macOS Input Monitoring: Why Permission Checks and Event Tap Success Are Not the Same

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A developer building a macOS keystroke-sound app found that treating Input Monitoring permission as a simple boolean is unreliable. Two separate APIs — IOHIDCheckAccess and CGPreflightListenEventAccess — can report granted status, yet CGEvent.tapCreate may still fail due to code signing, process path, or post-change timing issues. The team recommends tracking permission state, Event Tap liveness, and user preference as three distinct values rather than a single flag. Permission-request APIs should be called only on first prompt or explicit user action, not inside polling loops. Diagnostic logs should record only metadata such as bundle ID and tap-creation result, never keystrokes or input content.

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