The short version
Sightdeck AI only requests what it needs to launch and watch Claude sessions for you. Every prompt below is tied to a feature you actually use. The app does not read your music, photos, camera, microphone or location, and it has no analytics or tracking. Your tasks live in plain files on your Mac.
Prompts you may see — and why
macOS shows these the first time the matching feature runs, not all at once on launch. Grant the ones for features you use; you can change any of them later in System Settings.
- Control “Terminal” (Automation / Apple Events). This is the core one. Sightdeck AI launches each Claude session in a Terminal window and needs to find, focus and close those windows again. Without it, starting and tracking tasks does not work. The prompt reads roughly “Sightdeck AI wants access to control Terminal”.
- Notifications. When a task finishes, Sightdeck AI can post a banner so you do not have to keep the window in focus. Appears the first time a task completes. Decline it and everything still works — you just lose the done banner.
- Files & folders. If your task file lives under
~/Documents,~/Downloadsor~/Desktop, macOS may ask before Sightdeck AI watches it for changes. Needed only so the board updates live when the file changes.
What Sightdeck AI does not access
Some Mac apps ask for things they never actually use. Sightdeck AI shuts those off at launch, so you should not see prompts for:
- Apple Music and your media library. Sightdeck AI has no audio or media feature. An older build could show this prompt by mistake; the latest build no longer does. If you granted it on an old version, it was harmless — the app never touched your library, and you can revoke it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Media & Apple Music.
- Local network. Sightdeck AI never scans your local network or discovers devices on it. Its outbound traffic goes only to a small, fixed set of services listed under Network connections below.
- Camera, microphone, photos, location, contacts, calendar. No feature touches any of these.
Network connections
Sightdeck AI sends no telemetry. The only times it talks to the network are:
- License activation. A single call to the Sightdeck license server when you activate your license.
- Update check. A periodic check against the Sightdeck website to tell you when a new version is out.
- Token-cost tracking. Fetching your own token-usage figures from Anthropic so the app can show what a run cost — no task content is sent.
- Your webhooks. If you configure a webhook (e.g. on task done), the app calls the URL you entered — nowhere else.
Manage permissions in System Settings
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
- Pick the category — e.g. Automation for the Terminal control grant, Notifications, or Files & Folders.
- Toggle Sightdeck AI on or off. Turning off Automation will stop task launching until you re-enable it.
