https://github.com/piercefreeman/trustme

I maintain a few Mac apps as side projects. Most of them involve permissions of some kind (microphone, screen recording) and I've always been annoyed by the abrupt permission granting popup that Mac will pop up whenever you request access:

"MyApp would like to access your microphone" Don't allow | Allow

"Allow MyApp to access devices on the local network" Don't allow | Allow

etc etc

I'm empathetic to Apple wanting to shock people out of their complacency - but the experience feels below the standard that people expect from their native apps. It feels almost adversarial.

The Codex Computer Use onboarding was far better. It pops up a hovering window below the System Settings screen that you drag into the list. At this point you'll just be asked to confirm your password/TouchID, since the OS knows you're trying to add the specific app to a specific permission category. It does the same thing if you manually + add an app from your disk.

I hadn't seen this paradigm anywhere else, but it seemed like the obvious way to improve the experience while still staying within the operating system constraints. I reproduced the underlying logic in Swift and bundled it into a library to check for your current permissions & display a managed window to request whichever ones your app needs. You're also welcome to import the authorization buttons explicitly so you can style them to your app's need.

The Github GIF will do a better job of explaining the full UX. If you end up using it drop me a line.