Skip to main content

​
Pulse

​
Sources

Download: Parable Pulse for Mac Code: apps/pulse-desktop (the menubar app, its daemon, and the release build) Parable Pulse is a Mac app that records which apps you use and what they show while you work. It sends that activity to your Workspace, where the Pulse Provider Pool tables hold it. Pulse has two parts. The menubar app runs as you, watches the app in front, and reads its window. The daemon runs in the background as a system service. It keeps the activity on your Mac until it sends it, signs and encrypts each batch, and sends it to Parable.
Your Workspace must turn on Pulse before your Mac can send activity. Ask your Parable representative.

​
What Pulse collects

Pulse collects only while all three of these are true: you are logged in, Collecting is on in the menubar, and both permissions are granted. For each stretch of time in one app, Pulse records:
  • the app’s name and identifier, and the window title
  • when the stretch started and ended
  • how much of it had keyboard or pointer input, as durations and counts
  • the text and structure of the window, read through Accessibility
  • text read from the window on screen, through Screen Recording
Pulse does not collect:
  • Keystrokes. It counts input events and never records which keys.
  • Screenshots. It reads text from each window image in memory and discards the image. It never writes an image to disk or sends one.
  • Password fields. It skips secure text fields.
  • Window content of protected apps. For password managers, banking apps and health apps, Pulse records the app name and time only. This list is built into Pulse and cannot be turned off.
Pulse also records a gap when it had to drop activity it could not send, so your Workspace can tell missing time from idle time. After your Mac enrolls, Pulse encrypts the activity it keeps on the Mac. Before it sends a batch, it encrypts the batch to your Workspace’s key and signs it with a key that belongs to your Mac. On a Mac with a Secure Enclave (every Mac with Apple silicon), that key lives in the enclave and cannot be copied off the Mac. Your Workspace admins can see whether each Mac’s key is a hardware key or a software key. A hardware key works only on the Mac that made it. Migration Assistant or a backup can move Pulse’s enrollment to another Mac, where the key does not work. Pulse then stops sending, and the menubar says This Mac lost its device key. Choose Enroll this Mac again… and sign in. Pulse makes a new key and deletes the activity it had not sent under the old one. A Workspace admin can revoke the old enrollment in Protection > Macs.

​
Download

Download Parable Pulse from https://updates.parable.space/pulse/ParablePulse.dmg. That link always serves the newest release. Each release also keeps its own file and a SHA-256 checksum:
Pulse needs:
  • a Mac with Apple silicon or an Intel processor
  • macOS 13 Ventura or later
  • an administrator password, once, to allow the daemon
Parable signs the app with its Developer ID, and Apple notarizes it, so macOS opens it without a warning. A Pulse version is the date and number of its release, such as 2026.10.20.1. The file name of each download carries it.

​
Install

  1. Open the disk image you downloaded, ParablePulse-YYYY.MM.DD.N.dmg.
  2. Drag Parable Pulse onto the Applications folder in the window.
  3. Open Parable Pulse from your Applications folder. macOS asks whether to open an app you downloaded. Choose Open.
  4. Pulse asks you to allow it in the background. Choose Open System Settings.
  5. In System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions, turn on Parable Pulse under Allow in the Background. Enter an administrator password.
The Pulse icon appears in the menubar. Pulse also adds itself to Open at Login, so it starts each time you log in to your Mac. Pulse runs only from the Applications folder. When you open it from the disk image or from another folder, it asks you to move it and quits. The daemon runs as a system service, so it must run from a folder that only an administrator can change.

​
Log in

  1. In the menubar, choose Log in to Parable…. Your browser opens the Connect Parable Pulse page on parable.work.
  2. Sign in to Parable, if you are not signed in.
  3. The page names the Workspace this Mac will report to. If you belong to more than one Workspace, you can choose another one there.
  4. Choose Connect this Mac. The browser sends you back to Pulse.
Pulse then enrolls your Mac with that Workspace. If the Workspace has not turned on Pulse for you, the menubar says so and names the next step. The menubar also has these items:
  • Stop collecting and Start collecting pause and resume Pulse. Pulse keeps your login.
  • Log out ends your session. Activity that Pulse has not sent stays on the Mac until you log in again.
  • Log out and delete local data also deletes the activity that Pulse has not sent.
  • Remove this Mac from the Workspace… stops the enrollment, deletes the activity that Pulse has not sent, and logs you out.

​
Grant the two permissions

Pulse needs two macOS permissions. After you log in, the menubar shows a Grant … access item for each permission that is off. Each item opens its pane of System Settings → Privacy & Security. Turn on Parable Pulse in each pane: On macOS 15 and later, the Screen Recording pane is named Screen & System Audio Recording. macOS can ask you to quit and reopen Pulse after you turn it on. When both permissions are on, Pulse starts collecting. The menubar shows Collecting with your email, and when Pulse last sent activity.

​
Updates

Pulse updates itself. You do not download it again.
  • Every six hours, Pulse checks https://updates.parable.space/pulse/appcast.xml for a new release.
  • When it finds one, it downloads the release in the background and checks Parable’s signature on it.
  • It installs the release when Pulse quits, for example when you log out or restart your Mac. Pulse then starts again at your next login.
  • To install now, choose Check for Updates… in the menubar, then Install and Relaunch. When a release is ready, the menubar item names it: Install Parable Pulse 2026.10.21.1….
An update keeps your login, your two permissions and the activity that Pulse has not sent. It also updates the daemon. The daemon restarts with the new version within a minute of the update, and you do not allow it again. If your Mac account cannot change the Applications folder, macOS asks for an administrator password to install the update. To see which versions run, use --install-status (see If Pulse does not start). It prints the app’s version and the daemon’s version.

​
Uninstall

  1. In the menubar, choose Remove this Mac from the Workspace…, and confirm. Your Workspace stops expecting activity from this Mac.
  2. In Terminal, remove the daemon and the login item:
    macOS can ask for an administrator password.
  3. In the menubar, choose Quit Parable Pulse.
  4. Drag Parable Pulse from the Applications folder to the Trash.
The daemon’s folder and log stay on the Mac. To delete them too:

​
If Pulse does not start

  • Pulse quits and asks you to move it: open it from the Applications folder, not from the disk image.
  • The menubar stays at Not logged in, and login ends with “Parable Pulse could not log in”: the daemon is off. Turn on Parable Pulse under Allow in the Background in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions.
  • To see what Pulse has set up, run this in Terminal. It prints the daemon and the login item, and the app’s and the daemon’s versions. It changes nothing:
  • To see whether a new release is ready for this Mac, run this in Terminal. It reads the update feed once and installs nothing:
The daemon writes its log to /Library/Logs/work.parable.pulse.daemon.log.

​
Managed Macs

A company that manages its Macs can set the Pulse permissions with a device management profile. Pulse on managed Macs has the profile and says which permission each person still turns on.

​
Skipped apps

Pulse never reads the window or the screen of a password manager, a banking app, or a health app. A Workspace admin can add other apps that Pulse skips on every Mac. Skipped apps lists what Pulse records for a skipped app and how to add one.