Apple has apparently closed the loophole that allowed Mac users to bypass the Siri AI waitlist in macOS 27 Golden Gate, with many developers reporting that the Terminal workaround no longer functions after installing macOS 27 Golden Gate Beta 2. Users who had previously enabled Siri AI through the workaround in Beta 1 are also reporting that they have been returned to the waitlist after updating. Apple has not commented on the change.
The original workaround, published on June 11, 2026, involved running a single Terminal command that flipped a local feature flag inside a preferences plist, followed by a restart. The command was:
sudo defaults write "https://cdn.ithinkdiff.com/Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/GenerativeModels.plist" "EnhancedSiriWaitlist" -dict-add Enabled -bool NO
That command worked reliably on macOS 27 Golden Gate Developer Beta 1, giving testers immediate access to Siri AI without waiting for Apple’s phased rollout. Apple released Beta 2 with build number 26A5368g on June 22, and the bypass stopped working the same day.
Why the fix probably worked, and why it no longer does
The leading theory among developers is that Apple has moved the entitlement check from a local feature flag to a server-validated state that the command has no way to influence. The local flag is what made the Terminal command effective in the first place, so shifting that check server-side would bring Siri AI access in line with how Apple handles other server-side feature grants, meaning the device now has to receive clearance from Apple’s infrastructure rather than simply reading a preference file stored locally. If that is correct, no client-side workaround is likely to work until Apple grants access from its end.
The waitlist itself exists because Apple is scaling out its datacenter capacity gradually, a phased approach it also used when rolling out Apple Intelligence in iOS 18. Even in Beta 1, access was inconsistent: some developers got Siri AI within 10 minutes of opting in, while others waited more than a week with no clear pattern explaining why.
If you are weighing whether to stay on the beta at all, the iOS 27 Developer Beta device risk checklist is worth a look before you decide.
Who is affected and what Siri AI actually requires
Not every Mac user is eligible to begin with. Running Apple’s most powerful on-device model requires:
- An M3 chip or later
- At least 12GB of RAM
- macOS 27 Golden Gate Developer Beta
- A supported language region: English for Australia, Canada, Ireland, India, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, or the US
EU Mac users can access Siri AI, since the Digital Markets Act restriction that blocks the feature on iPhone and iPad in Europe does not extend to the Mac. Siri AI is not available in China on any device.
For developers who do get access, Siri AI is an upgraded experience that can search across messages, emails, and photos using personal context, execute system-wide actions across apps, and on the Mac specifically, integrate into Spotlight and appear in right-click context menus on any file or window. Apple is also bringing the same underlying capability to its other platforms, tvOS 27 Beta 2 confirmed Siri AI is coming to Apple TV and HomePod as well.
What comes next
Apple is expected to release macOS 27 Golden Gate publicly in September 2026, but it remains unclear whether Siri AI will be fully available to all eligible users at launch or whether it will arrive as a staged post-launch rollout, as Apple Intelligence did in 2024.
The decision to close the macOS 27 Siri AI waitlist bypass suggests Apple is managing capacity carefully, which makes a full day-one rollout look less certain than a gradual expansion. Whether that expansion moves quickly once the public release ships is the question developers stuck on the waitlist are already asking.
