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HyperWhisper needs a small number of macOS permissions to work. Each is prompted only when first needed — you don’t have to grant everything up front.

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Permissions at a glance

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Microphone

Required for any transcription. The first time you start a recording, macOS shows the standard system dialog:
“HyperWhisper” would like to access the microphone.
Click OK. If you click Don’t Allow by accident, you can change it later at System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and toggle HyperWhisper on. Without it: Recording fails immediately. The app shows an error banner explaining how to grant access.

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Accessibility

Required for two features:
  • Auto-paste — issuing the paste keystroke on your behalf into the frontmost app.
  • Bare-modifier push-to-talk — listening for hold-to-record on a single modifier key (Option, Control) globally. (Standard hotkey combinations like ⌥Space work without Accessibility.)
Unlike Microphone, macOS does not show an automatic prompt for Accessibility — you have to grant it manually:
1

Open System Settings

Choose System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
2

Unlock and add HyperWhisper

Click the lock icon and authenticate, then enable HyperWhisper in the list.
3

Restart HyperWhisper

Quit and reopen the app so the new permission takes effect.
If Accessibility is missing, HyperWhisper shows a banner on the home screen with a one-click link to the right pane in System Settings. Without it: Auto-paste does nothing (transcript stays on clipboard); bare-modifier push-to-talk doesn’t activate. Standard hotkey combos still work. Accessibility permissions

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Screen Recording

Optional — only needed if you use Screen OCR mode, which reads on-screen text into your transcript context. If you don’t use that mode, you don’t need this permission. If you enable Screen OCR mode, macOS prompts the first time it captures the screen. Grant at System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording and restart HyperWhisper. Without it: Screen OCR mode fails silently. Other modes are unaffected.

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Input Monitoring

Not required. HyperWhisper uses macOS’s standard global hotkey API and the Accessibility API for advanced push-to-talk — neither needs Input Monitoring. If macOS or another tool prompts you to grant Input Monitoring to HyperWhisper, it’s safe to decline.

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Resetting permissions

If permissions get stuck or you’ve granted them to an old build:
Then relaunch HyperWhisper and re-grant when prompted.
Replace com.hyperwhisper.app with the bundle ID of your build if you’re running a development version.