Postgres.app 3.0

No specific files or tests are named. Start by reviewing the current main app, login helper, menu helper, and Sparkle integration, then break the release plan into a scoped change. Done would require an agreed design and completed work across the selected UI, helper-app, update, and system-requirement goals.

We're planning to release a major new version of Postgres.app later this year:

Redesigned User Interface

• integrate Postgres.app settings into the main window for better discoverability and to fix #770
• add an "About" screen with information about included PostgreSQL versions, installed extensions, and links to documentation
• add a Tahoe style Liquid Glass icon

Rethink Helper Apps

Currently Postgres.app uses two helper apps: a "login helper" and a "menu helper". The former launches Postgres.app on login, while the latter shows the little icon in the menu bar. We want to simplify this design by either using a single helper app, or by removing the two helper apps alltogether (#844)

A new helper app also allows us to fix a few issues:

• Stop servers when logging out #834
• Prevent macOS Tahoe warning #817
• serve as a target for Apple Script support (see #833) to start/stop servers without launching GUI app

Upgrade Sparkle Framework

We are still using a very old version of the Sparkle framework for automatic updates.

• we should update to version 2
• add Sparkle support to the helper app so we can check for updates even when the user does not open the main app

System Requirements

• The minimum OS version will increase to macOS 11. To support macOS Tahoe style liquid glass icons, we will need to use Xcode 26 for building Postgres.app. According to the Xcode Support page, the minimum deployment target for Xcode 26 is macOS 11. This means that we will have to stop supporting macOS 10.15.
  Note: Xcode 27 raises the minimum deployment target to macOS 12.
• We will continue to support Intel Macs for the time being.
• End of Rosetta support: All the supported PostgreSQL versions are already universal builds, so the announced end of Rosetta support in macOS 28 should not affect us.

This plan is a work in progress and might be subject to changes