Allow Accessibility access

macOS only lets an app move and resize other apps’ windows once you allow it under Accessibility. Shoji can’t arrange anything without it.

Turn it on

The welcome tour takes you there, but you can also do it yourself:

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
2. Find Shoji in the list and turn it on. If it isn’t listed, click + and choose Shoji from Applications.
3. Go back to Shoji. It notices straight away; there’s nothing to restart.

During the tour, a small guide floats next to System Settings and points at the right switch.

Nothing moves yet

Allowing access doesn’t rearrange anything by itself. Shoji waits until you press Tidy My Workspace at the end of the tour, so your windows only move when you’re ready. See Your first tidy.

Switched on, but Shoji keeps waiting

macOS ties each entry in the list to the exact copy of Shoji it was made for. If you had another copy of Shoji before (a beta, or one built from source), its entry can look identical but still belong to the old copy, so switching it on doesn’t help this one. To fix it:

1. In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, select every Shoji row and remove it with −.
2. Quit Shoji from the menu bar panel and open it again.
3. Shoji asks again and adds a fresh entry. Turn that one on.

Prefer Terminal? tccutil reset Accessibility com.ankursehrawat.shoji removes Shoji’s entries (and only Shoji’s); then reopen Shoji.

What Shoji does with it

Shoji uses Accessibility access to read where windows are and how big they are, and to move and resize them. That’s all.

• It never reads what’s inside your windows: no screenshots, no document contents.
• It doesn’t save window titles anywhere.
• None of this leaves your Mac.

For the full list of what Shoji watches and why, see Privacy and permissions.

If access is turned off

If you (or an update to macOS) turn Shoji’s access off, tiling stops and your windows stay where they are. The menu bar icon changes to outlined panes, and the menu bar panel shows Shoji needs Accessibility access to arrange windows with a Grant Access button. Next time you open Shoji, the tour shows only the permission step.

You can check the current state any time in Settings → General → Permission.