Permissions Setup

Silk needs a few system permissions to work. You can grant them during the initial onboarding screen, or at any time by clicking the shield icon in the panel header or choosing Permissions… from the tray menu.

Required permissions

Microphone

Used for push-to-talk voice input. Without this, you can’t speak to Silk.

Screen Recording (macOS only)

Used to capture your display so Silk can see what you’re looking at when it answers. Without this, Silk answers without any screen context.

On Windows, screen capture uses a system API that doesn’t require a separate permission grant.

Optional permissions

Accessibility (macOS only)

Used for Act Mode — when you ask Silk to actually click, type, and control your computer on your behalf. Without Accessibility, Act Mode is disabled, but everything else (voice, screen analysis, agents, memory, skills) works normally.

Silk never requests Accessibility unless you try to use Act Mode.

---

Granting permissions

macOS

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
2. Find Silk in the list and toggle it on.
3. Go back to Privacy & Security → Screen Recording.
4. Find Silk and toggle it on.
5. Restart Silk if prompted.

Caution

macOS requires a restart of the app (not the system) after granting Screen Recording access. If Silk isn’t capturing your screen after enabling the permission, quit and reopen it from the menu bar.

To enable Act Mode (optional):

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
2. Find Silk and toggle it on.

Accessibility access takes effect immediately — no restart needed.

Windows

1. Open Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone.
2. Make sure Microphone access is on, and that Silk appears in the app list with access enabled.

Screen Recording and Accessibility access on Windows are handled automatically — no extra steps needed.

---

Re-checking permissions

Click the shield icon in the top-right of the Silk panel at any time to see the current status of each permission and re-trigger the system prompt if needed.

Resetting onboarding

If you want to go through the onboarding flow again (for example, after a clean reinstall), delete the onboarding flag file:

macOS

# If you upgraded from Odin, your data folder kept its original name:
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Odin\ AI/onboarding-complete

# If you installed Silk fresh:
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/Silk/onboarding-complete

Windows

Delete %APPDATA%\Odin AI\onboarding-complete if you upgraded from Odin, or %APPDATA%\Silk\onboarding-complete if you installed Silk fresh.

Note

Silk deliberately leaves an upgraded install’s data folder under its old name. Renaming it would move your licence, memory, settings, MCP servers and conversation history out from under the app. Only one of the two paths above will exist on your machine — delete that one.

Relaunch Silk and the onboarding screen will appear again.