How can I try out x-callback-url commands on macOS?

There is a CLI tool called xcall which seems to be the only way I’ve seen to actually interact with x-callback-url outside of other applications.

It’s a bit wonky in that you have to drag xcall.app to your Applications folder and then either add that to your path or reference the cli tool inside directly.

Here’s an example of it in use:

> /Applications/xcall.app/Contents/MacOS/xcall -url "things:///version" -activateApp NO
{
  "x-things-client-version" : "31310506",
  "x-things-scheme-version" : "2"
}

Annoyingly, this will activate the application in question, if it isn’t already open, but that is the nature of x-callback-url after all.

It will take the foreground view upon opening but further invocations won’t trigger it, assuming you use -activateApp NO. If you want it to appear, such as when triggering a search, you can use -activateApp YES instead.