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Permissions and App Identity

computer-use-mcp needs Accessibility and Screen Recording. In development, macOS may attribute those TCC grants to the responsible host process that launches the CLI, such as Terminal, an IDE, or an MCP client. That is useful for local iteration, but it is not a production install story because a different host app needs its own grants.

Non-Mutating Diagnostic

Run:

computer-use-mcp health_report --json

The report includes:

  • binary version and executable path;
  • bundle identifier if the current launch has one;
  • current and parent process identity;
  • Accessibility and Screen Recording status;
  • capture-service status, which is skipped by default and probed only when --probe-capture is passed;
  • daemon runtime, socket, lock, log, and secret paths with existence booleans;
  • a recommended next action.

The default report does not prompt for permissions, start the daemon, run ScreenCaptureKit, or print daemon secret contents.

When you need capture-service health, run:

computer-use-mcp health_report --json --probe-capture

That opt-in probe is bounded and reuses the same cross-process ScreenCaptureKit lock as screenshots, so it may create or touch the local diagnostic lock file.

Use computer-use-mcp doctor --prompt only when you intentionally want macOS to show permission prompts for the current responsible host.

Target Release Shape

Production distribution should move from an ad hoc CLI launched by whichever terminal or agent is present to a stable app-bundle identity:

  1. Build a .app wrapper that launches the server/daemon from a stable bundle identifier.
  2. Sign the bundle with a Developer ID Application certificate.
  3. Notarize and staple the app before distribution.
  4. Install into a stable location such as /Applications.
  5. Ask users to grant Accessibility and Screen Recording to that app identity.
  6. Verify with health_report --json --probe-capture and record the executable path, bundle id, signing/notarization status, permissions, and capture-service status.

Terminal or IDE grants are still valid for local development, but release notes and support instructions should treat them as development-only attribution.