Grant Agent Access to a file

ADT has two distinct clients for your FileMaker file. The filemaker command line is one: a headless client that opens the file itself, signed in with its own Full Access account. Your running copy of FileMaker Pro is the other. With Agent Access turned on (File → Manage → Agents), ADT can ask FileMaker Pro to do certain things in a file it already has open: run a script, execute SQL, serve the Data API, read layout metadata, and deploy an app. That work happens inside the FileMaker Pro process, under whatever account you are signed in with there, and filemaker and its credentials are not involved. See FileMaker credentials for the side-by-side.

Turning Agent Access on is a one-time setting for your copy of FileMaker Pro. Granting a file is a separate prompt FileMaker Pro shows the first time ADT asks it to run something in that file, once per file for as long as FileMaker Pro stays running. This page is about that prompt.

When the prompt appears

The first time your agent runs a script in an open FileMaker file, FileMaker Pro shows a prompt asking you to allow it. Once you allow it, later calls to that file go straight through, and nothing expires with inactivity.

The grant lasts for the current FileMaker Pro session. Quitting FileMaker Pro clears it, so after a restart the first call to each file asks again. You can also revoke a grant yourself in File → Manage → Agents, and the next call asks again.

The dev server asks too

The fmBridge() dev server uses the same path. If a Web Viewer app is running under pnpm dev, its first call to the file after FileMaker Pro starts raises the prompt in FileMaker Pro, not in the browser. A page that seems to be waiting on data is often waiting on you to click Allow. See fmBridge().

If the prompt seems to hang

A command that appears to hang — typegen, deploy, or an agent tool that reads data — is often this prompt waiting behind another window. Bring FileMaker Pro to the front and look for it.

If you declined the prompt

Declining is not fatal: the file is still recorded and all filemaker schema work still runs. Ask the agent to reconnect, which raises the prompt again:

Reconnect this agent session to my open FileMaker file and check the setup again.

Why another process may still work

The grant applies to the file for the current FileMaker Pro session, not to a single agent process. A terminal process, another agent session, or the dev server can all reach the file once it has been granted. Use Run diagnostics and read logs to check the setup if you're unsure whether the grant is in place.