tomp3

v0.9 · macOS · Swift

Fast, beautiful audio-to-MP3 converter for the terminal. 5 quality presets, batch conversion, and a self-update command — all in a single signed binary.

Download v0.9 .pkg View on GitHub

Terminal

$ tomp3 interview.m4a --preset small

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐

│ 🎵 tomp3 converter v0.9 │

└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

Found : interview.m4a (42 MB)

Output: interview_small.mp3

⠙ Converting…

✓ Done!

Input : 42 MB interview.m4a

Output: 3.1 MB interview_small.mp3

$ tomp3 --batch ./recordings/ --preset tiny --open

Batch: 14 files · up to 10 parallel jobs

✓ [1/14] rec01_tiny.mp3

✓ [2/14] rec02_tiny.mp3

…

Summary: 14 succeeded

$ tomp3 update

Checking for updates…

Update available: v0.3 → v0.9

What's new in v0.9:

· tomp3 update — self-update with one password prompt

████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░ 10.4 / 12.1 MB

✓ tomp3 updated to v0.9!

Features

Instant conversion

Built in Swift — native speed on Apple Silicon and Intel. Converts a 1-hour file in seconds.

Batch mode

Convert entire folders in parallel. Uses all your CPU cores automatically.

Fully scriptable

Quiet mode prints only the output path. Pipe it, wrap it, automate it.

Self-updating

tomp3 update downloads and installs the latest version with a single password prompt.

Open in Finder

Pass --open and the output folder pops open in Finder when the conversion finishes.

Shell completions

Tab-complete presets, flags, and subcommands. Supports zsh, bash, and fish.

Quality presets

Pass --preset or -p to any conversion command.

Preset	Bitrate	Sample rate	Channels	Best for
`tiny`	~15 kbps	16 kHz	Mono	Ultra-compact voice
`small`	~27 kbps	16 kHz	Mono	Lectures, podcasts
`medium`	~43 kbps	22 kHz	Mono	Clear speech, balanced
`standard`	~130 kbps	44 kHz	Mono	Music, general use
`high`	~190 kbps	44 kHz	Stereo	Best quality

Install

Installer package Recommended

Signed, notarized, and stapled by Apple. Double-click to install — no Gatekeeper warnings.

tomp3-0.9-macos.pkg

Raw binary

For scripted installs or CI. Requires one extra step to clear Gatekeeper quarantine.

curl -Lo ~/.local/bin/tomp3 \
  https://github.com/aramb-dev/tomp3/\
  releases/download/v0.9/tomp3-macos-arm64
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/tomp3
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine \
  ~/.local/bin/tomp3

Quick reference

# Interactive mode — prompts for file + preset
tomp3

# Single file
tomp3 lecture.m4a --preset small

# Batch convert a folder
tomp3 --batch ./recordings/ --preset tiny --open

# Glob
tomp3 *.wav --preset high --output ~/converted/

# Scriptable — prints only the output path
tomp3 clip.wav -p small --quiet

# Self-update
tomp3 update

Changelog

v0.9

·Fix: Finder extension now properly registers with macOS (was missing sandbox entitlement)
·Finder right-click now delegates to menu bar app via tomp3:// URL scheme (no more in-extension ffmpeg)
·Fix: FinderSetup.bundleID corrected to dev.aramb.tomp3app.findersync

v0.8

·Add Finder Extension setup guide — CLI: tomp3 setup-finder, menu bar: inline step-by-step banner
·Add right-click context menu on menu bar icon: Check for Updates / Quit
·Add live conversion queue with progress bar and per-file status
·Quality label now appears above the preset picker
·Drop zone flashes confirmation when files are received
·Fix installer conclusion page encoding (UTF-8 charset)

v0.7

·Add menu bar app — drag-drop, preset picker, live progress, notifications
·Add Finder right-click: Convert to MP3 with all 5 presets
·Update through menu bar or CLI — one pkg keeps everything in sync
·Fix: files with parentheses in name now resolve correctly
·Add -v / --version flag
·Add tomp3 help with styled output
·Auto-relaunch after tomp3 update

v0.6

·Update notice now shows tomp3 update command + download link
·Users on any version now see exactly how to get the latest

v0.5

·Fixed emoji header rendering on fresh installs (UTF-8 locale issue)
·Added "by aramb-dev" to the header
·Universal binary (arm64 + x86_64) — runs natively on Intel and Apple Silicon

v0.4

·tomp3 update — self-update with one password prompt, no wizard
·What's new notes shown before installing
·Live download progress bar

v0.3

·Initial Swift CLI release (rewrite from zsh script)
·5 quality presets, batch mode, shell completions
·Signed + notarized .pkg installer

Full history on GitHub Releases