I Finally Built a Mac App (After Years of Someday)

Todd Garland — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 03:27:33 +0000

For years, I told myself "someday."

Someday I'd learn Swift. Someday I'd figure out Xcode. Someday I'd ship something to the Mac App Store.

That someday finally happened.

JSONLint Pro is now live on the Mac App Store - and it was approved on first submission.

The Background

I've been maintaining jsonlint.com for years. It's a simple JSON validator that I enjoy hacking on every now and then. Nothing fancy, just a useful tool that developers seem to appreciate.

But I've always wanted to build a native Mac companion. Something fast, offline, without the browser overhead. The problem? I'm not a Swift developer. Every time I opened Xcode, I felt like I was staring at a mountain I didn't have time to climb.

What Changed

AI changed the equation.
I want to be clear: this wasn't magic. It wasn't "describe your app and watch it appear." There were real challenges to work through:

SwiftUI quirks - Layout behaviors that didn't match what I expected
Code signing headaches - If you know, you know
App Store guidelines - Lots of reading, lots of small adjustments
Iterations that just didn't work - Plenty of dead ends

But here's what was different: for the first time, I could actually work through these problems instead of getting stuck at "where do I even start."

When I hit a SwiftUI issue, I could get unstuck. When App Store guidelines confused me, I could get clarity. The learning curve that used to be a wall became a series of steps.

The App

JSONLint Pro is a native JSON toolkit for macOS. It does what you'd expect:

Validate - Real-time validation as you type
Format - Pretty-print with customizable indentation
Minify - Compress for production
Repair - Auto-fix trailing commas, single quotes, unquoted keys, comments
Convert - JSON to YAML, CSV, TypeScript, Swift
Compare - Side-by-side diff view
Tree View - Visual explorer with collapsible nodes

It works offline, handles large files without breaking a sweat, and feels like a proper Mac app (because it is one).

First Submission, First Approval

I fully expected rejection notes. "Fix this, change that, resubmit."

Approved first try.

I'm still a little surprised, honestly. I'd prepared myself for multiple rounds of feedback.

Why $6.99?

Are there free JSON tools? Absolutely. Is this app groundbreaking? No.

But I'm charging $6.99 because I'm genuinely curious about the app store economy. I've spent years in the web world dealing with ads, free tools, and the dynamics that come with that model.

I want to understand what it feels like on the paid app side. What are the conversion rates? How do people discover paid apps? What's the psychology difference between "free with ads" and "pay once, own it"?

Consider it a learning experiment.

The Takeaway

If you've been sitting on a "someday" project - something you've always wanted to build but the learning curve felt too steep - the barriers are lower than they've ever been.

That doesn't mean it's effortless. You'll still hit walls. You'll still need to push through challenges. But the distance between "I want to build this" and "I can build this" has shrunk dramatically.

My someday finally happened. Maybe yours can too.

Try it out: JSONLint Pro on the Mac App Store

Or use the free web version: jsonlint.com

What's your "someday" project? Have you used AI to help you break through a learning curve? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.