osascript Common Patterns

General macOS automation via AppleScript / osascript — activating apps, typing, pasting, keyboard shortcuts, clicking, screenshots, and accessibility reads. This is a general macOS-automation asset, not tied to any one app or surface. Use it when a test needs to drive a native macOS app that is not reachable over CDP.

macOS only. See also record-app-screen.md for capture and the screen-recording preflight (scripts/check-screen-recording.sh) before any OS-level capture.

Core Patterns

Activate an App

bash

osascript -e 'tell application "AppName" to activate'

Type Text

bash

# Type character by character (reliable, but slow for long text)
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "Hello world"'

# Press Enter
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to key code 36'

# Press Tab
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to key code 48'

# Press Escape
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to key code 53'

Paste from Clipboard (fast, for long text)

bash

# Set clipboard and paste — much faster than keystroke for long messages
osascript -e 'set the clipboard to "Your long message here"'
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down'

Or in one shot:

bash

osascript -e '
set the clipboard to "Your long message here"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down
'

Keyboard Shortcuts

bash

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "k" using command down'               # Cmd+K
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "f" using command down'               # Cmd+F
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "n" using command down'               # Cmd+N
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "k" using {command down, shift down}' # multi-modifier

Click at Position

bash

osascript -e '
tell application "System Events"
    click at {500, 300}
end tell
'

Get Window Info

bash

osascript -e '
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "AppName"
        get {position, size} of window 1
    end tell
end tell
'

Screenshot

bash

screencapture /tmp/screenshot.png           # Full screen
screencapture -i /tmp/screenshot.png        # Interactive region select
screencapture -l "$WINDOW_ID" /tmp/shot.png # Specific window (id from CGWindowList)

To get the window id for a specific app:

bash

osascript -e '
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "AppName"
        get id of window 1
    end tell
end tell
'

Read Accessibility Elements

bash

# Get all UI elements of the frontmost window (can be slow/large)
osascript -e '
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "AppName"
        entire contents of window 1
    end tell
end tell
'

# Get a specific element's value
osascript -e '
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "AppName"
        get value of text field 1 of window 1
    end tell
end tell
'

Warning: entire contents can be extremely slow on complex UIs. Prefer screenshots + the Read tool for visual verification.

Read Screen Text via Clipboard

bash

osascript -e '
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "a" using command down
    keystroke "c" using command down
end tell
'
sleep 0.5
pbpaste

General App-Automation Workflow

bash

APP_NAME="AppName"
TARGET="some-target"
MESSAGE="Hello!"
WAIT_SECONDS=10

# 1. Activate
osascript -e "tell application \"$APP_NAME\" to activate"
sleep 1

# 2. Navigate (via the app's own quick switcher / search shortcut)
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "k" using command down'
sleep 0.5
osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"$TARGET\""
sleep 1
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to key code 36'
sleep 2

# 3. Input (clipboard paste for long/non-ASCII text)
osascript -e "set the clipboard to \"$MESSAGE\""
osascript -e '
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "v" using command down
    delay 0.3
    key code 36
end tell
'

# 4. Wait for the app to react
sleep "$WAIT_SECONDS"

# 5. Screenshot for verification
screencapture /tmp/app-test.png

Tips

Use clipboard paste (Cmd+V) for messages with special characters or long text — keystroke can mangle non-ASCII.
Add delay between actions — apps need time to process UI events.
Screenshot for verification — screencapture + the Read tool.
Accessibility permission required — System Events automation requires Accessibility access for the driving app (Terminal / iTerm / the agent host) in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility.

Gotchas

Accessibility permission required — first run prompts for access; grant it in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility.
keystroke is slow for long text — use clipboard paste (Cmd+V) for anything over ~20 characters.
keystroke can mangle non-ASCII — use clipboard paste for CJK, emoji, or special characters.
key code 36 is Enter — hardware key code, works regardless of keyboard layout.
entire contents is extremely slow — avoid for complex UIs; use screenshots.
OS screenshots go BLACK when the display is asleep/locked/screensaver — gate with scripts/check-screen-recording.sh and keep the display awake with caffeinate -dimsu & for the whole capture run.