Why Foreman asks to control System Events

Foreman asks to control System Events because it reads your login items, the apps and files that open when you log in, through System Events, a part of macOS. macOS asks once before one app may control another. If you allow it, Foreman can show your login items on its Startup Apps page. If you decline, Foreman cannot read that list, and you can still manage login items yourself in System Settings.

A permission dialog that says an app wants to “control” another app sounds more alarming than it is, so this post explains what it covers and where to change your answer.

What System Events is

System Events is a background app that ships with macOS. It has no window and never appears in the Dock. Its job is to let scripts and other apps ask macOS questions about the desktop, such as which apps are running and which login items are set. It lives in the system’s own set of apps, at /System/Library/CoreServices/System Events.app, and you did not install it. There is nothing to open there: it has no window of its own.

When an app wants to use it, macOS asks you first. The dialog names both apps: the one asking, and System Events. This is macOS’s Automation permission, and it exists so that one app cannot quietly drive another without your agreement. The permission is per pair of apps: it covers Foreman sending requests to System Events, not to any other app.

Why Foreman needs it

Foreman’s Startup Apps page shows everything that opens at login or runs in the background: login items, launch agents and daemons, and background items that apps register. Login items are one of those kinds, and Foreman reads them through System Events. Without the permission, that part of the list is out of reach.

That is the whole reason: the permission is how Foreman reads your login items.

What you see and when

You see the prompt once. After you answer, macOS remembers the answer and does not ask again for the same pair of apps. If you are unsure, declining first is safe: you can allow it later from the Automation list described below. If you allow it, Foreman’s Startup Apps page fills in with your login items alongside the other kinds, grouped by the app each one belongs to, with readable names.

From there you can Disable or Enable an item. An item whose app has been deleted shows as “Program missing”, and you can remove it one at a time with Remove… or all at once with Clean Up Leftovers. How to remove login items left behind by deleted apps covers that job from start to finish.

If you decline

If you choose not to allow it, Foreman cannot read your login items, so they are missing from Startup Apps. The permission is only for login items, so the rest of Foreman works without it.

Declining does not change your login items either. They keep opening at login as before; Foreman simply cannot list them.

You are not stuck either way. macOS has its own list, in System Settings under General > Login Items & Extensions (Login Items on macOS 14). It shows what opens at login and what is allowed to run in the background, and you can switch items there. How to stop apps opening at login on a Mac walks through it.

Changing your answer later

If you declined and want to allow it now, or allowed it and want to take it back, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation. Apps that have asked to control another app are listed there, with a switch for each app they have asked about. Find Foreman, and turn System Events on or off. If Foreman is not in that list, the prompt has not appeared yet.

That page is worth a look for any app. It shows which apps can control which, and you can switch any of them off at any time.

A related permission: Full Disk Access

There is a second, optional permission that is easy to mix up with this one. With Full Disk Access, Foreman can also read the switches in System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions, under “Allow in the Background”. Without it, Foreman shows a note on the page that you can skip.

If you want to give it, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access and add or switch on Foreman there.

Full Disk Access is a separate setting from the System Events permission, and you can grant one without the other. Each permission has its own list on the Privacy & Security page, alongside others such as Accessibility and Screen Recording, and saying yes to one never grants another. Neither lets Foreman flip every switch: items an app registered through macOS’s own login items system can only be switched in System Settings, so for those Foreman opens that page in System Settings for you.

Summary

• System Events is a macOS component that exposes login items to apps.
• macOS asks once whether Foreman may control it, so Foreman can read your login items.
• Decline, and the rest of Foreman still works; you manage login items in System Settings.
• Change your answer any time under Privacy & Security > Automation.

If you are weighing whether to try Foreman, you can say no to this prompt and still use the rest of the app. It is $12 once, and free for 24 hours from the first launch.