Stealth Architecture

Ghost App operates at the interface of the macOS WindowServer, IOKit hardware layer, and the Darwin kernel, delivering a security posture no consumer AI desktop app can match.

A. WindowServer Compositor Invisible Rendering

When macOS captures the screen, WindowServer composites open windows into a unified frame. Ghost App directs the display server to render exclusively into the physical display buffer. To a capture stream, proctoring extension, or automated scraper, the Ghost App surface simply does not exist.

B. Nonactivating Focus Evasion

Monitoring tools track application focus loss through events such as window.onblur. Ghost App uses a nonactivating panel architecture. Clicking Ghost App or typing into its interface produces no application context switch. The browser or IDE underneath retains its active focus state at all times.

C. Kernel & Process Hardening

A multilayered defense engine neutralizes memory scanners, debuggers, and inspection tools:

A. Proprietary Browser Key Shield

Proctoring extensions listen for DOM keydown events. Ghost App’s Browser Key Shield uses a Deferred Modifier Flush so Ghost chords never reach the browser, while normal shortcuts still work.

1. Modifier Suppression: Modifier keys are held in an isolated pending queue, not released to WindowServer.
2. Hotkey Matching: Ghost chords are swallowed entirely at the OS queue layer.
3. Deferred Modifier Flush: Other shortcuts, such as Cmd+T, are reinjected with a proprietary source tag and passed through cleanly.
4. Synthetic Probe Resistance: Hostile injected keystroke probes are distinguished from real hardware input so automated hotkey detectors cannot fingerprint the shield.

B. Zero Focus Simulated Typing

Traditional applications normally require window focus to accept typing. Ghost App intercepts keystrokes before WindowServer dispatches them to the frontmost browser. It routes characters into a simulated text buffer that supports insertion, deletion, caret navigation, and clipboard pasting with Cmd+V, while the underlying application remains active.

C. Active Countermeasures

• Dynamic Decoy Identity: An offscreen decoy window periodically rotates among generic utility titles. Enumeration tools see only innocuous noise.
• Chain Head Hook Defense: Ghost App periodically reasserts the front of the operating system event queue so external monitors cannot sit ahead of its shields.
• Stream Detection & Panic Hide: Unauthorized recording streams trigger automated Panic Hide. Ghost App removes its windows, clears the pasteboard, and stops capture in milliseconds.

Stealth event controls never slow your computer. Ghost App runs its event engine on a dedicated background thread with high priority. The result is responsive input without desktop freezes.

Ghost App does not behave like an application. It behaves like a private display layer. Ordinary AI apps sit in the Dock, appear in Cmd+Tab, and steal mouse focus the moment you click them. Ghost App runs as a permanent invisible agent.

• Zero Dock Footprint: No Dock icon, no Cmd+Tab entry, and no Force Quit listing that looks like a consumer chat app.
• Permanent Overlay Elevation: Ghost App stays visually available above your work without ever becoming the active application.
• Click Through Focus Mode: Ghost App becomes a transparent input shield. Clicks pass directly to the browser or IDE underneath, while Ghost App remains visible only on your physical display.
• Asymmetric Scroll Intelligence: While Focus Mode is active, scrolling over Ghost App content scrolls Ghost App. Scrolling outside it controls the application beneath. There is no focus swap, no blur event, and no detectable window activation.

Invisibility is only as strong as the weakest popup. Ghost App does not protect only a single chat window and hope the rest of the interface stays quiet. Every secondary surface, including menus, sheets, popovers, and tooltips, inherits the same compositor exclusion policy as the main overlay.

• Always On Capture Exclusion protects the primary surface.
• Automatic Inheritance: Transient interface elements inherit protection, so a context menu cannot accidentally appear in Zoom, Meet, or a proctoring stream.
• Timed Screen Share Mode: When you intentionally want to demonstrate Ghost App, enable a controlled, temporary sharing window. When that window expires, invisibility reasserts itself automatically.
• Self Capture Hygiene: Even Ghost App’s own screenshot tools exclude its private surfaces, so operational captures never reveal the overlay by accident.

For every recorder and scraper, Ghost App is not merely hidden. It is not present in the capture graph.

Process lists and accessibility trees are attack surfaces. Ghost App refuses to look like an AI assistant.

• Process Identity Camouflage: Ghost App presents itself through innocuous system style identity patterns instead of an obvious consumer application name.
• Polymorphic Launch Footprint: Each launch uses a randomized, short lived execution path designed to minimize its static disk signature.
• Accessibility Tree Camouflage: Inspection trees do not advertise a chat assistant identity. Ghost App presents itself as ordinary system adjacent interface noise.
• Dynamic Decoy Identity Rotation: Window enumerators see rotating utility titles instead of a branded AI window.
• Cursor & Chrome Discipline: No flashy AI cursor or activation cues reveal the presence of an external overlay.

If an examiner lists processes, windows, or accessibility nodes, Ghost App is engineered to look like background system activity, not an interview assistant.

Capture context without drawing attention from operating system privacy indicators.

Stealth is not a setting. It is an active defense system.

• Instant Panic Concealment (Cmd+Shift+H): One chord removes Ghost App from every display, stops input capture, optionally clears pasteboard residue, stops audio taps, and reasserts capture shields in milliseconds.
• Configurable Panic Depth: Operators choose the level of concealment, including clipboard clearing, audio shutdown, and complete application termination.
• Live Recording and Mirror Detection: Ghost App continuously evaluates display and session threat signals. Unauthorized mirroring or recording streams trigger automatic Panic Concealment without requiring human reaction time.
• Stealth Health Check: A live operational dashboard confirms the state of capture protection, focus evasion, input shields, and process hardening. A single Reassert Privacy Mode action restores every shield to its maximum posture.
• Network Stealth: Ghost App can route model requests through a SOCKS proxy that is compatible with Tor, concealing the direct client IP address. When the inference service provides a compatible onion endpoint, traffic can remain inside the Tor network from the desktop agent to the inference edge.