Radial menu on macOS Tahoe and Sequoia — compatibility notes

Short answer: Swik runs on macOS 14 Sonoma, macOS 15 Sequoia, and macOS 26 Tahoe. If you've upgraded recently and the menu stopped appearing, it's almost certainly a permission that needs re-toggling — this post has the exact fix. Long answer below.

Supported versions

Why the floor is macOS 14 Sonoma

The accessibility and overlay APIs Swik depends on were reworked in macOS 14. Supporting older versions would mean carrying a second, worse code path for a shrinking share of users. It's the same reason most modern launchers (including Raycast) moved their floor up in the last year: the cost of backward compatibility on macOS is real, and the payoff is small.

If you're on Ventura or older, the practical options are (a) update the OS — every Mac released in 2018 or later supports Sonoma or higher, or (b) use an older radial-menu tool that never modernized. We'd gently push toward (a).

macOS Tahoe (26) notes

Tahoe is the current OS as of this writing. What we found when testing Swik against it:

• Liquid Glass is a non-event for overlays. Swik renders its ring in its own borderless window layered above everything. The new chrome changes how Apple's system UI looks but doesn't touch custom overlays. The menu looks exactly the same it did on Sequoia.
• Accessibility permission carries forward from Sequoia. If you upgraded in place, you probably don't need to re-grant anything. If you did a clean install, you'll go through the full first-run flow again.
• Apple Intelligence doesn't touch Swik. The overlay and Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools live in entirely separate UI layers; they don't interact, conflict, or compete for the active window.
• F19 is still the best keyboard trigger. Nothing in Tahoe claimed the higher F-keys. Apple remains allergic to binding anything to F13–F19, which continues to make them perfect for custom launchers.

macOS Sequoia (15) notes

Sequoia tightened how apps handle continuously-observing permissions like Accessibility. Two practical consequences for a radial menu:

• Re-authorization prompts are more common. On a major Swik update or a macOS point release, you may see a system prompt reminding you that Swik has Accessibility access. Approve it — this is Apple being transparent, not anything wrong.
• Silent revocation happens occasionally. On rare occasions after an OS update, the permission shows as "on" in System Settings but the app can't actually observe input. The fix: toggle Swik off, then on, in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. Quit and relaunch Swik.

If you're running Sequoia and something broke, try that toggle dance first. It fixes ~90% of "it stopped working" reports we see after a Sequoia point release.

macOS Sonoma (14) notes

Sonoma is the supported floor. Everything in Swik works — apps, sub-menus, Apple Shortcuts integration, context-aware profiles, clipboard history, emoji picker, drag-to-open. One caveat: if you're on Sonoma and haven't updated the OS in a while, install the latest point release. The early 14.0 accessibility APIs had some rough edges that Apple smoothed out in later 14.x versions.

Apple Silicon vs Intel

Swik is a universal binary. Apple Silicon (M1 through whatever the current generation is) and Intel Macs running macOS 14 or later both work. The functional experience is identical — you won't notice a feature missing on either architecture.

The only real difference is latency. Apple Silicon M-series chips respond to the trigger in roughly single-digit milliseconds. Older Intel Macs add maybe 10–20 ms of startup latency to the first trigger after boot. For keyboard triggers, imperceptible. For aggressive mouse-side-button users flicking through sub-menus rapidly, slightly perceptible on older hardware.

If you're on a 2018 MacBook Air and the menu feels sluggish, the fix is usually not Swik — it's that the GPU is doing work to composite the overlay on top of whatever you're already running. Closing one Chrome tab tends to help more than any setting change.

After a macOS upgrade: the permission checklist

Anytime you move from one major macOS version to another — Sonoma to Sequoia, Sequoia to Tahoe — the trigger occasionally stops firing. Run this checklist:

1. Check Accessibility. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. If Swik is listed and on, toggle it off and on anyway — this forces the system to re-register the permission. Quit and relaunch Swik.
2. Check Automation (only if you use clipboard or emoji wedges). System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation. Make sure the apps you want to paste into are still enabled under Swik's entry.
3. Confirm the trigger isn't captured. If you remapped Caps Lock or bound a mouse side button through a third-party tool (Karabiner, SteerMouse), that mapping can be dropped in major OS upgrades. Re-apply it.
4. Check for Swik updates. We ship a compatibility update within a week or two of every major macOS release. If you're stuck, there is probably a newer build waiting.

If you've done all four and the menu still won't appear, write to us — we'd rather hear it directly than have you churn silently.

What we test against

Every release of Swik is tested on three machines before it ships: an M-series MacBook Pro running the newest macOS, an M-series Mac mini running one version back, and an Intel MacBook Pro on the supported floor. That matrix catches ~99% of OS-specific issues. The 1% we miss is almost always specific hardware combinations (older Logitech mice with certain firmware, ancient USB hubs) which we chase down individually when they come up.

The short version: if you're on a reasonable Mac made in the last six years, running a current macOS, Swik works. If something doesn't, the fix is almost always Accessibility-off-and-on-again.