silentmouse

silentmouse is a macOS-only CLI that posts mouse events to a target CGWindowID without requiring the target app to be focused.

It is a thin wrapper around the macOS event delivery path used by AppKit and CoreGraphics. Coordinates are window-local: (0, 0) is the top-left corner of the target window.

Install

cargo install --git https://github.com/ph0ryn/silentmouse.git

Usage

silentmouse mouse move -w 1 -x 250 -y 250
silentmouse mouse down -w 1 -x 250 -y 250
silentmouse mouse drag -w 1 -x 300 -y 300
silentmouse mouse up -w 1 -x 300 -y 300

silentmouse drag -w 1 --from-x 250 --from-y 250 --to-x 300 --to-y 300 -d 500

silentmouse click --window-id 1 -x 250 -y 250
silentmouse click -w 1 -x 250 -y 250
silentmouse click -w 1 -x 250 -y 250 --duration 200

The mouse command is the raw event API. It does not store state; callers own event sequencing, drag state, interpolation, retries, and target selection.

click and drag are convenience commands built from raw mouse events. click --duration / -d controls the milliseconds between mouse down and mouse up, and defaults to 35. drag --duration / -d controls the total drag time.

Behavior

silentmouse posts mouse events to the process that owns the target window. It does not move the global cursor, and it is designed to work when the target app is not focused.

Coordinates are window-local. The target app may still observe normal mouse event side effects, including modifier flags used for background delivery.

Permissions

macOS requires Accessibility permission for the process that posts the event. On first use, silentmouse requests the Accessibility prompt. Grant access to the terminal, binary, or app wrapper that launched it, then retry the command. For repeatable testing, run it from a stable path.

Build

cargo build --release

The binary is written to: target/release/silentmouse

Development

For code changes, run:

cargo fmt --check
cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings

Use a release build when checking the final binary:

cargo build --release

Live smoke tests require a macOS GUI session, Accessibility permission, and a known target window id. Use a target app that visibly reacts to mouse input:

cargo run -- click -w <window-id> -x 250 -y 250
cargo run -- drag -w <window-id> --from-x 250 --from-y 250 --to-x 320 --to-y 320 -d 500

Keep TCC-dependent smoke checks separate from unit tests because they depend on the local machine's Accessibility state.