Solo Developer Builds 73-Line Script to Guard macOS Automation Schedules from Silent Rewrites

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A solo developer discovered in late August 2026 that an unknown process had silently reduced their automated outreach DM jobs from eight daily runs to just three, costing them missed opportunities for several days before they noticed. The developer relies on macOS launchd-scheduled Python scripts to run social media outreach across Instagram, Threads, and YouTube while they sleep, with automation uptime directly tied to their income. Because macOS does not alert users when a plist configuration file is modified, the jobs appeared active in launchctl even though they were running on altered schedules. In response, the developer built a 73-line shell script called outreach-schedule-guard.sh that detects unauthorized plist changes, logs the modification timestamp, captures a snapshot of running processes for forensic review, and automatically restores the correct configuration. The tool was designed not just to fix the problem but to preserve evidence, allowing the developer to distinguish between their own scripting errors and potential outside interference.

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