--- a/include/core/strings.h	Mon Jan 19 20:50:40 2026 -0500
+++ b/include/core/strings.h	Mon Jan 19 22:47:29 2026 -0500
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
 
 #include <cstdint>
 
+#if defined(__MACH__) && defined(__APPLE__)
+# include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>
+#endif
+
 class QString;
 class QByteArray;
 
@@ -44,6 +48,10 @@
 std::u32string ToUcs4String(const std::string &string);
 QString ToQString(const std::string &string);
 QString ToQString(const std::wstring &wstring);
+#if defined(__APPLE__) && defined(__MACH__)
+CFStringRef ToCFString(const std::string &string);
+std::string ToUtf8String(CFStringRef str);
+#endif
 
 /* not really an "int"... but who cares? */
 template<typename T = int, std::enable_if_t<std::is_arithmetic<T>::value, bool> = true>

--- a/src/core/strings.cc	Mon Jan 19 20:50:40 2026 -0500
+++ b/src/core/strings.cc	Mon Jan 19 22:47:29 2026 -0500
@@ -206,6 +206,29 @@
 	return b ? "true" : "false"; // lol
 }
 
+#if defined(__APPLE__) && defined(__MACH__)
+CFStringRef ToCFString(const std::string &string)
+{
+	return CFStringCreateWithBytes(kCFAllocatorDefault, reinterpret_cast<const UInt8 *>(string.data()), string.size(), kCFStringEncodingUTF8, false);
+}
+std::string ToUtf8String(CFStringRef str)
+{
+	if (const char *ptr = CFStringGetCStringPtr(str, kCFStringEncodingUTF8))
+		return std::string(ptr); // easy!
+
+	// ...
+	const CFIndex len = CFStringGetLength(str);
+	std::string buf(CFStringGetMaximumSizeForEncoding(len, kCFStringEncodingUTF8), 0);
+	CFRange range;
+	range.length = len;
+	range.location = 0;
+	CFIndex used;
+	CFStringGetBytes(str, range, kCFStringEncodingUTF8, 0, false, reinterpret_cast<UInt8 *>(buf.data()), buf.size(), &used);
+	buf.resize(used);
+	return buf;
+}
+#endif
+
 bool ToBool(const std::string &str, bool def)
 {
 	std::istringstream s(Strings::ToLower(str));