CLI Permissions Request

ed permissions request

Ask the running app to raise the macOS prompt for one permission, wait for it, then report the mirror. This is the button on a row of the Permissions pane.

ed permissions request <permission> [--json]

Arguments

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
<permission>	one of calendar, notifications, accessibility, inputMonitoring, fullDisk, screenRecording, camera, bluetooth, automation	required	The permission to ask for. Matched case-insensitively, so INPUTMONITORING resolves the same as inputMonitoring

Options

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
--json	flag	off	Emit JSON on stdout

--json shape

{
  "granted": false,
  "permission": "calendar"
}

permission is the id you asked for, normalised to the catalogue's spelling. granted is the mirror re-read after the wait, not a promise that the prompt was answered.

Examples

ed permissions request calendar
ed permissions request screenRecording --json
ed permissions request notifications && ed app relaunch

Behaviour

The three checks run in this order, and the first one that fails is the one you see:

1. the id is looked up, and an unknown one exits 3 listing all nine,
2. bluetooth and automation are refused, because they have no prompt to raise, and exit 4,
3. the menu bar app must be running, and exit 4 says so when it is not.

Because the refusal is checked before the app is, asking for bluetooth with Edith closed still tells you the useful thing:

$ ed permissions request bluetooth
error: Bluetooth is granted on first use and cannot be requested
hint: macOS will ask for Bluetooth access when connection alerts first run.

$ ed permissions request wifi
error: no permission named wifi
hint: known: calendar, notifications, accessibility, inputMonitoring, fullDisk, screenRecording, camera, bluetooth, automation

Past those checks the command posts the permission's grant notification, sleeps 1500 ms, posts a refresh, sleeps another 1000 ms, and reads the mirror. So it takes at least two and a half seconds, and it is a fixed wait rather than a reply it can wait on. The app's side of that notification opens the matching System Settings pane on your screen, which is a visible side effect of a command you may have run over SSH.

A grant that has not landed inside those two and a half seconds is the normal outcome for anything you have to toggle in System Settings by hand. The command reports it and still exits 0, so gate on the granted field rather than on the exit code:

$ ed permissions request calendar
calendar not granted yet
note: finish the prompt in System Settings, then run `ed permissions refresh`

Accessibility, Input Monitoring and Screen Recording only take effect for a process that starts after the grant, so follow a successful request with ed app relaunch.

Where to go next

• ed permissions, the rest of this group
• All ed commands