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).

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.

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.

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.