I'm reposting again to try to clear up comments in the last post and to give a clearer description of what is happening. I first used python as the language to run terminal commands, as it's a requirement apart of the project I'm doing. I'm trying to use CIS benchmarks on my computer. With that, I never had AutomaticCheckEnabled on this Mac, so I was trying to make it. Through doing so, I accidentally formatted the command wrong in python as if it was bash, but I'm using zsh with my Mac.

The command was formatted as: `command = f"sudo defaults write {self.path} \"^{self.key}\" -int {target}"`.

The actual command is: `sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate "^AutomaticCheckEnabled" -int 1`.

This in turn made a field within the plist as exactly `"^AutomaticCheckEnabled"`.

I tried to use default delete and it didn't work to do it give me an error of: `Domain (/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate) not found. Defaults have not been changed.` So, I'm trying to figure out the best way to resolve this.

I eventually added the field with the right format, as you can see below here in the output of `defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate`. The old field is at the bottom, needing to be removed.
    {
        AutomaticCheckEnabled = 1;
        LastAttemptBuildVersion = "13.4.1 (22F82)";
        LastAttemptSystemVersion = "13.4.1 (22F82)";
        LastBackgroundSuccessfulDate = "2023-07-24 13:19:33 +0000";
        LastFullSuccessfulDate = "2023-07-24 13:39:11 +0000";
        LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier = "";
        LastRecommendedUpdatesAvailable = 1;
        LastResultCode = 2;
        LastSessionSuccessful = 1;
        LastSuccessfulDate = "2023-07-24 13:39:11 +0000";
        LastUpdatesAvailable = 1;
        PrimaryLanguages =     (
            "en-US",
            en
        );
        RecommendedUpdates =     (
                    {
                "Display Name" = "macOS Security Response 13.4.1 (c)";
                "Display Version" = "13.4.1 (c)";
                Identifier = "MSU_UPDATE_22F770820d_patch_13.4.1_rsr";
                MobileSoftwareUpdate = 1;
                "Product Key" = "MSU_UPDATE_22F770820d_patch_13.4.1_rsr";
            }
        );
        SplatProductVersion = "macOS Security Response 13.4.1 (c) 13.4.1";
        TimeOfSemiSplatCompletion = "2023-07-24 13:22:41 +0000";
        "^AutomaticCheckEnabled" = 1;
    }`