Desktop Guardian

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name: desktop-guardian description: "macOS GUI automation and desktop control for OpenClaw, powered by Hammerspoon. Gives your agent full access to interact with the Mac desktop — query windows, manage apps, close browser tabs, click dialog buttons, dismiss popups, and send keypresses. Includes an always-on desktop guardian that actively monitors for system dialogs, permission prompts, error popups, and unauthorized apps, taking action automatically or alerting you when human input is needed. Use when: (1) your agent needs to interact with the macOS GUI, (2) monitoring and responding to desktop popups/dialogs/alerts, (3) managing open apps, browser windows, and tabs, (4) enforcing desktop cleanliness policies, (5) any macOS Accessibility automation from OpenClaw."

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Desktop Guardian

Full macOS GUI access and desktop automation for OpenClaw, powered by Hammerspoon.

What It Does

🖥️ GUI Access

Query all open windows, apps, and dialogs with full detail (titles, buttons, states)

Close specific windows or tabs — not just kill entire apps

Click buttons in system dialogs and popups (with safety guardrails)

Send keypresses to any app

Quit or force-quit apps programmatically

Chrome DevTools Protocol integration for tab-level browser control

🛡️ Active Desktop Monitoring

Watches for system dialogs, permission prompts, error popups, and alerts in real-time

Auto-dismisses known-safe dialogs (e.g., "app downloaded from internet")

Alerts you via Telegram/chat when human input is needed (e.g., security prompts)

Detects and closes unauthorized apps and excess browser windows/tabs

Enforces configurable desktop policies via YAML rules

Logs every action for full audit trail

Requirements

macOS (Tahoe or later)

Hammerspoon (installed automatically) + Accessibility permission

Python 3 + PyYAML (installed automatically)

Optional: Chrome with --remote-debugging-port=9222 for tab-level control

Installation

bash scripts/install.sh

This will: 1. Install Hammerspoon if needed 2. Install the DesktopGuardian Spoon 3. Guide you through Accessibility permission 4. Compile the Swift fallback for degraded mode 5. Set up config, logs, and LaunchAgent

Configuration

Config file: ~/.openclaw/skills/desktop-guardian/policy.yaml

See assets/config.example.yaml for all options. Key settings:

cleanup.enabled: Master switch for auto-cleanup (default: true)

cleanup.apps.whitelist: Apps allowed to run; others get closed

browsers.chrome.max_windows/max_tabs: Limits before auto-close

dialogs.auto_dismiss: Apps whose dialogs are safe to dismiss

dialogs.ignore: Apps whose dialogs should be silently ignored

alerts.notify_on_actions: Send notification for every auto-action

Chrome Tab Monitoring

For tab-level granularity, Chrome must run with CDP enabled:

open -a "Google Chrome" --args --remote-debugging-port=9222

Without CDP, only window counts are available.

Kill Switch

Instantly disable all actions:

touch ~/.openclaw/skills/desktop-guardian/KILL_SWITCH

Remove to re-enable:

rm ~/.openclaw/skills/desktop-guardian/KILL_SWITCH

Graceful Degradation

Without Hammerspoon, the skill runs in monitor-only mode using a Swift fallback binary. It can detect violations but cannot auto-close or dismiss anything.

helpers.py Subcommands

parse_config          — Output config as key=value pairs
validate_config       — Validate config (exit 0/1)
check_quiet           — Exit 0 if NOT in quiet hours
evaluate_snapshot     — Apply policy to snapshot JSON → violations + actions
parse_query           — Convert snapshot to key=value pairs
safe_hs_command       — Generate safe hs -c command string
update_state          — Update alert cooldown state
log_violation         — Append to violation log
daily_summary         — Generate daily summary
list_apps             — List apps from last snapshot
check_cooldown        — Check if alert cooldown has expired

Security

Never interpolates shell variables into hs -c commands

Hardcoded button blacklist: won't click Allow, Delete, Install, etc.

Hardcoded app blacklist: won't dismiss SecurityAgent, Keychain Access, etc.

All app names validated against ^[a-zA-Z0-9 ._-]+$

Config file mode 600, state uses atomic writes

Full audit log of every action taken

Uninstall

bash scripts/uninstall.sh

Removes LaunchAgent, Spoon, and init.lua entries. Preserves config/logs unless you choose to remove them. Does NOT uninstall Hammerspoon.

Config file: ~/.openclaw/skills/desktop-guardian/policy.yaml

See assets/config.example.yaml for all options. Key settings:

cleanup.enabled: Master switch for auto-cleanup (default: true)

cleanup.apps.whitelist: Apps allowed to run; others get closed

browsers.chrome.max_windows/max_tabs: Limits before auto-close

dialogs.auto_dismiss: Apps whose dialogs are safe to dismiss

dialogs.ignore: Apps whose dialogs should be silently ignored

alerts.notify_on_actions: Send notification for every auto-action