I recently got a new Mac computer, and I had forgotten how frustrating it can be to get Privacy & Security Settings to allow shortcuts to run. This is particularly difficult, because many Privacy settings are made in the shortcut itself, while others have to be made in System Settings.
I’ve reached a point where most of my shortcuts will run, and I thought I would post what I’ve included in the three main Privacy & Security categories. The first two items in each category are utilities that I use to run shortcuts, and the third item adds actions to the Shortcuts app. My OS is macOS 27, which has different Privacy & Security categories as compared with macOS 26 (which is another source of confusion).
Full Disk Access Settings
FastScripts.app
Short Run.app
Shortcutie.app
Shortcuts.app
siriactionsd
Spotlight.app
Terminal.app
Device Control and Data Access Settings
FastScripts.app
Short Run.app
Shortcutie.app
Shortcuts.app
siriactionsd
Spotlight.app
Terminal.app
FWIW, the following is a screenshot of the typical Privacy settings in a shortcut. All of these were added by the shortcut, and all I had to do was click on the OK button when prompted.
If anyone has found additional shortcut-required items that should be included in Privacy & Security settings, I would be most interested in learning what they are. I still encounter a few situations where a shortcut refuses to run due to Privacy & Security issues and running a shortcut by way of Spotlight can be particularly problematic.
BTW, my Privacy & Security settings used to include lots of other items, such as AppleScript’s System Events and the Script Editor app, but they don’t seem to be required on my new computer.
Another area that can impact the ability of a shortcut to run is the Shortcut app’s settings. Normally, a shortcut will notify you if one of these settings stops its operation, but it’s probably good to set them in advance to the desired settings.
Apple has announced (article here) that they will introduce “‘additional controls’ for the ‘Full Disk Access’ setting on macOS due to new risks posed by AI agents.” What those controls are and whether they will impact shortcuts in any meaningful way is unknown. The following is from Apple’s announcement:
Going forward, we will introduce additional [Full Disk Access] controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access [emphasis mine] can only do so with very explicit user action.
I never fully understood the purpose of the Full Disk Access setting and the relationship between it and the Files and Folders setting. Although written with regard to apps, an article (here) explains the relationship as follows:
If the app at the head of the attribution chain has been given Full Disk Access, access to list and read files will be given.
If not, then location-specific access in Files & Folders will be applied.
If there’s no setting for that app and location, the user is asked for consent.
If that app has already been given consent for that location, access to list and read files will be given.
If that app has consent denied or disabled, access to list and read files will be denied.
Just out of curiosity, I removed every item from the Full Disk Access settings on my Golden Gate computer to see if the Files & Folders setting would do the job. Thus far, the only app I’ve had to add back is the Shortcutie app, and the developer of this app makes clear that it bypasses normal protections. However, individual apps and shortcuts are then added to the Files & Folders setting (see screenshot below), which might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective.
Anyways, security is obviously important, and I will try to refrain from adding apps and shortcuts to the Full Disk Access setting. I readily admit that I have a limited understanding of this topic and any comments or corrections are welcome.
