Most of ModulawAI for Desktop needs no special permission. Two features do, because macOS deliberately guards them: letting the assistant see your screen, and letting it operate your applications. macOS will not grant these silently, and neither will we ask for them until you use a feature that needs them.
| Permission | What it allows | Needed for |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Recording | Taking a picture of your screen so the assistant can see what is there | Operating applications on your behalf |
| Accessibility | Moving the pointer, clicking, and typing | Operating applications on your behalf |
| Microphone | Voice calls with the assistant | Voice only |
Nothing is captured or typed unless you have switched on the corresponding capability inside the app. The macOS permission is a prerequisite, not an instruction to start.
Granting them
- Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security.
- Choose Screen & System Audio Recording (called Screen Recording on older versions of macOS). Turn on ModulawAI for Desktop. If it is not listed, use the + button and pick it from your Applications folder.
- Go back and choose Accessibility. Turn on ModulawAI for Desktop there too.
- Quit the app completely — ⌘Q, or ModulawAI for Desktop → Quit. Closing the window is not enough.
- Open it again.
Step 4 is not optional. macOS only reads these permissions when an application starts, so a running app carries on as though you granted nothing. This is the most common reason people believe a permission “did not work”.
When a switch will not stay on
If you turn a permission on, restart the app, and it still reports the permission as missing — or the switch appears off again — the usual cause is more than one copy of the app on your Mac.
macOS identifies applications by an internal identifier, not by their name or location. Two copies share that identifier, so macOS cannot tell which one your permission belongs to. It records the permission against one copy while you are running the other. This happens most often after an upgrade from a pre-release build, or when a copy has been left in Downloads or is still being run from the disk image.
To fix it:
- Quit the app.
- Search your Mac with Spotlight for ModulawAI and delete every copy except the one in Applications. Check Downloads, the Desktop, and eject any mounted disk image.
- In Privacy & Security, select the ModulawAI entry under both Screen Recording and Accessibility and remove it with the − button.
- Add it back with +, choosing the copy in Applications.
- Start the app again.
Removing and re-adding matters: turning a switch off and on again leaves the confused record in place, whereas removing the entry clears it.
Other things that look like a permission problem
| What you see | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Permissions granted, but the assistant says it cannot see the screen | The capability is not switched on inside the app, or it has expired. See Turning on local capabilities. |
| It worked earlier today and has stopped | Capabilities expire on their own after an hour. Switch it on again. |
| The app is not offered in the + file picker | You are browsing somewhere other than Applications, or the app has not been run at least once. |
| Nothing happens when the assistant tries to act | Accessibility granted but Screen Recording not, or the reverse. Both are required. |
Taking permissions away
You can revoke either permission at any time in the same place. The app keeps working; only the features that need them stop. Nothing else about your workspace is affected, and you can grant them again later.