Release notes

Changelog

Downloads for every version are on the Releases page. Update with brew upgrade --cask wardlume.

v1.8.0 — Intruder photo · 2026-10-03

📷 Intruder photo (optional, off by default). When someone fails to unlock while warded (wrong Touch ID or password), Wardlume takes one photo with your Mac's camera. Cancelling never triggers it, and the camera light always shows.
🔒 Photos stay on this Mac, inside Wardlume's private folder, and are deleted after 7, 30, or 90 days (or when you choose). Wardlume still has no internet access, so they can't leave your Mac.
🪧 A clear notice on the ward, "Failed unlocks are photographed", warns anyone at your desk. You can turn it off.
🔔 After you unlock, a card tells you how many failed attempts were photographed, with View Photos.
🗂️ New Settings → Intruder photo with the switch, a Take Test Photo check, the photos, Open in Finder, Export…, and Delete All.
🎛️ Turn it on or off anywhere: the menu bar, the optional Camera row in setup, or Overview → Permissions, which also links to System Settings to remove camera access entirely. The switch can't be changed while warded.

🛡️ New Settings → Privacy & security. Live facts read from the app itself: Internet access: blocked by macOS, screen capture only while warded, nothing ever saved. A Privacy button on Overview takes you there.
🔍 Verify it yourself. One Terminal command shows that Wardlume has no network entitlement, so macOS refuses any connection it tries. LuLu and Little Snitch confirm it too.
🔄 In-app updates. Updates install from inside Wardlume, signed and checked before install, through a separate sandboxed downloader. Wardlume asks once before checking automatically. Manage it in Settings → Advanced → Updates.
⚠️ Clear update errors. If a check fails, you'll see why: offline, server unreachable, or a server error, with a website download as the fallback.
💗 Sponsor Wardlume in the menu bar menu.
⬆️ This is the last manual update. From here on, new versions arrive in the app.

🧲 Dragging Wardlume into System Settings works. The icon in the setup helper now drops into the permission list like it does from Finder.
🪟 One helper that stays put. A single floating guide sits beside System Settings instead of a new popup for every permission, and closes itself once the permission is on.
✅ Wardlume is added to the list for you. Usually you just flip the switch.
🔔 No leftover macOS alert after granting Screen Recording.
📂 Reveal in Finder reuses its window instead of opening a new one on every click.
🔗 Check for Updates, Privacy, and Terms open the new download home directly.

🧭 Settings reorganized: Overview · Lock & unlock · Automation · Displays & gestures · Intruder reactions · Advanced.
🔢 "How Wardlume works" on Overview: Lock → Step away → Unlock, with your own shortcuts.
✏️ Clearer shortcut editing: edit and reset buttons with tooltips.
⚠️ Emergency exit and Reset all now live in Advanced.
📋 Menu bar: shows your own activate shortcut, has a quick Auto-ward toggle and Check for Updates…, and only shows permissions setup when something's missing.

Wardlume now lives at wardlume. Check updates, Privacy, and Terms in the app point here.
No other changes. Your settings and permissions carry over.

⌚ Tap to unlock with Apple Watch. Tap any key or the trackpad while warded, then double-press your watch's side button.
🔐 The unlock shortcut accepts your watch too: Touch ID, Apple Watch, or password.
🧭 Apple Watch card in Settings → Overview, with status, setup steps, and Send test to watch. Requests name your Mac.

🚀 Launch at login: starts quietly in the menu bar. On by default, and your choice is respected if you turn it off.
⏱️ Auto-ward when idle: casts the ward after 1–15 minutes without input, after a 10-second cancelable countdown. Off by default.

🖥️ The ward appears on the display you activate it from. Other monitors stay visible but locked, or can be blacked out.
🔌 Security: unplugging a monitor no longer unlocks your Mac.
⚙️ Security: Settings can no longer be clicked through the ward.
✋ Trackpad gestures (Mission Control, Spaces, Launchpad) are now really blocked, and the ward follows Space switches.

☕ Keep Mac awake: the display and system don't idle-sleep while warded. On by default.
🪟 Fixed: the one-time screen-capture prompt no longer hides behind the ward.

🧭 Guided setup for all three permissions in one window, powered by PermissionPilot.
Opening Wardlume now shows setup (if something's missing) or Settings → Overview.
Permissions Setup… in the menu bar re-runs the wizard at any time.

New dark Settings window: Overview · Pack & assets · Shortcuts · Behavior.
Configurable activate and unlock shortcuts.
Optional emergency-exit key (off by default).
Wizard and Grumpy Old Man reaction packs are back.
Includes the v1.1.0 hardening: ward watchdog, a locked menu bar, black-out of other displays, sleep/wake safety, and blocking of media keys.

Animated glass ward over the live desktop, input lock, and Touch ID unlock.
Reaction packs (Silent Professional, Grumpy Old Man, Wizard) and custom image and sound slots.