Pique

A macOS Quick Look extension for syntax-highlighted previews of configuration files and scripts.

Select a file in Finder, press Space, and get a formatted preview with proper syntax highlighting to make your MacAdmin life easier — no need to open a text editor to glance at a config file.

Supported File Types

Format	Extensions
JSON	.json
YAML	.yaml, .yml
Mobileconfig / Plist	.mobileconfig, .plist
XML	.xml
Shell	.sh, .bash, .zsh, .ksh, .dash, .rc, .command
Markdown	.md, .markdown	✨ New
PowerShell	.ps1, .psm1, .psd1
TOML	.toml, .lock
Python	.py, .pyw, .pyi	✨ New
JavaScript	.js, .jsx, .mjs, .cjs	✨ New
TypeScript	.ts, .tsx, .d.ts	✨ New
HCL / Terraform	.tf, .tfvars, .hcl	✨ New
Go	.go	✨ New
Rust	.rs	✨ New
Ruby	.rb, .gemspec	✨ New
NDJSON / JSON Lines	.ndjson, .jsonl	✨ New
AutoPkg Recipe	.recipe	✨ New
Apple VPP / Apps and Books Token	.vpptoken	✨ New
AsciiDoc	.adoc	✨ New

Rows marked ✨ New were added after the initial release.

Mobileconfig and plist files get a special HIG-inspired rendering with profile metadata, payload details, and formatted key-value pairs.

YAML files with embedded SQL in query: values (common in osquery/Fleet configurations) automatically highlight the SQL syntax.

Requirements

macOS 26.0 or later.

Installation

Download and run the pkg installer from Releases.

Optionally, you can build from source with Xcode:

xcodebuild -project Pique.xcodeproj -scheme Pique -config Release

Enabling the Extension

On macOS 26, Quick Look extensions must be explicitly allowed. When you first launch Pique, you will see a notification:

Go to System Settings > Login Items & Extensions > Quick Look Extensions and enable Pique.

Appearance Settings

Open the Pique app and click the gear icon (⚙️) in the bottom-right corner to open Appearance Settings.

• Per-Format Appearance — every format defaults to System (follows the macOS appearance). You can override an individual format to always render Light or Dark — for example, keep shell scripts dark while Markdown stays light.
• Show Line Numbers — a global toggle that adds line numbers to code previews.

Settings are stored in a shared App Group (group.io.macadmins.pique.apps), so the Quick Look extension picks up your changes on the next preview.

Renewing the Quick Look Cache

macOS caches Quick Look previews and the list of registered generators. After installing or updating Pique — or if a supported file still shows the plain-text preview — renew the cache:

# Reset the thumbnail/preview cache and reload all generators
qlmanage -r cache
qlmanage -r

# Restart Finder so it picks up the refreshed previews
killall Finder

To confirm Pique is registered, list the active generators and look for io.macadmins.pique:

qlmanage -m | grep -i pique

If previews still don't update, log out and back in (or reboot) so macOS reloads the extension.

Development

See DEVELOPMENT.md for build and release notes, including how to prepare provisioning profiles for the GitHub Actions release workflow.

License

Copyright 2026 Declarative IT GmbH

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.