Mastering macOS Automation Gaps

Mastering macOS Automation Gaps | Generated by AI

Home 2026.05

Now I have a clear picture. You already have 12 ww macos commands covering a solid surface area. Here’s my analysis of what you already know, and what open-source projects would level you up next.

What Your Code Already Tells Me

You’re comfortable with:

plistlib — reading binary plists (Dock)
networksetup — system proxy config
pmset — power/battery management
diskutil — disk enumeration
sysctl — kernel parameters (hw.memsize, hw.model, etc.)
vm_stat — virtual memory pages
PyObjC — UserNotifications (toast.py), CoreText (list_fonts.py)
osascript — AppleScript bridge for System Events
stat -f — BSD stat for file timestamps
du — disk usage

Gaps I see — no window management, no accessibility API usage, no screencapture, no shortcuts CLI, no IOKit, no launchctl deep usage. That’s where the interesting stuff lives.

Recommendations, Matched to Your Gaps

1. yabai — Window Management (fills your biggest gap)

Your ww macos open-terminal just opens Ghostty windows. yabai gives you programmatic control over every window’s position, size, space, and stacking — via a CLI and IPC socket.

# Install
brew install koekeishiya/formulae/yabai
yabai -m signal --add event=dock_did_restart action="sleep 1; yabai -m config ..."

# Example: move focused window to right half
yabai -m window --grid 1:2:1:0:1:1

# Example: query all windows as JSON
yabai -m query --windows

# Example: focus window by direction
yabai -m window --focus east

What you’ll learn: macOS Accessibility API, SIP (System Integrity Protection) — yabai needs partial SIP disable for full features, which teaches you exactly what SIP protects and how. Also teaches you macOS Spaces (virtual desktops) at the API level.

https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai

2. skhd — Global Hotkey Daemon (pairs with yabai)

brew install koekeishiya/formulae/skhd

# ~/.config/skhd/skhd.conf
alt - h : yabai -m window --focus west
alt - j : yabai -m window --focus south
alt - k : yabai -m window --focus north
alt - l : yabai -m window --focus east

What you’ll learn: how macOS captures keyboard events at the system level (CGEventTap, IOKit HID), how Input Monitoring permission works.

https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd

3. screencapture + Shortcuts CLI — fill your screenshot pipeline

You already have screenshot → LLM vision in ww note screenshot-log. But you’re not using the full power of macOS’s native tools:

# screencapture is incredibly capable
screencapture -i ~/Desktop/capture.png          # interactive selection
screencapture -R 0,0,1920,1080 ~/full.png       # specific region
screencapture -v ~/capture.mp4                   # screen recording (macOS 15+)
screencapture -C                                 # capture cursor

# Shortcuts CLI — Apple's automation framework
shortcuts list
shortcuts run "Get Text From Image" -i photo.png
shortcuts run "Remove Background" -i photo.png -o output.png

# Create a shortcut programmatically
shortcuts create "My Workflow" --workflow workflow.json

What you’ll learn: macOS Shortcuts framework, Quick Actions, and how to bridge CLI ↔ GUI automation.

4. IOKit via PyObjC — Hardware-Level Access

Your get_system_info.py uses sysctl and system_profiler. IOKit goes deeper:

# IOKit battery info (raw, not pmset)
import subprocess
import plistlib

# IORegistry — the kernel's device tree
result = subprocess.run(
    ["ioreg", "-r", "-c", "AppleSmartBattery", "-a"],
    capture_output=True, text=True
)
# Parse the plist output to get:
# - CycleCount, DesignCapacity, MaxCapacity, Temperature
# - Serial, ManufactureDate, CellVoltage

# IOKit display info
result = subprocess.run(
    ["ioreg", "-r", "-c", "IODisplayConnect", "-a"],
    capture_output=True, text=True
)

# IOKit USB devices
result = subprocess.run(
    ["ioreg", "-r", "-c", "IOUSBDevice", "-a"],
    capture_output=True, text=True
)

What you’ll learn: IORegistry — the kernel’s device tree. This is how system_profiler gets its data, but raw. You can add ww macos hardware that goes deeper than your current system-info.

5. launchctl — Process Management (complement your process_analyze.py)

Your process_analyze.py uses ps aux + LLM. But macOS process management lives in launchd:

# List ALL services (not just user agents)
launchctl print system/
launchctl print gui/$(id -u)/

# Detailed info about a service
launchctl print gui/$(id -u)/com.apple.Spotlight

# See what a service's PID is, its exit status, last crash
launchctl list | grep -v com.apple

# Disable a service (persistent across reboots)
launchctl disable gui/$(id -u)/com.some.background.agent

# Enable it back
launchctl enable gui/$(id -u)/com.some.background.agent

# Kickstart (restart) a service
launchctl kickstart -k gui/$(id -u)/com.apple.Finder

What you’ll learn: the entire macOS service lifecycle — LaunchDaemons (system-level, root), LaunchAgents (user-level, per-session), XPC services, and how launchd replaces both cron and inetd.

A natural ww macos services command would list all non-Apple agents with their status, last run time, and exit codes.

6. m-cli — The Swiss Army Knife You Should Study

Not just use — read the source. It’s a single bash script:

brew install m-cli
# The source is just:
cat $(which m)

It wraps ~200 macOS admin tasks: Airport, Bluetooth, DNS, firewall, Time Machine, FileVault, parental controls, screen sharing, etc. Every command teaches you a native macOS tool you didn’t know existed.

https://github.com/rgcr/m-cli

7. osx-cpu-temp / iStats — Thermal Monitoring

brew install osx-cpu-temp
osx-cpu-temp  # reads from IOKit SMC (System Management Controller)

What you’ll learn: SMC (System Management Controller) — the embedded chip that manages thermals, fans, battery charging. IOKit SMC access is how you read CPU die temperature, fan RPM, and battery health at the hardware level.

Source: https://github.com/lavoiesl/osx-cpu-temp

8. macos-defaults — Configuration Catalog

# Every macOS `defaults write` command, documented
open https://github.com/yannbertrand/macos-defaults

# Examples you can add to ww:
defaults read com.apple.dock tilesize              # dock icon size
defaults read -g AppleFontSmoothing                # font rendering
defaults read com.apple.finder ShowPathbar         # Finder path bar
defaults read com.apple.Spotlight orderedItems     # Spotlight config

A ww macos defaults command that reads/displays/searches your current non-default settings would be very useful.

What I’d Build Next in ww

Based on your gaps, here are the highest-value additions:

Command	What it does	What you learn
`ww macos services`	List non-Apple launchd agents/daemons	launchctl, XPC
`ww macos hardware`	Deep IOKit hardware info (battery cycles, thermal, USB)	ioreg, IORegistry
`ww macos defaults`	Show/search all non-default system preferences	defaults CLI, plist domains
`ww macos snapshot`	screencapture with region/recording support	screencapture flags
`ww macos permissions`	Show TCC database (what apps have camera/mic/files access)	TCC.db, sqlite3

The permissions one is especially interesting — TCC (Transparency, Consent, and Control) is macOS’s privacy framework. Reading it teaches you how Apple sandboxes app access:

# TCC database location (SIP-protected, need to copy)
cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db /tmp/
sqlite3 /tmp/TCC.db "SELECT client, service, auth_value FROM access;"

# Shows which apps have camera, microphone, screen recording, 
# file access, etc.

TL;DR Priority

yabai + skhd — install today, use daily, biggest productivity unlock
read m-cli source — 30 min investment, 200 new macOS commands in your mental model
build ww macos services — launchctl is the most underused macOS tool
build ww macos hardware — ioreg gives you data sysctl can’t

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