Setup & Permissions

Open Setup & Permissions from Show Central’s menu to see the current status and jump to the relevant macOS settings. Only approve capabilities your show actually uses.

Permissions by feature

Automation: Needed when Show Central asks other apps to save or quit and when System Events performs shutdown. Check / Request verifies only System Events; macOS may prompt separately the first time Show Central controls each show app.
Accessibility: Needed only for prepared Ableton Live Save As rules, which inspect and fill the save window. Ordinary save/quit does not need it.
Local Network: Needed for OSC reception. Test / Request performs a small Bonjour permission check so macOS can ask for access and Show Central can distinguish an approved operation from a policy denial.
Input Monitoring: Needed only for Keystroke Learn while another app is in front. Accessibility can grant the same listen-only keyboard capture, in which case Show Central reports Available via Accessibility and may not appear separately in the Input Monitoring list. Keystroke Learn uses a listen-only Core Graphics event tap and verifies that the listener can actually start. MIDI input and the registered keyboard shortcut do not need this permission.
Login Items: The checkbox mirrors Launch Show Central at login in Power & Schedule. This is important for scheduled shutdown, which requires the app running in a logged-in user session.
Administrator authorization: Needed to change Mac power and start/wake schedules. This is a macOS authorization prompt, not an app-wide permission.

If permission was denied

Open System Settings > Privacy & Security, find the relevant category, and allow Show Central. Some changes require quitting and reopening the app. Return to Setup & Permissions and test the feature; a listed permission alone does not prove a controller or application is connected.

Testing builds: Automation should appear under Show Central, not Codex, ChatGPT or node. Ad-hoc preview builds can lose their permission identity after rebuilding; the Developer ID signed release will retain a stable identity.

If macOS blocks the unsigned app before it opens, use the approval instructions in the README packaged with the installer. That step necessarily happens before this in-app guide is available.