Ground Control Support

macOS keeps every Mac App Store app away from your files until you choose what it may see. Granting your home folder once covers every repository on your Mac, your Git settings and your SSH keys, so Git knows your name and email and SSH remotes work. On the welcome, click Give Access to Your Home Folder, then Grant Access in the panel.

You can choose particular folders instead (Choose Folders…), but then Git can’t read your settings or SSH keys. Settings → Repositories → Folder Access shows what Ground Control may see, adds a folder and takes one back. A repository outside every grant shows No access; opening it asks for its folder.

For GitHub over HTTPS, Ground Control keeps its own sign-in in Settings → GitHub. Use GitHub CLI Login borrows the login of the gh command line tool (macOS asks once to share it); Paste a Token… takes a classic token with the repo and workflow scopes, or a fine-grained one with Contents read and write. The token stays in your keychain, and Sign Out removes it.

For SSH, grant your home folder so Git can reach your keys, and check that the key is on your GitHub account. If Ground Control can’t confirm the server’s identity, run ssh -T git@github.com once in Terminal to trust it. Settings → Repositories chooses whether new GitHub clones use an SSH key or HTTPS.

It’s optional. macOS marks every file a sandboxed app writes, and a marked script or program won’t run from Terminal. Installed once, the helper runs pulls, switches, merges and other writes outside the sandbox, as Terminal would, so what they write stays runnable; it also brings pull requests and checks from the GitHub command line tool. Without it, everything else works as usual.

To install it, open Settings → Advanced → Helper, click Copy Command, paste it into Terminal and press Return, then click Check Again. If it later says Needs installing again, after an update, run the command once more.

They come from GitHub through the gh command line tool, which the Mac App Store version reaches through the helper. Install gh (brew install gh), sign it in with gh auth login in Terminal, and install the helper. The repository needs a remote on GitHub.

Then the branch list shows the open pull requests, each commit shows its Actions result, and the home screen lists the pull requests waiting for your review. On a pull request’s page you can comment, approve, request changes and merge.

One repository is free: the first one you open. Ground Control Pro opens every one, as a yearly subscription (with a free week if you’re eligible) or a one-time lifetime purchase. Prices show in your own currency before you buy.

On another Mac with the same Apple Account, Pro usually turns on by itself. If it doesn’t, open a locked repository, or Settings → General → See Plans, and click Restore Purchases. To cancel a subscription, use Apple’s subscriptions page: in the App Store app, click your name, then Account Settings.

Your code goes only where Git sends it: fetches, pulls, pushes and clones talk to your repositories’ remotes. Every repository is fetched in the background every 15 minutes; change it with Fetch every repository in Settings → Repositories. GitHub features ask GitHub for pull requests, checks and profile pictures, and the plans page checks your purchase with our subscription service. No account and no ads.

Your folder list and settings stay on your Mac and the GitHub token in your keychain, and Remove from Ground Control (right-click a repository on the home screen) never touches its files. When a fetch finds a teammate’s push or merge, Ground Control can notify you (macOS asks first); Tell me when others push or merge turns that off.