Osascript Subprocess

osascript-subprocess

NSTask via JXA ObjC bridge — full POSIX process control from within osascript. All scripts are Python with JXA embedded as strings.

NSTask vs doShellScript

Use doShellScript for quick one-liners. Use NSTask when you need stderr, stdin, kill, or async.

PATH Note

uv lives in /opt/homebrew/bin. Always set PATH explicitly in NSTask — it does not inherit shell PATH:

task.environment = $.NSDictionary.dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys(
    $("/opt/homebrew/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"), $("PATH"),
    ...
);

Use /usr/bin/env as launchPath with ["uv", "run", ...] as arguments — lets env resolve uv from PATH.

Scripts

Run any shell command via NSTask — returns {stdout, stderr, exitCode}:

uv run scripts/run-command.py "ls -la /tmp"
uv run scripts/run-command.py "ping -c 3 google.com"

Run a uv run Python script via NSTask with proper PATH resolution:

uv run scripts/run-uv-script.py /path/to/script.py arg1 arg2

Reference

• reference/21-nstask.md — Full NSTask API, stdin/stdout/stderr pipes, async, kill, env vars, uv pattern
• reference/01-languages-and-execution.md — Python wrapper patterns, doShellScript vs NSTask decision