Declarative Device Management
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- Last UpdatedMar 18, 2025
- 3 minute read
Declarative device management adds more capabilities to Apple's MDM protocol that can be used in addition to existing MDM protocol capabilities. Declarative device management allows managed devices to proactively and autonomously apply management settings and report state changes to the MDM server asynchronously. This results in less communication with the MDM server and faster, more reliable device updates.
Jamf Pro automatically enables declarative device management capabilities for compatible managed devices. Devices with declarative device management enabled report their state changes automatically to the MDM server via a communication channel called the status channel. Subscribed status items, when changed on the device, are proactively reported and reflected in device inventory information.
For more information on declarative device management and the status channel, see Use declarative device management to manage Apple Devices in Apple Platform Deployment.
Declarative device management status reporting via the status channel is available for computers and devices in Jamf Standard Cloud-hosted or Jamf Premium Cloud-hosted environments only.
Computers with macOS 13 or later
- Devices with iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 or laterNote:
Devices enrolled via User Enrollment support declarative device management on iOS 15 or later, or iPadOS 15 or later.
Apple TV devices with tvOS 16 or later
Apple Vision Pro devices with visionOS 1.1 or later
Apple Watch devices with watchOS 10 or later
Blueprints in Jamf Pro is a feature that simplifies complex declarative device management workflows by allowing administrators to bundle and deploy settings, restrictions, and configurations through either pre-built templates or custom-built components.
For setup requirements and instructions, see the Jamf Pro Blueprints Configuration Guide.
Enrollment with Jamf Pro for newly enrolled devices. Declarative device management is supported with all enrollment types (Automated Device Enrollment, Device Enrollment, and User Enrollment)
During the next device check-in for existing devices that are eligible for declarative device management
Via the status channel, the device proactively reports the new OS version to Jamf Pro, and Jamf Pro updates its inventory information.
Any smart groups or advanced searches that use OS version as criteria are recalculated.
The device evaluates itself against existing declarations installed on the device and applies any configuration updates based on available activation logic.
You can identify if an individual computer or mobile device has declarative device management enabled by viewing its General inventory information.
To identify if multiple devices have declarative device management enabled, you can create an advanced search as described below.