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applescript-shenanigans — READ before any osascript / AppleScript

AppleScript fails silently and destructively more than most surfaces. The items below are empirically reproduced. Skip this and you can blank tabs, hang for minutes, or run nothing.

§1 — NEVER move a Google Chrome tab — it DESTROYS the tab (does not reorder)

move is not in Chrome's tab class responds-to list, so AppleScript falls back to Cocoa's default move → Chrome's tab-insert accessor creates a fresh blank chrome://newtab/ and the live content is gone (no back-history). Reorder by reading URLs → re-setting URLs (lossy but native), CDP, or the extension API — never move. General rule: check responds-to in sdef /Applications/<App>.app BEFORE using any verb on a class.

§2 — execute javascript HANGS forever unless the app is frontmost

Chromium throttles background tabs. Against a heavy SPA, execute javascript from a non-frontmost app hangs indefinitely, no error (osascript stuck in S state > 2 min). Always activate + settle:

osascript -e 'tell application "Microsoft Edge" to activate'
sleep 2   # let activation settle
  • Edge supports execute javascript out of the box; Chrome needs Develop-menu → "Allow JavaScript from Apple Events" enabled first; Safari via its own dictionary.
  • Inline JS via -e: escape " → \" and backslashes; don't return giant objects (serializing a big array hangs the bridge — slice to ~10 items / ~60 chars).
  • document.readyState==="complete" ≠ ready for SPAs; sleep 4–6 s or poll the specific selector.

§3 — verify scripted UI edits at REAL state, not the id/DOM

A single sample of an unsupported verb is flaky and DOM updates can lie (a React view updates instantly even if the backend POST failed). Verify a tab edit at the URL level; verify a toggle by reload-then-re-read, not the in-page .checked immediately after .click(). (Some web apps: a plain .click() is a no-op — dispatch mousedown→mouseup→click.)

§4 — some automation tiers can SEE but not TYPE into Terminal/IDE; use osascript instead

Under restricted computer-use tiers, Terminals & IDEs may be view/click-only — typing/keys/right-click blocked. Don't try to type into them. osascript (Apple Terminal: do script … in front window, read-back via contents of selected tab) drives Terminal fully and is not subject to that tier. For shell, just run the command directly.

§5 — multi-hop SSH inside osascript eats nested quotes

Same as the shell hop trap — base64 the inner script so it survives every quote layer.