apple-ecosystem-mcp 0.1.5

MCP server for Apple Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, and iCloud Drive — the missing half of Claude's Apple ecosystem integration.

Apple Ecosystem MCP

An MCP server that bridges Claude to native macOS apps (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, iCloud Drive) via AppleScript and Python.

Requirements: macOS 13+ with Claude Desktop or Claude Code

Installation

Claude Desktop (recommended for most users)

1. Download apple-ecosystem-mcp.dxt from GitHub Releases
2. Double-click the .dxt file — Claude Desktop will prompt you to install it
3. Restart Claude Desktop and grant macOS permissions when prompted

Claude Code

Install via uvx (requires uv package manager):

uvx apple-ecosystem-mcp

Or configure locally in ~/.claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-ecosystem": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--project", "/path/to/apple-ecosystem-mcp", "apple-ecosystem-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

macOS Permissions

The server requires explicit user approval for each app category. When you first run the server, you'll see warnings for any missing permissions.

Required Permissions

Permission	System Settings Path	Used By
Automation → Mail	Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation	Mail tools
Automation → Calendar	Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation	Calendar tools
Automation → Contacts	Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation	Contacts tools
Automation → Reminders	Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation	Reminders tools
Full Disk Access	Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access	iCloud Drive tools

Granting Automation Permissions

1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation
2. For each app (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders), ensure "Claude Desktop" or your Terminal app is listed with checkmarks next to the app
3. If missing, click the + button and add the app

Granting Full Disk Access

For iCloud Drive support:

1. Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access
2. Click the + button
3. Navigate to /Applications/Claude.app (Claude Desktop) or your Terminal (Claude Code)
4. Click Add

The server will continue to work even if permissions are missing; individual tools will fail with a clear error message.

Tools

The server provides 34 tools across five apps:

Mail (8 tools)

Tool	Description
mail_search	Search inbox/sent by query, date range, sender
mail_get_thread	Fetch a full email thread by subject or ID
mail_send	Compose and send an email (dry-run by default)
mail_create_draft	Save a draft without sending
mail_list_mailboxes	List all mailboxes/folders across all accounts
mail_move_message	Move message to a mailbox
mail_flag_message	Flag or unflag a message
mail_delete_message	Delete a message

Calendar (7 tools)

Tool	Description
calendar_list_calendars	List all calendars across all accounts
calendar_list_events	List events in a date range
calendar_get_event	Get details of a specific event
calendar_create_event	Create event with title, time, location, notes, invitees
calendar_update_event	Update an existing event
calendar_delete_event	Delete an event by ID
calendar_find_free_time	Find free slots between two datetimes

Contacts (5 tools)

Tool	Description
contacts_search	Search contacts by name, email, phone, company
contacts_get	Get full contact record by ID
contacts_create	Create a new contact
contacts_update	Update fields on an existing contact
contacts_list_groups	List contact groups

Reminders (5 tools)

Tool	Description
reminders_lists	List all Reminders lists
reminders_list	List reminders, optionally filtered by list or status
reminders_create	Create a reminder with due date, notes, priority
reminders_complete	Mark a reminder as complete
reminders_delete	Delete a reminder

iCloud Drive (5 tools)

Tool	Description
icloud_list	List files and folders in iCloud Drive
icloud_read	Read a text or structured file
icloud_write	Write or update a file
icloud_move	Move or rename a file
icloud_delete	Delete a file (requires confirmation)
icloud_search	Search iCloud Drive by filename or content

See IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md for detailed specifications and examples.

Complete Apple Setup

This server covers Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, and iCloud Drive. For complete Apple ecosystem coverage in Claude, also install Anthropic's official connectors:

• Apple Notes — Claude Connectors Directory
• iMessage — Claude Connectors Directory

Together, these packages give you full access to your Apple productivity stack.

Privacy & Security

What This Server Does

• Local-only: Runs entirely on your Mac; no data is sent to cloud servers
• AppleScript bridge: Drives native macOS apps via AppleScript; all operations stay within your operating system
• No credentials stored: The server delegates authentication entirely to macOS Keychain; no passwords or tokens are stored in the app

Data Handling

• Search results: Returned to Claude within the current conversation; not logged or persisted
• Message bodies: Plain text only; HTML and embedded images are stripped to keep results within token limits
• Permissions: System Settings > Privacy & Security controls what the server can access
• TCC sandbox: Full Disk Access is required only for iCloud Drive; Mail/Calendar/Contacts/Reminders use narrower Automation permissions

Full Privacy Policy

See PRIVACY.md for the complete privacy policy and data handling practices.

Development

Setup

cd apple-ecosystem-mcp
pip install uv                    # Install uv package manager
uv sync --dev                     # Install dependencies + dev extras

Running Tests

# Core infrastructure tests (Phase 1)
uv run pytest tests/test_bridge.py tests/test_permissions.py tests/test_server.py tests/test_main.py -v

# All tests (mocked, no real Mac required)
uv run pytest tests/ -k "not live" -v

# Live macOS smoke tests (optional, requires real permissions)
APPLE_MCP_LIVE_TESTS=1 uv run pytest tests/live/ -v

Local Development

If you're developing locally before publishing to PyPI, add this to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-ecosystem": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--project", "/path/to/apple-ecosystem-mcp", "apple-ecosystem-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Then restart Claude Desktop to pick up changes during development.

Project Structure

See CLAUDE.md for implementation contracts and IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md for phase-by-phase specifications.

Troubleshooting

"AppleScript failed" Error

If you see an AppleScript error:

1. Check macOS permissions — See macOS Permissions section above and verify all required permissions are granted in System Settings
2. Restart Claude Desktop — After granting new permissions, fully restart Claude Desktop (not just refresh)
3. Timeout (30s) — The app was slow to respond; try again, or check if the app is hanging
4. App not installed — Ensure Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, or iCloud Drive is available on your Mac

Permission Denied Error (-1743)

This macOS error means the user previously denied permission. To reset and re-prompt:

# Reset Mail permission
tccutil reset Automation com.apple.Mail

# Reset Calendar permission
tccutil reset Automation com.apple.iCal

# Reset Contacts permission
tccutil reset Automation com.apple.Contacts

# Reset Reminders permission
tccutil reset Automation com.apple.reminders

After resetting, restart Claude Desktop and the app will re-prompt for permission.

"Path escapes iCloud root" Error

This error occurs when using iCloud Drive tools with an invalid path. Ensure:

• Paths are relative to the iCloud Drive root (use / or /folder/file.txt, not absolute paths)
• Paths do not contain .. segments or symlink escapes
• Files exist before trying to read them

Debug Logging

For detailed error information:

# View server stderr (Claude Desktop logs)
log stream --predicate 'process == "Claude"' --level debug

Contributing

This is a personal project. For bugs or suggestions, open an issue on GitHub.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Abhinav Agrawal

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

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Summary of License Rights

Under the MIT License, you are free to:

• ✅ Use this software for any purpose (commercial, personal, private, or public)
• ✅ Copy, modify, and distribute this software
• ✅ Sublicense (include it in other projects)

The only requirements are:

• 📋 Include a copy of the license and copyright notice in any substantial portions of the software you distribute

No warranty is provided. The software is provided "as-is."

Attribution

Built with:

• FastMCP — MCP server framework
• Model Context Protocol — Standard protocol for AI-driven tool use
• macOS AppleScript — Native OS integration

Author

Abhinav Agrawal — GitHub | Email