TuckGuide
Menu Bar App Permissions: Accessibility and Capture
Tuck asks for Accessibility and offers Screen Recording. Here is what each one does, what still works without the second, and how to undo either.
Steps
- Open the Accessibility list. Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility.
- Switch Tuck on. Turn on Tuck. macOS may ask for your password or Touch ID.
- Decide about Screen Recording. Skip it if you only want to hide, reveal and rearrange. Turn it on under Privacy & Security, Screen Recording, if you want live previews and wallpaper tinting.
- Check the result in Tuck. Open Settings, Advanced, Permissions to see what Tuck detects. Without Screen Recording, Tuck runs in a limited mode and draws each item as its app icon.
- Revoke whenever you like. Revoking Accessibility stops icon management. Revoking Screen Recording removes live previews and wallpaper-derived tinting; core hiding and rearranging continue.
What each permission is for
| Permission | What Tuck does with it | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | Detect the menu bar items on your Mac and where they sit, and move them to rearrange or hide them | Yes |
| Screen Recording | Read a band across the top of the display to draw live previews in the layout editor, the Tuck Bar and search, and to pick a tint from your wallpaper | No |
On the Advanced screen Tuck states that nothing it captures is saved or sent anywhere, and capture is used locally for item previews. That is the project’s documentation. Tuck is GPL-3.0, so anyone who receives Tuck is entitled to its source and can check this.
Accessibility is powerful
An app with Accessibility can observe and control other apps. That is why it is worth knowing who wrote the app and what it does with the permission. Tuck is licensed under GPL-3.0, and this guide lists exactly what it uses Accessibility for. That is a description, not an independent audit.
If macOS keeps asking again
If macOS keeps prompting after a restart even though you approved, remove Tuck from the Screen Recording list and add it again. Use the permission controls in Settings, Tools if you need to reset Tuck’s permissions. Tuck will quit so you can grant them again on next launch. Reset only the permission you are troubleshooting, and expect the related feature to stop until you grant it again.