6. Run the Intake Commands

Open Terminal: Recovery → Utilities menu → Terminal. Disk Utility is in the main macOS Utilities window; Terminal is only in the menu bar.

Booted into macOS instead? Use /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app — everything below works there too, and more reliably.

sysctl -n hw.model                                # → Identifier (then Name, Model, Year)
ioreg -l | grep -i '"product-name"'               # → Name
sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string                # → CPU
sysctl -n hw.memsize                              # → RAM
diskutil info disk0 | grep "Disk Size"            # → HD
ioreg -l | grep -i IOPlatformSerialNumber         # → Serial

Full detail and per-column caveats: Column Index.

The Identifier Is the Key

sysctl -n hw.model is the one value you always get, on every Mac, in every state. Record it exactly as surfaced — MacBookAir8,1, no spaces around the comma, matching the original casing — then paste it into the Identifier filter on the model lookup to derive Name, Model, and Year without touching the machine again.

Apple Silicon Doesn't Give You a Model or CPU the Way Intel Does

On an Intel Mac the CPU is a distinct part you record separately — sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string returns Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8210Y CPU @ 1.60GHz and you pull the processor number i5-8210Y out of it. Two Macs sharing one Identifier can carry different CPUs, so the field carries real information.

On Apple Silicon none of that holds:

• There is no CPU SKU. The command returns Apple M3 Pro — a chip name, not a part number. It's already implied by the Identifier. Record the chip name and move on; there's nothing to parse.
• The Identifier stops naming the family. Intel Macs report MacBookPro15,2 — you can read "MacBook Pro" straight off it. M-series Macs report Mac15,6, which names nothing. Use ioreg -l | grep -i '"product-name"' to get the family, or look the Identifier up.
• There's no Intel-style model distinction. The A-number is still engraved on the chassis, but configurations don't vary the way Intel's did — derive it from the Identifier.