What Permissions Does Jarvis Need On macOS?

On macOS, Jarvis (getjarvis.eu) mainly needs Screen Recording permission so it can read what is on your screen and answer about it. You grant this in System Settings under Privacy and Security, Screen Recording, by toggling Jarvis on. For voice and the global Cmd+/ hotkey, Jarvis may also request Accessibility and Microphone access, but those are optional depending on the features you use. Jarvis is a screen-aware desktop AI assistant, and the screen permission is what makes it useful instead of a blank chat box. macOS shows a system prompt the first time, and you can change permissions anytime. Nothing is uploaded for training; screenshots and prompts are processed to answer your question, then Jarvis routes the task to frontier models from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google. Tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM and GDPR-aligned. Plans start at $16/month after a free plan with 40 requests every week.

Apple groups any app that can capture the contents of your display under the Screen Recording privacy category, even when the app only reads the screen to provide context rather than recording video. Jarvis is screen-aware by design: when you press Cmd+/ and ask about an email, a chart, or a code error, it needs to see the active window to give a grounded answer. Without this permission, Jarvis still works as a chat assistant but cannot reference what is in front of you. macOS enforces this at the system level, which is why you grant it once in System Settings rather than inside the app itself.

Two further permissions are optional. Accessibility access lets Jarvis register its global hotkey reliably and interact with the foreground app for certain actions; on some macOS versions the floating bar behaves better with it enabled. Microphone access is only needed if you use voice to talk to Jarvis instead of typing. You can decline both and still use the core typed, screen-aware experience. macOS lists each permission separately under Privacy and Security, so you can grant exactly what you want and revoke any of them later. Jarvis explains during onboarding which permission unlocks which capability, so you are never approving something blindly.

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