osascript-reference

Script macOS apps via AppleScript/JXA: Mail, Calendar (EventKit attendees), Notes, Reminders, Finder (disk/file info), and Spotlight/mdfind (full-text and metadata search across the file system).

Control macOS system audio via osascript. Use when getting or setting system volume, toggling mute, listing audio input/output devices, or checking which device is the default output.

Automate Google Chrome with osascript/JXA. Use when listing/focusing/closing/navigating/reloading tabs, muting tabs, managing windows, executing JavaScript, scraping page content, extracting links, filling forms, reading localStorage/cookies/audio state, or reading Chrome history/bookmarks/downloads/extensions/profiles.

Read and write the macOS clipboard with full type support. Use when reading clipboard text, HTML, RTF, images, or file paths (Finder copy); writing rich content; detecting clipboard changes via changeCount; or intercepting content between copy and paste.

Read macOS app SQLite databases directly. Use when reading iMessage chat history, Chrome browsing history, Safari history, or any local app SQLite DB. Always copy the DB before querying — most apps lock the file while running.

Create and manage macOS LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons. Use when setting up background automation, scheduled tasks, file watchers (WatchPaths), interval polling, or persistent daemons that survive logout or reboot.

Inspect macOS network state. Use when getting current WiFi SSID, signal strength, and channel; listing all network interfaces with IP/MAC addresses; or watching for network connect/disconnect events via Darwin notifications.

macOS notifications and system event watching. Use when sending notifications, creating actionable notifications with buttons, watching for screen lock/unlock, detecting network changes, or listening to Darwin/NSDistributedNotification system events.

Run subprocesses from JXA/osascript using NSTask. Use when you need separate stdout/stderr streams, async execution, stdin piping, kill signals, exit codes, or running uv Python scripts from within a JXA automation script.

Read macOS system state. Use when checking battery percentage and charge state, getting OS version and hardware specs, listing startup login items, or reading macOS user defaults (NSUserDefaults / plist app preferences).

Inspect macOS system state with osascript/JXA. Use when listing running apps, enumerating windows with positions and IDs, taking targeted screenshots by window, querying display geometry, or using the ObjC bridge (NSWorkspace, CGWindow, NSFileManager).

Automate native macOS app UIs via System Events Accessibility API. Use when traversing UI element trees, clicking buttons by label, reading text field values, or listing menu bar items. Does NOT work on Electron apps (Slack, VSCode, Chrome).