macverify 1.1.0 — macOS 11+, Python 3.9+, zero dependencies, fully offline.

A read-only, offline inventory of a Mac: what is installed, what runs at login, what listens on the network, which protections are on, where credential-shaped values sit in plain files, and how your AI assistants (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex) are configured and what they cost to load. It writes an HTML report, a JSON dataset and a list of remediation commands, then stops.

What this is NOT

macverify is not antivirus. It is not malware detection. It is not real-time protection. It does not scan for known threats. It has no signature database, computes no file hashes, consults no reputation service, and makes no network request, so nothing it sees is ever compared against a threat feed.

It takes a point-in-time, read-only inventory of your toolchain, config hygiene and AI-assistant setup, and flags things worth reviewing yourself. A launchd job that exists, is signed and starts at login looks the same from here whether it is a printer helper or a backdoor.

Run a real scanner alongside it: Malwarebytes, KnockKnock or LuLu. Scan first — removing adware changes what this report is built from.

Installation

pipx install macverify

Or with pip, if you do not use pipx:

pip install --user macverify

To upgrade later:

pipx upgrade macverify

macverify never checks for updates itself. Checking would mean a network request, and this tool makes none — see SECURITY.md. Watch Releases on this repository if you want to be told when a version ships.

No build step, no dependencies. To install nothing at all, clone and run in place:

git clone https://github.com/ShanedixonGit/macverify.git
cd macverify
python3 -m macverify

Verify it before you run it

This tool reads your machine, so do not take its word for it. From a clone, these must all return nothing:

grep -rn "shell=True\|os\.system\|os\.popen" --include='*.py' macverify/
grep -rnE "\b(eval|exec)[[:space:]]*\(|pickle" --include='*.py' macverify/
grep -rn "urllib\|requests\.\|http\.client\|urlopen\|httpx" --include='*.py' macverify/

No shell execution, no dynamic evaluation, no network client. The same claims are enforced as tests, which CI re-runs on every push:

/usr/bin/python3 -m compileall -q macverify
/usr/bin/python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -t .

SECURITY.md lists each claim and how it is checked.

Usage

macverify --check     # what this Mac can be audited for, then exit
macverify             # the full run

--check collects nothing, and is the safe way to see what a run would cover. A full run takes 30-60 seconds. It asks where to save first, so the reports land somewhere you will find them again:

Where should the reports be saved?
  press Enter for ~/.macverify/reports
  or type a folder, for example ~/Downloads/macverify
  a report names your host, apps and credential-shaped values, so avoid a folder that syncs
save to>

Press Enter to accept the default, ~/.macverify/reports (0700). Pass --out DIR to name the folder outright, or --no-prompt to take the default without being asked; a run whose input is not a terminal never asks, so scripts and CI are unaffected. A directory macverify creates is 0700 and every report file is 0600, wherever you put it. The path of the finished report is printed as a file:// link at the end of the run.

  -h, --help      show this help message and exit
  --version       print the installed version and exit
  --only DOMAIN   run only this domain (repeatable)
  --skip DOMAIN   skip this domain (repeatable)
  --json-only     write the JSON dataset only
  --html-only     write the HTML report only
  --out DIR       output directory, used without asking (default:
                  ~/.macverify/reports)
  --no-prompt     do not ask where to save; use the default directory
  --timeout S     per-command timeout in seconds (default: 8)
  --lang {en,es}  report label language (default: en)
  --project PATH  extra project root to inspect for AI assistant config
                  (repeatable)
  --verbose       print per-domain progress to stderr
  --list-domains  list domain names and exit
  --quick-fixes   print the quick-fix plan to stdout as well as writing the
                  reports
  --check         report what this machine can be audited for, then exit
                  without collecting

macverify --quick-fixes
macverify --only security --only network

A run writes audit_<timestamp>.html (self-contained), audit_<timestamp>.json (full dataset), remediation.md and ai_assistant_findings.json. See examples/ for the JSON shape and how to pull findings out of it.

What it reads, and what it never does

Sixteen domains: toolchain, packages, shell_env, hardware, storage, services, containers, network, security, identity, secrets, permissions, claude_code, github_copilot, openai_codex, ai_assistants. Missing tools are reported as unavailable, never as an error.

It never makes a network request. It never calls sudo — sudo, su, doas, sudoedit, security and systemsetup are refused by its command runner, so no code path can elevate. It never modifies system state; fixes are printed, never executed. It never captures a secret value: the secrets domain records the file, line, detector and a masked prefix, never the value. It never reads AI session transcripts, only their file metadata.

Reports are sensitive: an audit_*.json names your host, user, applications, SSH key paths, privacy grants and anything credential-shaped. Read one before you send it anywhere.

Let an AI assistant triage the report

SKILL.md is a self-contained skill that runs the audit, reads the dataset and returns a short ranked list of fixes rather than eighty raw findings. For Claude Code, copy it to ~/.claude/skills/macverify-review/; for Codex, append it to your AGENTS.md. It never runs a destructive command without asking, and never runs sudo on your behalf.

Requirements

macOS 11+ and Python 3.9+; every Mac since macOS 12.3 ships a suitable python3. No third-party packages, at install time or runtime.

License

MIT. See LICENSE. Also CONTRIBUTING.md, CHANGELOG.md, SECURITY.md and design_notes.md.