mac geekery

Answer

There sure is. All you need to do is create an AppleScript that checks to see if the AC cord is attached and then have it open programs depending on what comes back.

The shell command ioreg returns this information in the ExternalConnected property of AppleSmartBattery so we’ll just look for that. If it says “ Yes” then we know external power is connected. Anything else is battery.

There’s a space before the word “Yes” intentionally. The shell mucking done to get the answer leaves a space up front. It’s not terribly important to make it proper English as much as it is to know what the answer will be on our condition, so just make sure you leave that part alone and all will be well.

Clear out all of your programs from your startup items list in Accounts (except ones you want to always open) and then save the following script somewhere and add it to your startup items.

tell application "Finder"
	set PowerConnected to do shell script "ioreg -l | grep ExternalConnected | cut -d'=' -f 2"
	set ApplicationsFolder to folder "Applications" of home
	set PowerFolder to folder "On Power" of ApplicationsFolder
	set BatteryFolder to folder "On Battery" of ApplicationsFolder
	
	if PowerConnected is " Yes" then
		open every item of PowerFolder
	else
		open every item of BatteryFolder
	end if
	
end tell

Open this in Script Editor.

Now create the folders it mentions (an Applications folder in your home, and then two folders inside it: “On Power” and “On Battery”). Add aliases to programs and documents to whichever folder you want and when the script is run it will open those items.