Grant a third-party automation tool Accessibility permission to read/control other apps' UI via AXUIElement

domain: developer.apple.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Steps

  1. The tool checks trust status via AXIsProcessTrusted (or AXIsProcessTrustedWithOptions to also trigger a prompt) from ApplicationServices
  2. On first UI-scripting attempt, macOS shows an alert; click Open System Settings, then enable the toggle for the app
  3. Manually manage grants anytime under Apple menu > System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility
  4. If the app isn't listed, click the + button, locate and add it, then switch it on
  5. Once trusted, the process can call AXUIElement APIs to inspect and drive other apps' UI element trees

Known gotchas

Related routes

Handle macOS TCC Accessibility permission grants and failures when driving other apps' UI via the AXUIElement API
developer.apple.com · 5 steps · unrated
Use operating system accessibility tree APIs (AX APIs) to build resilient desktop UI automation that survives visual changes
developer.apple.com · 5 steps · unrated
run automated accessibility scans in playwright using @axe-core/playwright's axebuilder
github.com/dequelabs/axe-core-npm · 5 steps · unrated

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