argent-settings-permissions

name: argent-settings-permissions description: Grant, deny, or reset an app's runtime permissions (camera, microphone, photos, contacts, notifications, calendar, location, location-always, media-library, motion, reminders) on an iOS simulator or Android device using the argent settings-permissions tool - without navigating the system Settings UI. Use when the permission cannot be changed through the app itself - and only then, pre-authorize before the app asks, deny up front, re-enable a permission the user already denied, or reset so the prompt reappears. If the app can flip it - via an in-app toggle or the system permission dialog the app triggers - interact with the app instead.

What this tool is for

settings-permissions edits the platform's permission store directly - the iOS simulator's TCC database, or Android's package-manager permission flags. It replaces the manual Settings → Privacy dance during test setup: pre-authorize a service so the app never has to ask, deny it up front to test the refusal path, or reset it so the first-run dialog appears again on the next launch.

It is a test-setup / out-of-band tool, not a general permissions toggle. The default way to change a permission is still through the app - this tool is the exception for the cases the app can't reach.

When to use it - and when NOT to

Decide with this order. The first matching row wins.

Rule of thumb: if a human tester could flip it inside the app, do that. Reach for settings-permissions only for a change a human would otherwise make in the system Settings app.

Supported permissions & platform coverage

One abstract permission can map to several concrete Android permissions; which ones actually exist depends on the app's manifest and the device's API level (e.g. READ_MEDIA_* on API 33+ vs READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE below it).

Actions

• grant - pre-authorize the permission. Requires bundleId.
• deny - refuse it. Requires bundleId. Use to test the app's "permission denied" path.
• reset - return to the not-yet-asked state so the dialog reappears on next use. Always per-app (bundleId required):
  • iOS: removes that app's TCC row. A device-wide reset (no bundleId) is not offered - on recent iOS runtimes it reports success but leaves existing per-app grants untouched, so it would report a change that never happened.
  • Android: revokes the grant, then best-effort clears the user-set/user-fixed flags (flag-clearing first appears in Android 13 / API 33; the revoke is what counts toward success). Below API 33 (i.e. API 23-32, everywhere a user-fixed state can exist) flag-clearing is unavailable, so a reset there revokes the grant but cannot clear a "don't ask again" (user-fixed) state - the dialog may stay suppressed on those older devices.

Parameters

{
  "udid": "<UDID-or-serial>",
  "action": "grant",
  "permission": "camera",
  "bundleId": "com.example.app"
}

• udid - target from list-devices (iOS simulator UDID, or Android serial). See argent-ios-simulator-setup / argent-android-emulator-setup to get one.
• action - grant | deny | reset.
• permission - one of the 11 names above.
• bundleId - iOS bundle id or Android package name. Required for every action.

Platform behavior

iOS simulator only. Edits the simulator's TCC store - always per-app (bundleId required). There is no host-side TCC switch on a physical iPhone, so this tool does not apply to real iOS devices. The simulator must be booted first (boot-device) - otherwise the tool fails with a "current state: Shutdown" error and surfaces the boot hint.

Android emulator and physical device. Changes the app's android.permission.* runtime permissions over adb (and, for reset, best-effort clears the user-set/user-fixed flags - the revoke is what decides success; flag-clearing needs Android 13 / API 33+). Requirements:

• The app must be installed - the tool probes for the package first and errors clearly if it is missing (a transport/timeout failure surfaces adb's real cause, not a false "not installed").
• The app must declare the permission in its manifest. The package manager rejects any mapped permission the manifest doesn't request; those come back in the result's skipped list. The action succeeds if at least one mapped permission sticks, and errors only if all of them were rejected.

Gotchas

• Changing a permission can terminate a running app (system behavior on both platforms). Prefer setting permissions before launch-app; if you change one while the app is running, restart-app afterward.
• Reset is per-app on both platforms - pass bundleId; there is no reliable device-wide reset.
• A partial Android result is normal. applied lists what actually changed; skipped lists mapped permissions the package manager rejected (usually not in the manifest, or gated by API level). Both together tell you what happened.
• A pre-launch deny suppresses the prompt on iOS only. On iOS a TCC denial answers the app's request, so no dialog appears. On Android a deny clears the grant but sets no "user-fixed" flag, so the app's next request still shows the system dialog - a pre-launch deny there tests the revoked state, not a suppressed prompt.
• camera on iOS may be rejected by a simulator runtime that doesn't model the service (it varies by simruntime, not by the installed Xcode - a runtime can accept camera even when the platform's own service list omits it). A rejection surfaces as a generic CoreSimulator error, so a camera failure (unless it's the shutdown-simulator case, which gets the boot hint instead) is reported with a hint about the runtime's supported services.
• grant location needs the app installed first (iOS). Location authorization isn't stored in TCC and isn't applied to a bundle id until the app exists, so a pre-install grant location / grant location-always records nothing. On a local simulator the tool checks install state and errors clearly instead of reporting a false success; on a remote simulator it cannot probe install state, so a pre-install grant there reports success while recording nothing - make sure the app is installed before granting location remotely. (TCC-backed services like camera/photos can be granted before install; they persist and apply on install.)

Result

Returns { action, permission, bundleId, applied, skipped? }:

• applied - the platform-level services/permissions actually changed (the TCC service(s) on iOS; the android.permission.* names on Android).
• skipped - Android only, present when some mapped permissions were rejected but others succeeded.

The call fails when nothing could be applied - read the error; it names the reason: an unsupported permission for the platform (notifications on iOS, reminders on Android), the app not installed (including a pre-install grant location on iOS), a shutdown simulator (iOS), or every mapped permission being rejected (usually a missing manifest entry). A non-shutdown camera failure additionally hints about the simulator runtime's supported services (a shutdown-simulator failure gets the boot hint instead).

Examples

Pre-grant the camera before launching, so the app never prompts:

{ "udid": "<UDID>", "action": "grant", "permission": "camera", "bundleId": "com.example.app" }

Test the denied path - refuse location, then launch and observe the fallback:

{ "udid": "<serial>", "action": "deny", "permission": "location", "bundleId": "com.example.app" }

Reset notifications on Android so the first-run prompt appears again next launch:

{
  "udid": "<serial>",
  "action": "reset",
  "permission": "notifications",
  "bundleId": "com.example.app"
}

Grant always-on location on Android (fans out to background + foreground automatically):

{
  "udid": "<serial>",
  "action": "grant",
  "permission": "location-always",
  "bundleId": "com.example.app"
}