Permissions
Neuron Flame needs two macOS permissions, plus one optional permission for richer AI enhancement. Here's exactly what each one does and why.
Microphone (required)
Used to capture your voice. Without it, there's nothing to transcribe. Audio buffers are processed entirely on-device by the local Whisper or Parakeet model and discarded immediately after — they're never written to disk unless you explicitly save a recording from the History tab.
How to grant
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
- Toggle Neuron Flame on.
- Quit and reopen Neuron Flame (macOS requires a restart for new mic grants).
Accessibility (required)
Used to paste your transcript at the cursor. macOS treats "send keystrokes to other apps" as accessibility-class — it's the same permission a screen reader uses. Without it, Neuron Flame can transcribe but cannot deliver the result.
How to grant
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
- Click the + button.
- Navigate to
/Applications/Neuron Flame.appand add it. - Toggle it on.
If you rebuild from source: Accessibility grants are tied to the app's code signature. We use a stable self-signed cert called Ziva AI Developer so that the same identity persists across rebuilds and Sparkle updates — your one-time grant should stick. If it ever resets, see Troubleshooting → Permissions reset after rebuild.
Screen Recording (optional)
Used only by the optional Window Context feature inside AI Enhancement. When enabled, Neuron Flame captures the title and URL (or document name) of the frontmost window and passes it to your chosen LLM as extra context — so the model knows you're, say, replying to an email vs. drafting a Slack message vs. editing Swift code.
- This is off by default.
- The captured context is never written to disk.
- It's only sent to the LLM you've configured (your choice — Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, local CLI, etc.).
- If you don't enable AI Enhancement, this permission is never used.
Input Monitoring (sometimes)
If you choose a hotkey that uses a modifier key only (like Right Option), macOS may also ask for Input Monitoring. This lets the global hotkey work even when other apps have keyboard focus. Same place: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring.
What happens if I deny something?
| Denied | Effect |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Recording fails. Status banner shows red mic icon. |
| Accessibility | Transcription works, but text won't paste. It still appears in the History tab. |
| Screen Recording | Window-context AI enhancement is silently skipped. Plain transcript still works. |
| Input Monitoring | Modifier-only hotkeys may not fire reliably. Use a chord (cmd+shift+...) instead. |
Reset all permissions
If something is misbehaving and you want a clean slate:
tccutil reset All com.neuronflame.appThen quit and reopen Neuron Flame. Every permission prompt will fire fresh.