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The Companion is the macOS app that connects your phones to AutoGrowth. It has to be installed on the Mac the phones are physically plugged into, and it has to stay open for anything to run.

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Before you start

  • A Mac — Apple Silicon or Intel. There are separate downloads for each.
  • The Mac’s login password. macOS asks for it once per session on iPhones running iOS 17 or newer.
  • A few command-line tools, listed below. Installing those takes longer than installing the Companion itself, so start there if you are in a hurry.

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Get the app

There is no public download page. An organization owner creates a one-time link from the dashboard, and that link works once.
1

Open Settings → Downloads

The section is described as “Create one-time download links for the app”. Only owners can see it; if you are not one, ask for a link.
2

Pick the chip your Mac has

Press Apple Silicon (M-Series) for an M-series Mac, or the Intel button beside it. The dashboard cannot detect this from your browser — check the Apple menu → About This Mac if you are unsure.
3

Open the link

A Download Link Created card appears with the link and its expiry. Paste it straight into a browser address bar. It lasts 24 hours by default and can only be used once.
4

Open the DMG and drag the app to Applications

The app is called AutoGrowth Companion.
The Downloads section of dashboard Settings showing the Apple Silicon (M-Series) and Intel download buttons and a Download Link Created card containing a one-time link and its expiry time

Settings → Downloads, where an owner mints a one-time installer link.

If a link stops working, the message says which of the two things happened: “Download link has already been used” or “Download link has expired”. Both are fixed the same way — ask an owner for a new one.

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Install the tools it needs

The Companion drives phones using standard Apple and Android command-line tools. They are not bundled, so install them on the Mac yourself. Everything marked “iPhones” is needed before an iPhone will work; the Android rows are only needed for GrapheneOS phones.
Xcode has to be installed, but you never open it. The Companion uses parts of it in the background to see iPhones and install onto them. If Xcode is installed and the Companion still complains about it, the screen shows the exact command to fix it: sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer.

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The dependency screen

The Companion checks for these tools every time it starts — right after you sign in — and shows what is missing with the install command and a Copy button beside each one. The command it shows is generated for your Mac’s own setup, so prefer it over the table above if the two differ. Run the commands, then press Re-check Dependencies. Which screen you get depends on how much is missing:

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Sign in with a license key

The Companion does not use your email and password. It signs in with a license key you create in the dashboard.
1

Create the key in the dashboard

Go to Settings → Companion Keys and press Create Key. Name it after the Mac it is for — the placeholder suggests “e.g., MacBook Pro, Office PC”.
2

Copy it immediately

The dashboard says “Copy this key now. You won’t be able to see it again!” and means it. If you lose it, delete it and make another.
3

Paste it into the Companion

Open the Companion, paste the key into the License Key field and press Continue. You land on the Devices page.
The AutoGrowth Companion login window showing the subtitle Enter your license key to continue, a single License Key input, a Continue button, and the note Your license key binds to this device on first use

The Companion's sign-in screen. One field, one key.

The field’s placeholder reads XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX, but a real key is a single run of 64 letters and digits with no dashes. Paste exactly what the dashboard gave you and do not reformat it.

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One key, one Mac

The first Mac that signs in with a key claims it. The Companion says so under the field: “Your license key binds to this device on first use”. From then on that key works on that Mac and nowhere else, and there is no way to unbind it. Try it on a second Mac and you get: “This license key is already bound to another computer. Contact support to move it.” To give a different Mac access, replace the key rather than move it:
  1. In the dashboard, open Settings → Companion Keys and delete the old key.
  2. Create a new one.
  3. Sign in with the new key on the new Mac.
The phones are unaffected — they belong to your organization, not to the key.

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Staying signed in

The Companion re-checks the key with the server every five minutes, and again at every launch. If it cannot reach the server it retries a few times and then signs you out — which is why a Mac that lost internet for a while can be sitting on the login screen when you come back. Paste the key again and carry on.

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If sign-in is refused

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What happens on first launch

1

A silent security check

This runs before any window appears. If it fails, a Security Error box appears and the app closes without opening. The usual cause is a debugger, proxy or traffic-analysis tool running on the Mac — close those and reopen.
2

The dependency check

If anything from the table above is missing, its screen appears now, over everything else.
3

The login screen

Or, if you have signed in on this Mac before, a brief blank moment and then straight to Devices.
4

Phone discovery starts

Anything plugged in appears within a few seconds. See Connect your phones.
After sign-in the Companion has two screens: Devices and Settings. The mascot button in the top bar opens Sprout, a side panel with an Activity feed of what has gone wrong and a Guides tab of short walkthroughs.

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The one macOS permission prompt

The Companion asks for no privacy permissions. It does not want screen recording, accessibility, your photos or your contacts, and it never asks for them. There is exactly one prompt, and it is macOS’s own: a request for your Mac login password, needed to open the secure tunnel that iPhones on iOS 17 and newer require. Type your password and click OK.
Dismiss that prompt and the iPhone looks like it is not plugged in at all. The Companion says “Admin permission is required to start the iOS 17+ device tunnel. Please approve the password prompt and try again.” Press Build or Start again and approve it this time.
iPhones on iOS 15 or 16 never trigger this prompt.

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Updates

There is no automatic update. The Companion checks its version when it launches and when you sign in, and a required update is not a suggestion:
  • A box titled Update Required appears — “A new version is available”.
  • The only button is OK.
  • Pressing it closes the app.
To get going again, ask an owner for a fresh download link and install the new DMG over the old one. Your license key still works. While you are signed in and working, the Companion will not interrupt you with an update notice. Updates only surface when you restart it or sign in again.

Connect your phones

Cable, Trust, and the first phone in the list.

WebDriverAgent

Build, Start, Stop, and the two ways it gets signed.