Sonoma Breaks AppleScript for Finder Search/Find

This AppleScript is slower by a second, but it works!

It turns out that Shift-Tab cycles through all of the control buttons in a Finder search window. The macOS key code for Shift-Tab is 48.

This includes any shortcuts you might have atop the Finder window menu bar. So, in my case, it takes 20 presses of Shift-Tab to arrive at the search criteria popup, because I have 11 Finder shortcut buttons in mine.

That means you need to adjust the number of repeats in the first loop here accordingly.

on run
	tell application "Finder"
		activate
		tell application "System Events"
			keystroke "f" using command down # press Cmd-F
			delay 0.08
			repeat 20 times
				key code 48 using shift down # shift-tab
				delay 0.08
			end repeat
			key code 125 # down arrow (to activate the first criterion popup)
			delay 0.2
			key code 126 # up arrow (to choose the "Name" operator)
			delay 0.1
			key code 36 # return (to accept the "Name" operator)
			delay 0.1
			key code 48 using shift down # shift-tab
			delay 0.4
			repeat 3 times
				key code 125 # down arrow (to choose the "Begins with" operator)
				delay 0.4
			end repeat
			delay 0.25
			key code 36 # return
		end tell
	end tell
end run

The ultimate, simplest solution is to make changes in this file.

/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/default_smart.plist

However, when the changes are made, Xcode issues this alert:

The file “default_smart.plist” could not be unlocked. The file is stored in a read-only volume. Try making the volume writable or copying the file to another volume.

I presume this refers to the APFS System Volume. Is there any way to unlock this file without messing with the entire System Volume? Say, changing its chflags?

I will file a request with Apple, thank you.

This is true, up to a point. Unfortunate for me, it also returns all filenames that CONTAIN the search term.