Permissions and approvals

What Homeling asks to use and why, how it checks with you before it acts, and how to change your mind.

When Homeling asks

Homeling doesn't ask for everything up front. The first time a request needs your calendar, reminders or contacts, a card above the message box says why, and your message waits for your answer.

A card above the message box: To answer that, Homeling needs Calendar, with why, what you get, and Not now, Set up everything… and Allow Calendar buttons. — The card before your first calendar question.

Allow shows macOS's own question; say OK there, and your message goes.
Not now sends your message without it. Homeling won't show that card again.
Set up everything… asks for each permission Homeling can use, one at a time.

The microphone has its own card the first time you talk to Homeling.

What each permission is for

Calendar: To plan your day and add events, Homeling reads your calendar on your Mac.
Reminders: To keep your to-dos: “remind me to…” adds a reminder.
Contacts: To know who “Mom” or “Priya” is when you ask Homeling to text or email someone.
Notifications: To tell you when something needs your OK while the window is closed.
Microphone and Speech Recognition: Only while you're talking to Homeling. Your words become text on your Mac and the recording isn't kept (voice).
Location: Only if you turn on “Use my Mac's approximate location” for the weather; Homeling uses a rough area, about 10 km across.
Local Network: Only for the iPhone link, to find and talk to your paired iPhone (iPhone).
Automation (Mail, Messages): In the download from homeling.ai: to draft an email in Mail or send a text you approved.
Full Disk Access: In the download from homeling.ai, and only if you turn these on: Homeling's Messages helper needs it to read your texts, and Homeling needs it to read your call history.

Change your mind

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, choose the kind of data (Calendars, Reminders, Contacts, Microphone, Speech Recognition, Location Services, Local Network, Automation or Full Disk Access) and switch Homeling on or off. Notifications are under System Settings → Notifications → Homeling. If you said no before, the card offers an Open System Settings button the next time it's needed.

Before Homeling acts

Before Homeling sends a message or an email, buys something or does anything else that leaves your Mac, it shows you exactly what it's about to do: to whom, what it says, which site. You can Approve, Edit it first, leave it for Later, or Deny. If the idea came from something Homeling read (an email, a web page) rather than from you, the card says so.

An approval card for a text to Priya, with what will be sent and Deny and Approve buttons. — An approval card. Return approves; ⇧⌘A opens the oldest one waiting.

Don't want to be asked for a while? Settings → Permissions → “YOLO mode” turns the cards off. Homeling still posts a notification for every action, with Undo where it can, and YOLO turns itself off after 24 hours (or 1, 4, 8 or 72; or keep it on until you turn it off). While it's on, the window and the menu bar icon say so.

What Homeling may do

In Homeling: Settings → Permissions → What Homeling may do

For each kind of action (Messages, Email, Shopping, Travel, Browse websites, Run code and the rest) choose:

Off: never.
Ask every time: a card before each action.
Ask once per recipient or site: a card the first time, then not again for the same person or site.
Allowed: no card, but still in the activity log.

To start with, Messages, Email, Shopping, Travel and Browse websites ask every time; the rest are allowed.

Homeling's Permissions settings: YOLO mode and its duration, and a picker for each kind of action. — Settings → Permissions.

Overnight reading

In Homeling: Settings → Overnight

So the morning report and People know what's going on, Homeling can read some of your things overnight. Each one is off until you turn it on:

Calendar: your events from the last six months and the next two. macOS asks for access the first night.
Contacts: names, emails and numbers, so people in your messages get a name. macOS asks the first night.
Mail: new mail the Homeling Mail extension hands over once you turn it on in Mail (how); the download from homeling.ai can also read your whole inbox. Nothing is sent.
Messages: your iMessage history, in the download from homeling.ai (its Messages helper needs Full Disk Access).
Calls: who called, when and for how long, in the download from homeling.ai (Homeling needs Full Disk Access).

Homeling's Overnight settings: switches for Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages and Calls, each with what it reads. — Settings → Overnight.

The activity log

Everything Homeling does is in Activity (⌘3): what it read, what it sent and when, which cards you answered. Where something can be taken back, it has an Undo button.