Every saved credential in ToolPiper has a Use policy with two questions: who can use it, and whether to ask you first. A new credential is used automatically by every caller. Set Ask me first? to Every time and ToolPiper shows a card saying who is asking, what will happen and which credential it is for, then waits for your Touch ID or password before the key is used. Open a credential under Credentials in ToolPiper to change either answer.

Who can use this?

One line for each kind of caller:

  • You, in ToolPiper: your chat and voice, Home Ask, snippets.
  • ToolPiper on its own: automations, loops, the open mic, background work.
  • ModelPiper and other local tools signed in to ToolPiper.
  • Connected apps.
  • Apps without a token.

Every line ticked means no limit, which is what a new credential has. The second line includes the first, so the first stays ticked while the second is. With nothing ticked, no caller can use the credential, and ToolPiper's own windows can still reveal and validate it so you can repair the limit. Unticking a line saves at once. Ticking one back asks for your password or Touch ID first.

What Every time asks about

  • A chat or voice reply asks once, however many requests the reply makes to that provider. The card says how many requests it covers and to which host. The approval ends when the reply finishes or is stopped, after the requests the card covers, when the Mac locks, and when the key or its policy changes.
  • An outside app's cloud request through ToolPiper asks once per request.
  • Cloud image and video generation asks once per generation.
  • Hosted embeddings ask once per search or per indexing run.
  • A model download that needs your token asks when you start the download. Searching and browsing go without the token.
  • A tool that spends a saved key, such as web search, names the tool and the credential on one card.

A tool set to Ask whose key is set to Every time raises one card for both, and one Touch ID or password covers both. A tool set to Allow still raises the card for its key.

Work nobody is watching

A card needs someone at the Mac. An automation, an autopilot loop, the open mic and background indexing are never asked, so they do not get a credential set to Every time. The work is refused with a message that names the credential and its Use policy. Where it can run without the key, as a public model download can, it runs without it and says so. To let that work use the key, set Ask me first? back to Never.

While it waits

ModelPiper shows "Waiting for your approval on the Mac" on the turn that is held. Afterwards it shows the reply, or one line that names the credential and says the request was denied, timed out, or that nobody could be asked. A voice conversation speaks the refusal.

Sign-ins a connected server uses

Every time is not offered on a sign-in that a connected MCP server uses. That connection reconnects and refreshes in the background, where nobody can be asked.

Security levels and credentials

A Security level sets a standard for Ask me first?: Every time at Strict, Never at Disabled, Default and Balanced. Picking a level changes no credential by itself. The Security pane's Reset lists every change first and applies it only when you confirm. No level limits who can use a credential.