Unable to verify release binary on macos

[pavithraes]

Description

Installing NIC on macos (with the instructions in the release notes), and trying to run it (nic --help) leads to an error: "nic" not opened... Apple could not verify "nic" is free of malware...

The library needs to be explicitly allowed to open in Settings.

This makes NIC seem risky to new users (even though it isn't), is there a way to make the installation process on macos smoother?

Steps to Reproduce

Download the macos-arm tarball, extract it, move binary to a location on PATH.

Then, run nic --help

Error Output

Trying to run nic on the cli with nic --help or directly opening the executable leads to a popup:

"Apple could not verify "nic" is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy"

You need to explicitly allow it in Settings > Privacy & Security

Ref: https://github.com/nebari-dev/nebari-docs/pull/649/changes#r3226008644

Environment

• macos 26.3.1
• nic v0.3.0 (also noticed on 0.2.0)

[viniciusdc]

We were discussing this internally recently, and since skillsctl already has a Homebrew tap that @dcmcand set up, we can lean on that same infrastructure for NIC: brew install nebari-dev/nic becomes the recommended macOS install path. Homebrew sidesteps the Gatekeeper warning entirely because brew strips the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute on download, so this alone unblocks the immediate friction @pavithraes hit.

That's the short-term lever. One more piece of the broader direction:

• An install script (curl -fsSL https://nebari.dev/install.sh | bash) same shape as pixi, claude, etc.
  Useful as a non-brew path for Linux, scripted setup, and CI. Not a Gatekeeper fix on macOS specifically,
  but worth having alongside brew so we cover the common install patterns.