agent-desktop on macOS

Read the core skill first (agent-desktop skills get desktop) for the observe, act, verify loop. This skill covers only what is different on macOS. Symptoms and fixes are in references/troubleshooting.md.

Requirements

• macOS 13 or later, Intel or Apple Silicon.
• Accessibility permission for the app that launches agent-desktop (Terminal, iTerm2, Warp, VS Code, Codex). macOS 27 and later name this list Device Control and Data Access. If System Settings lists the agent-desktop binary separately, grant it too.
• Screen Recording permission, only for screenshot and for session start --screenshots artifacts.
• Automation permission for System Events, only where a command reports it missing.

First contact

1. Run agent-desktop permissions.
2. If a permission is denied, run agent-desktop permissions --guide. It opens the correct System Settings page with a panel that shows the user which app to drag into the list. The user confirms with Touch ID or a password, and the panel moves to the next missing permission by itself. The command returns at once with "guide": "started", "already_running" or "not_needed". agent-desktop permissions --request shows the system prompts instead.
3. If the guide cannot run, open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility (Device Control and Data Access on macOS 27 and later). Add the launching app and turn it on.
4. Run agent-desktop permissions to confirm granted. The next agent-desktop call sees a new grant, so the launching app does not need a restart.
5. Run agent-desktop snapshot -i to confirm. It reads the focused app. snapshot --app Finder -i returns WINDOW_NOT_FOUND when Finder has no open window.

permissions does not prompt. permissions --request can prompt, including for Automation. permissions --guide does not prompt and covers Accessibility and Screen Recording only. Automation reports unknown when macOS would need to prompt.

What differs on macOS

Headed is physical first for click, right-click, type, clear and scroll. Core focuses the exact window of the ref. The adapter then sends a real click, key or wheel event to the verified point. expand, collapse, set-value, select, toggle, check, uncheck, focus and scroll-to stay semantic under --headed. Double-click, triple-click, hover and drag need --headed. Raw --xy input never changes focus.

Judge delivery by observation. AX return codes do not prove an effect. Finder returns success from an AXConfirm that does nothing. Snapshot again or use get and is to check the result.

Surfaces. Use --surface menubar for File, Edit and View menus and for menu bar apps (status items). While a menu, sheet, alert or popover is open, refs from the window tree behind it are the wrong target.

Menus. right-click headless uses AXShowMenu. If the menu opened but the app returned APP_UNRESPONSIVE with retry: unsafe, do not retry. Inspect the menu with --surface menu. For combo boxes and menu buttons, use select @ref "Option". select needs a closed-to-open menu transition, so dismiss any open menu first.

Notification Center. The notification commands drive Notification Center through accessibility, with the rules in the core commands-system reference. When agent-desktop opens the center, it closes it afterwards and restores the previous app focus. Pass both --expected-app and --expected-title on a single dismiss or action, because the stack shifts. Use wait --notification --app "App" for banners that vanish before you list them.

Chromium and Electron. agent-desktop switches on the web accessibility of a Chromium renderer automatically when it needs it. For a dense running app, use snapshot --skeleton -i --compact, then drill with --root @ref.

Identity. launch accepts a display name ("System Settings") or a bundle ID (com.apple.systempreferences). Other commands take the display name through --app. Window IDs such as w-4521 stay valid for the life of the window. Find them with list-windows.

Keys. The primary modifier is cmd: press cmd+c, press cmd+s. Quit shortcuts such as cmd+q, cmd+shift+q, cmd+alt+esc, ctrl+cmd+q and cmd+shift+delete return POLICY_DENIED unless you pass --force. To quit an app, use close-app. Punctuation keys work in combos, as the symbol (, . / ; ' [ ] \ - = `) or by name (comma, period, slash, semicolon, quote, leftbracket, rightbracket, backslash, minus, equal, grave). Each one is sent with the key that types it in the active keyboard layout, so press cmd+, opens Settings on ANSI and JIS keyboards alike.

Cursor overlay. cursor-overlay enable draws the agent cursor in a click-through window. It never moves the OS pointer or activates an app. The macOS motion and image limits are in the core commands-system reference.

Next step

When a command fails, find the symptom in references/troubleshooting.md.