Setting Up Permissions
SupaSidebar requires Automation and Accessibility permissions for browser integration and shortcuts.
Automation
Automation permission allows SupaSidebar to interact with your browsers to save tabs, copy URLs, and detect the current page.
- Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation (open directly)
- Find SupaSidebar and enable checkboxes for all browsers you use
When you first use browser shortcuts, macOS will prompt for permission. Click OK to grant access.
Accessibility
Accessibility permission is required for copying text, mouse triggers, and interacting with browsers. Keyboard shortcuts that interact with browsers (like save page, copy URL, and open in another browser) also require this permission.
- Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (open directly)
- Find SupaSidebar and enable the checkbox
If you grant a permission while SupaSidebar is running, quit and relaunch the app so it picks up the new permission.
If a browser shortcut doesn’t respond, check Accessibility permission first. SupaSidebar shows a note on shortcuts that require this permission in Preferences → Shortcuts.
Is it safe to grant Automation and Accessibility to SupaSidebar?
Yes. These permissions let SupaSidebar ask a browser for its tab URLs and titles and move its windows - the standard macOS mechanism every window manager and clipboard tool uses. Here is exactly what each one is used for, and what stops working without it.
What Accessibility is used for
- Mouse-edge auto-show - Detects the mouse reaching a screen edge so the sidebar can appear
- Window positioning - Reads and sets a browser window’s position and size via AXUIElement, which powers Smart Attach, window following, and resizing
- Tab lists for Firefox and DuckDuckGo - Enumerates open tabs for these two browsers specifically, since neither exposes an AppleScript tab dictionary the way Safari or Chrome do
Without Accessibility: mouse-edge auto-show, Smart Attach / follow / resize, and Live Tabs for Firefox and DuckDuckGo stop working.
What Automation is used for
- Reading the current tab - Sends AppleScript to a browser to read the current tab’s URL and title, open URLs, and switch or close tabs
- Live Tabs for AppleScript-capable browsers - Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Orion, Opera, and others
Without Automation: Smart Save, tab switching commands, and Live Tabs for those browsers stop working.
Automation is granted per browser, not once globally - see Live Tabs works in one browser but not another if a browser you granted access to later stops responding.
Don’t want SupaSidebar touching a specific browser or site?
Grant the permissions above and then use the Privacy Blocklist at Preferences → Tabs & History → Privacy Blocklist to make SupaSidebar ignore a chosen browser or site entirely. Use it when a browser or site should stay entirely out of SupaSidebar’s reach. See the Privacy Blocklist guide for setup.
Permissions stuck or not working?
If the toggle is on but shortcuts still fail, the prompt never appeared, or you see SupaSidebar listed twice, see Reset Permissions for reset commands and the standard fix sequence.