poltergeist

Cross-platform accessibility CLI and library. Inspect UI elements, manage windows, and perform actions through native OS accessibility APIs.

poltergeist frontmost                          # what app is in front?
poltergeist focused --verbose                  # what element has focus?
poltergeist tree --app Finder --depth 3        # dump the accessibility tree
poltergeist click --app Safari "Back"          # click a button by label
poltergeist press --app Finder "File > New Finder Window"  # trigger a menu item
poltergeist move --app Terminal 200 200        # reposition a window

Built in Zig, wrapping the macOS AXUIElement API and Windows UI Automation COM. Every command supports --json for structured output. Also builds as a C-compatible shared library (libpoltergeist) for FFI consumers.

The interesting use cases are the scriptable ones: UI testing without a browser, accessibility auditing from the terminal, or wiring native app actions into automation pipelines. It sees what the OS sees.

brew install georgemandis/tap/poltergeist