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Overview

Hermes needs several macOS permissions to function. If any are missing or misconfigured, features won’t work correctly.

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Microphone permission

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Symptoms

  • Hermes bar appears but shows no audio
  • “Microphone access required” error
  • Transcription never starts

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Fix

1

Open System Settings

Apple menu () → System Settings
2

Go to Microphone

Privacy & Security → Microphone
3

Enable Hermes

Find Hermes in the list and toggle it on.If Hermes isn’t listed, you may need to trigger a permission prompt by trying to dictate.

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Still not working?

  1. Toggle Hermes off, then on again
  2. Quit and restart Hermes
  3. Restart your Mac

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Accessibility permission

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Symptoms

  • Hermes transcribes but text doesn’t appear
  • “Accessibility access required” error
  • Text appears in Hermes but not in target app

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Fix

1

Open System Settings

Apple menu () → System Settings
2

Go to Accessibility

Privacy & Security → Accessibility
3

Add Hermes

If Hermes is listed, make sure it’s toggled on.If not listed, click +, navigate to Applications, and select Hermes.

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If Hermes is listed but not working

  1. Remove Hermes from the list (select it, click -)
  2. Add it again (click +, select Hermes)
  3. Restart Hermes
Sometimes macOS caches permissions incorrectly, and re-adding fixes it.

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Input Monitoring permission

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Symptoms

  • Hotkey only works when Hermes is focused
  • Hotkey doesn’t respond at all
  • Other apps capture your hotkey

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Fix

1

Open System Settings

Apple menu () → System Settings
2

Go to Input Monitoring

Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring
3

Enable Hermes

Find Hermes and toggle it on.

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Still not working?

Try a different hotkey. Some keys may be captured by the system or other apps before Hermes can detect them.

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Screen Recording permission

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Symptoms

  • Vision context doesn’t work
  • App detection is inaccurate
  • “Screen Recording access required” message

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Fix

1

Open System Settings

Apple menu () → System Settings
2

Go to Screen Recording

Privacy & Security → Screen Recording(On newer macOS, this may be called “Screen & System Audio Recording”)
3

Enable Hermes

Find Hermes and toggle it on.
Screen Recording is optional. Hermes works without it, but Vision context won’t be available.

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Permission was denied by organization

If you’re on a work computer, your IT department may restrict permissions.

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Options

  1. Contact IT — Ask them to allow Hermes
  2. Use a personal device — If work computer can’t be configured
  3. Request an exception — Some organizations allow exceptions for productivity tools

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Resetting all permissions

If nothing else works, you can reset Hermes’ permissions completely:
This removes Hermes from all permission lists. You’ll need to re-grant everything.
  1. Quit Hermes
  2. Open Terminal
  3. Run these commands:
  1. Reopen Hermes
  2. Grant permissions when prompted
Replace com.hermes.app with the actual bundle ID if different.

Permissions setup

Initial permission setup guide.

Common issues

Other common problems.