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Permissions

AiMessage requires macOS permissions to read your message database and control Messages.app.

Summary

PermissionRequired forHow to grant
Full Disk AccessReading chat.dbSystem Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access → add AiMessage.app
AutomationSending messages via AppleScriptPrompted automatically on first launch; or System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation

Full Disk Access

Why: ~/Library/Messages/chat.db is protected by macOS’s TCC (Transparency, Consent, and Control) subsystem. Without Full Disk Access, any attempt to open the file returns a permission error regardless of Unix file permissions.

How to grant:

  1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access
  2. Click the + button
  3. Navigate to bundle/AiMessage.app and add it
  4. Ensure the toggle next to AiMessage is enabled

If you are running the binary directly from a terminal (e.g. cargo run), you need to grant Full Disk Access to your terminal emulator (Terminal.app, iTerm2, etc.) instead.

Automation

Why: AiMessage sends messages by scripting Messages.app via osascript. macOS requires explicit user consent before one application can control another via AppleScript.

How to grant:

On first launch, macOS will display a dialog: “AiMessage wants to control Messages.” Click OK.

If you dismissed that dialog or need to re-grant it:

  1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation
  2. Find AiMessage in the list
  3. Enable the Messages toggle beneath it