Rough sketch of tool to generate an icns image from a file's icon.

read-icon.swift

import AppKit
import Darwin

var stderr = FileHandle.standardError

extension FileHandle: TextOutputStream {
    public func write(_ string: String) {
        guard let data = string.data(using: .utf8) else { return }
        write(data)
    }
}

extension NSWorkspace {
    func icon(forFileURL fileURL: URL) throws -> NSImage? {
        _ = try fileURL.checkResourceIsReachable()
        return icon(forFile: fileURL.relativePath)
    }
}

extension NSImageRep {
    func generateBitmapImageRep() -> NSBitmapImageRep? {
        guard let rep = NSBitmapImageRep(bitmapDataPlanes: nil,
                                         pixelsWide: pixelsWide,
                                         pixelsHigh: pixelsHigh,
                                         bitsPerSample: 8,
                                         samplesPerPixel: 4,
                                         hasAlpha: true,
                                         isPlanar: false,
                                         colorSpaceName: colorSpaceName,
                                         bytesPerRow: 0,
                                         bitsPerPixel: 0) else {
            return nil
        }

        NSGraphicsContext.saveGraphicsState()
        NSGraphicsContext.current = NSGraphicsContext(bitmapImageRep: rep)
        draw()
        NSGraphicsContext.restoreGraphicsState()

        return rep
    }
}

func showVersion() {
    print("read-icon 0.0.0")
}

func showUsage() {
    print("""
Usage: read-icon <src-file> [-o|--output] <out-icon>
Read an icon from a file and save it as an Apple Icon Image file.
""")
}

func main() {
    if CommandLine.argc > 1 {
        if CommandLine.arguments[1] == "--version" || CommandLine.arguments[1] == "-v" {
            showVersion()
            exit(0)
        } else if CommandLine.arguments[1] == "--help" || CommandLine.arguments[1] == "-h" {
            showVersion()
            showUsage()
            exit(0)
        }
    }
    if CommandLine.argc != 4 {
        print("Error: Invalid number of arguments.", to: &stderr)
        showUsage()
        exit(1)
    }
    if CommandLine.arguments[2] != "-o" && CommandLine.arguments[2] != "--output" {
        print("Error: Missing required flag '--output'.", to: &stderr)
        showUsage()
        exit(1)
    }

    let fileURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: CommandLine.arguments[1])
    let iconURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: CommandLine.arguments[3])
    do {
        guard let icon = try NSWorkspace.shared.icon(forFileURL: fileURL) else {
            print("Error: Could not read icon for \(fileURL.relativePath)", to: &stderr)
            exit(1)
        }

        let tmpDirectory: URL
        if #available(macOS 10.12, *) {
            tmpDirectory = FileManager.default.temporaryDirectory
        } else {
            tmpDirectory = .init(fileURLWithPath: NSTemporaryDirectory())
        }
        let iconBaseName = iconURL.deletingPathExtension().lastPathComponent
        let iconDirectory = tmpDirectory.appendingPathComponent("\(iconBaseName).iconset")
        try FileManager.default.createDirectory(at: iconDirectory, withIntermediateDirectories: true)

        for repr in icon.representations {
            let size = repr.size
            let scale =  CGFloat(repr.pixelsWide) / repr.size.width
            guard !repr.description.contains("AppearanceName=NSAppearanceNameDarkAqua") else {
                // Avoid undocumented "Dark Mode" icons.
                continue
            }
            guard scale == 1 else {
                // Avoid duplicate resolutions at other scale factors.
                //
                // The ICNS format only supports the following sizes:
                // 16 × 16, 32 × 32, 48 × 48, 128 × 128, 256 × 256, 512 × 512,
                // and 1024 × 1024 pixels.
                //
                // All others are ignored by `iconutil`. See
                // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Icon_Image_format
                continue
            }
            guard let data = repr.generateBitmapImageRep()?.representation(using: .png, properties: [:]) else {
                print("Error: Unable to generate PNG representation of icon for \(fileURL.relativePath)")
                exit(1)
            }

            let assetSuffix: String
            if repr.size.width == 1024 {
                // `iconutil` oddly only seems to accept a 1024x1024 format with
                // this filename.
                assetSuffix = "[email protected]"
            } else {
                assetSuffix = String(format: "%.fx%.f", size.width, size.height)
            }
            let assetName = String(format: "icon_%@.png", assetSuffix)
            let assetURL = iconDirectory.appendingPathComponent(assetName)
            try data.write(to: assetURL, options: [.atomic])
        }

        let task = Process()
        task.launchPath = "/usr/bin/iconutil"
        task.arguments = [iconDirectory.relativePath, "--convert", "icns", "--output", iconURL.relativePath]
        task.launch()
        task.waitUntilExit()
        exit(task.terminationStatus)
    } catch {
        var statusCode: Int = 1
        let nsError: NSError = error as NSError
        if nsError.domain == NSPOSIXErrorDomain {
            statusCode = nsError.code
        } else if let underlyingError = nsError.userInfo[NSUnderlyingErrorKey] as? NSError,
                  underlyingError.domain == NSPOSIXErrorDomain {
            statusCode = underlyingError.code
        }
        print("Error: Could not read icon for \(fileURL.relativePath). \(error.localizedDescription)", to: &stderr)
        exit(Int32(statusCode))
    }
}

main()