> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bartleby.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Install

> Get Bartleby running on your Mac, in three steps.

What ships is a notarized, stapled DMG. Everything the app needs is inside the bundle, including
`imsg`, the helper that carries sends to Messages, so you install nothing else. No Homebrew, no
Terminal.

Requirements on your Mac: macOS 14 or newer, signed into iMessage in Messages.app.

## Your steps, in order

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install">
    Open the DMG and drag Bartleby into **Applications**. It opens normally on first launch. The app
    is Developer ID signed, notarized, and stapled, so Gatekeeper needs no right-click ritual.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Grant Full Disk Access">
    Bartleby reads the local Messages database directly, so it needs this to see anything.

    Go to **System Settings** → **Privacy & Security** → **Full Disk Access** → **+** →
    **Applications** → **Bartleby**, toggle it on, then quit and reopen Bartleby.

    <Warning>
      The inbox is empty until this is done.
    </Warning>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Send your first message">
    macOS asks to allow Bartleby to control Messages. Allow it. Sends travel through the bundled
    `imsg` as Apple Events to Messages.app, the same sanctioned path Messages automation always uses.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  That is the whole setup. The signing identity is stable across updates, so both grants survive
  every future version. Granted once, kept.
</Note>

## What you should know

* Bartleby reads your own messages on your own Mac. Nothing is shared, synced, or uploaded.
* It never writes to the Messages database and never marks a chat read in Messages.
* Everything Bartleby itself stores lives in `~/Library/Application Support/Bartleby/`.

## Troubleshooting

### The inbox is empty after step 2

You granted Full Disk Access to a different copy of the app, one still sitting in Downloads. Remove
the Bartleby entry from Full Disk Access, add it again pointing at `/Applications/Bartleby.app`, and
relaunch.