What causes "Error querying ChatGPT application state" in jackwener/OpenCLI?

Verify the ChatGPT Desktop app is installed at /Applications/ChatGPT.app

jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

Error querying ChatGPT application state

Error message

Error querying ChatGPT application state

What it means

`chatgpt-app status` runs an osascript query for ChatGPT's running state; if that execSync fails (osascript errors, app bundle missing, timeout) it throws this CommandExecutionError, discarding the underlying error detail.

Source

Thrown at clis/chatgpt-app/status.js:23

    site: 'chatgpt-app',
    name: 'status',
    access: 'read',
    description: 'Check if ChatGPT Desktop App is running natively on macOS',
    domain: 'localhost',
    strategy: Strategy.PUBLIC,
    browser: false,
    args: [],
    columns: ['Status'],
    func: async () => {
        if (process.platform !== 'darwin') {
            throw new ConfigError('ChatGPT Desktop integration requires macOS (osascript is not available on this platform)');
        }
        try {
            const output = execSync("osascript -e 'application \"ChatGPT\" is running'", { encoding: 'utf-8' }).trim();
            return [{ Status: output === 'true' ? 'Running' : 'Stopped' }];
        }
        catch {
            throw new CommandExecutionError('Error querying ChatGPT application state');
        }
    },
});

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

Verify the ChatGPT Desktop app is installed at /Applications/ChatGPT.app
Grant Automation permission (System Events / ChatGPT) to the calling terminal app
Run the osascript command manually to see the raw error the wrapper hides

Example fix

// manual diagnosis
execSync("osascript -e 'application \"ChatGPT\" is running'"); // run directly to see stderr
// or catch and log
try { execSync('opencli chatgpt-app status'); } catch (e) { console.error(e.stderr?.toString()); }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

const installed = fs.existsSync('/Applications/ChatGPT.app');
if (!installed) throw new Error('ChatGPT Desktop not installed');

Try / catch

try {
  const st = execSync('opencli chatgpt-app status').toString().trim();
} catch (e) {
  // wrapper hides the cause; run osascript directly to diagnose
  try {
    execSync("osascript -e 'application \"ChatGPT\" is running'", { stdio: 'inherit' });
  } catch (raw) {
    console.error('osascript stderr:', raw.stderr?.toString());
  }
}

Prevention

Verify ChatGPT.app exists in /Applications before status checks
Approve the Automation permission prompt for the calling app the first time
Run status from a GUI user session, not launchd/root contexts without window server access

When it happens

Trigger: On macOS: osascript returns non-zero because the ChatGPT app is not installed (application not found), Automation permission denied, or the osascript process failed/timed out.

Common situations: ChatGPT Desktop uninstalled or renamed; first-time Automation permission prompt denied; running osascript from a context without a GUI session.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/023fdcb784fadc9a. Report an issue: GitHub.