize through one SharedInferenceCoordinator actor backed by a single CoreMLProcessor instance — one model load, fair GPU scheduling.

Desktop UI ──┐
             ├── SharedInferenceCoordinator ── CoreMLProcessor ── wbgnet_oss
Local API ───┘

Shared code lives in Packages/WithoutBGCore. To run the UI without the model, inject MockProcessor() at app init.

Local API quick start

1. Launch withoutBG
2. Click the menu bar icon → Start Local API
3. Send a request:

curl -X POST \
  --data-binary @photo.jpg \
  -H "Content-Type: image/jpeg" \
  http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1/remove-background \
  -o result.png

OpenAPI spec: http://127.0.0.1:8000/openapi.json

Migration from WithoutBG Server

The standalone withoutbg-mac-server repository is consolidated into this monorepo. See docs/MIGRATION.md.

Existing com.withoutbg.mac.server installs continue to work via the WithoutBGServer target. New users should install withoutBG instead.

License

withoutBG Open Weights — Apache License 2.0. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES for model attributions (DINOv3, Depth Anything V2).