macOS Troubleshooting

“Cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified”

macOS quarantines downloaded binaries. Right-click the app, select Open, and confirm. Or remove the quarantine flag:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine $(which mcpfw)

If you installed via the desktop app, the quarantine bit is handled automatically.

LaunchAgent does not start

Check the service status:

mcpfw service status

If it reports issues, check the logs:

mcpfw service logs --n 50

Common causes:

The binary moved since the LaunchAgent was installed. Reinstall the service:
Terminal window
```
mcpfw service uninstall
mcpfw service install
mcpfw service start
```
Another process is using port 8765. Check with lsof -i :8765 and either stop that process or use --port.

Tray icon not appearing

The tray helper (sluice-tray) is a separate binary bundled with the macOS distribution. If installed via curl, it should be in the same directory as mcpfw.

If the tray icon does not appear:

Check that sluice-tray exists: ls $(dirname $(which mcpfw))/sluice-tray
Remove the quarantine flag from it: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine $(dirname $(which mcpfw))/sluice-tray
If using the desktop app, the tray is managed by the app itself (not the separate binary)

Notifications not appearing

MCPFirewall uses the native notification center. Make sure notifications are allowed:

Open System Settings > Notifications
Find MCPFirewall (or the terminal app running it) in the list
Ensure notifications are enabled

Firewall blocking connections

If macOS Firewall is enabled, you may need to allow mcpfw to accept incoming connections. Go to System Settings > Network > Firewall > Options and add mcpfw to the allowed list.

This only matters for the gateway’s localhost listener. No external connections are involved.