4.1.4 always launches and leaves the main window visible.

[e40]

I know there's been a lot of discussion of startup behavior, but didn't the previous version just start and exit? Perhaps the behavior was changed because of delays in launching web pages? I certainly noticed that on my Mac Studio MAX with 64G of RAM.

If this is the new, correct behavior, then I will add a login item that hides it.

[sergio-santiago]

On Finicky startup behavior

You're right: older builds of Finicky would launch, evaluate whether there were
pending URLs to handle, then exit. More recent releases switched to a model
where the app remains resident in the background (with the menubar icon).

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Why the change?

• Reliability: On macOS, URL handlers are expected to be always available.
  Exiting immediately after launch occasionally caused missed or delayed URL
  handling, especially when apps like Mail/Slack fired off links rapidly.
• Speed: Staying resident avoids the startup penalty each time a URL is
  opened. For many users, that makes link opening feel snappier.
• Consistency: Other “URL router” tools (Choosy, Browserosaurus, etc.) also
  remain running in the background.

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If you prefer the old behavior

Currently there’s no “exit after launch” mode exposed. The intended usage is to
let Finicky run continuously in the background.

Workarounds you can use:

1. Login Item with “Hide” checked

   • System Settings → General → Login Items
   • Add Finicky, and check Hide.
   • This keeps it resident but invisible.

2. Menu bar hiding

   • Use a utility like Bartender or
     Hidden Bar to hide the icon.

3. Manual control (not recommended)

   • You could script Finicky to launch, handle a URL, then quit. But this
     risks missed URLs because other apps may send them asynchronously.

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Recommendation

Treat Finicky as a lightweight background agent. On modern macOS, it’s designed
to be always running, and resource usage is negligible. Hiding the menu bar
icon (via system settings or a tool like Bartender) is the cleanest way to
approximate the old “start and exit” feel while keeping URL handling reliable.