hayeah/plist

plist

Explore macOS plist preferences without memorizing file paths or defaults incantations. Resolves domains to their backing files across all layers (managed, user, system, byhost, sandbox) and renders them as colorized, truncated JSON.

Install

cd skills/plist
uv tool install -e . \
  --with "hayeah-core @ file:///path/to/dotfiles/hayeah" \
  --with "jsoninspect @ file:///path/to/dotfiles/skills/jsoninspect"

Commands

plist inspect <domain>

Read all plist layers for a domain and print as colorized JSON.

# Inspect Dock preferences across all layers
plist inspect com.apple.dock

# Inspect Finder preferences
plist inspect com.apple.finder

# Inspect global preferences (NSGlobalDomain is an alias for .GlobalPreferences)
plist inspect NSGlobalDomain

# Inspect a plist file directly by path
plist inspect ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist

# Truncate long strings at 40 chars instead of default 80
plist inspect com.apple.dock -s 40

# Inspect trackpad gesture configuration
plist inspect com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad

# Inspect keyboard/input source settings (often has user + system layers)
plist inspect com.apple.HIToolbox

# Inspect a third-party app
plist inspect com.raycast.macos

Output shows each layer with a // comment header (HJSON-compatible):

// user: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
{
  "autohide": true,
  "tilesize": 49,
  ...
}

// system: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
{
  "DesktopAdminImageGenerationNumber": {
    "GenerationNumber": 2
  }
}

Only layers that exist on disk are printed. Missing layers are omitted silently.

plist which <pattern>

Find domains matching a fuzzy pattern and show which layer files exist.

# Find all dock-related domains
plist which dock

# Find either dock or finder domains
plist which 'dock ; finder'

# Find non-Apple third-party app domains
plist which '!apple'

# Find all domains (no pattern)
plist which

# Find domains with "trackpad" in the name
plist which trackpad

Uses fzf extended-search syntax (via hayeah.core.fzfmatch):

• Space-separated terms are implicit AND
• | for compound AND (intersection), ; for union OR
• ! prefix for negation, ^/$ for anchors, ' for word boundaries

Layer Precedence

Layers are printed in precedence order (highest first):

• managed — ~/Library/Managed Preferences/<domain>.plist (MDM/enterprise)
• user — ~/Library/Preferences/<domain>.plist (most common)
• system — /Library/Preferences/<domain>.plist (system-wide defaults)
• byhost — ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/<domain>.<hw-uuid>.plist (per-machine)
• sandbox — ~/Library/Containers/<domain>/Data/Library/Preferences/<domain>.plist (sandboxed apps)

Data Representation

Non-JSON plist types use @type: prefix conventions:

• bytes (≤64 bytes) → "@data:DEADBEEF" (hex)
• bytes (>64 bytes) → "@data:<512 bytes>" (size only)
• datetime → "@date:2026-03-19T10:00:00+00:00" (ISO 8601)
• All other types (dict, array, string, int, float, bool) map directly to JSON

Options

• --max-string, -s — Max string length before truncation (default: 80)

Domain Aliases

• NSGlobalDomain, -g, -globalDomain all resolve to .GlobalPreferences

Quirks

• Domain list is gathered by globbing ~/Library/Preferences/*.plist — domains that only exist at system level won't appear in plist which results
• Some system-level plists may be unreadable without sudo (silently skipped)
• Integer fields named *-mod-date in Dock plists are not timestamps — they're internal counters that look like dates but aren't
• Binary plist format is handled transparently (most plists on disk are binary)