macOS Permissions

What Omniscio asks your Mac for, why, and what that repeating notification actually means.

The short version

Every permission below is asked for at the moment you use the feature — never at startup, never in the background — and all but one are opt-in. The exception is Automation → Terminal: it belongs to core flows that no toggle gates (signing in to an AI provider, installing a developer tool), so it can appear the first time you do either, even with every optional feature switched off. The optional setup step that lists permissions is skippable and never triggers a macOS dialog unless you click.

Omniscio does not control your system volume. There is no volume or audio-output code in the app at all. The confusion is understandable: the System Events prompt asks permission to control System Events, macOS's general scripting gateway — it can do far more than we use it for, volume included. macOS offers no way to grant just "paste text", so the prompt reads far broader than the actual use — and it only appears at all if you turn dictation or meeting detection on.

Bluetooth is not requested. Older builds declared it by accident — inherited boilerplate from the framework Omniscio is built on, with no code behind it. It has been removed, and a build check now fails if it ever returns.

What each permission is for

• Microphone — voice dictation and voice commands. Dictation is off by default.
• Camera — only the webcam overlay on a screen recording. Off unless you pick a camera.
• Audio capture — your Mac's audio while you record a screen capture or transcribe a meeting you started.
• Accessibility — the global dictation hotkey, and typing dictated text at your cursor.
• Automation → System Events — needed together with Accessibility for dictation to type into another app. Without it, dictation still records and still works inside Omniscio, so it can look fine while text never reaches the app you are actually typing in.
• Screen Recording — screen capture and meeting transcription.
• Automation → Terminal — opening a Terminal window when you sign in to an AI provider or install a developer tool. This one is not optional and is usually the first permission prompt you see: signing in happens in a visible Terminal window, and macOS asks before one app may drive another.
• Automation → System Events — pasting dictated text at your cursor, and reading your frontmost window title when naming a call. Only if you turn dictation or meeting detection on.

"Omniscio was prevented from modifying apps on your Mac"

This is the App Management permission, and it behaves unlike every other one: macOS reports it as a notification with no dialog and no reason. That is why it can repeat endlessly with nothing for you to answer.

Why Omniscio is named. macOS blames the app that started a command, not the command itself. Omniscio runs commands for you — installing a tool, cleaning a build folder, tearing down a workspace. If one of those touches an installed app's files, macOS reports it against Omniscio, even though Omniscio never touched that file.

Omniscio never modifies your other apps, and it never asks for App Management. There is no way for an app to request that permission in the first place.

Finding out what was blocked

Open Settings → Diagnostics → Blocked by macOS App Management and choose Check what was blocked. macOS records the exact file in its own privacy log; Omniscio reads it back and shows you the app, the command, and the path, for the last 24 hours.

Then:

• If it was something you asked for (installing an app, say), allow the app that started it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → App Management. The card has a button that takes you straight there.
• If it wasn't, you can safely ignore it. Nothing was changed — macOS blocked the write. The notification is a report, not damage.

One caveat the card states plainly: the macOS log entry doesn't record which app was responsible, so the list shows every App Management block on your Mac in that window. Some may have nothing to do with Omniscio.

Related: Privacy Policy · Back to Omniscio