How do I install Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent use?

Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent runs locally over stdio.

When was Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-09. Read your Mac's Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Contacts and more via Shortcuts. Read-only, local.

Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent MCP server

Power your agent

Add this server

The publisher's own command. Not a PlugMCP endpoint.

Add to Cursor Add to VS Code Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Local command

npx -y [email protected]

Claude Code has no install link for a local command. Copy the command below and run it in a terminal.

shClaude Code

1claude mcp add io.github.dominic-dk-mac-shortcuts-mcp -- npx -y mac-shortcuts-mcp@0.1.2

Run in a terminal.

jsonClaude Desktop

1{2  "mcpServers": {3    "io.github.dominic-dk-mac-shortcuts-mcp": {4      "command": "npx",5      "args": [6        "-y",7        "[email protected]"8      ]9    }10  }11}

claude_desktop_config.json

Local · npmPublisher installStep-by-step: add this in Claude

Remote URL or a command on your machine? How the two installs differ

Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

A new server you create. It is not this listing's official endpoint. Use the publisher install when you want their URL and their credentials.

Launch

Server facts

Local

Transport: stdio
Version: 0.1.2
Last checked

Tools

No tool list yet. Remote servers get one after the first health check.

FAQ

Questions

mac-shortcuts-mcp

Let any AI agent read your Mac. Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Contacts, Clipboard, Location, Weather, now playing — through Apple Shortcuts. Read-only, local, no account, no server.

Works with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, or any MCP client.

npx -y mac-shortcuts-mcp setup      # install the read recipes (once)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mac": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "mac-shortcuts-mcp"] }
  }
}

Then ask your agent: "What's on my calendar this week?" · "Find the note about the lease." · "What's Jane's number?"

Why this exists

Your agent cannot read Apple's first-party apps. It has no permission to, and there is no API. Shortcuts can. This server hands the job to Shortcuts.app, which does have those permissions, and gives you back the text.

That is the whole trick. Nothing here is clever — it is just wired up.

What it can do

Tool	Reads
`mac_calendar`	Events in the next N days
`mac_reminders`	Reminders, optionally one list
`mac_notes`	Notes matching a search, with body text
`mac_contacts`	Contacts by name
`mac_clipboard`	Current clipboard
`mac_location`	Address and coordinates
`mac_weather`	Weather where this Mac is
`mac_device`	Machine name and battery
`mac_now_playing`	Currently playing track
`mac_shortcuts_list`	Every shortcut on this Mac
`mac_run_shortcut`	Run a shortcut you made, by name
`mac_action_catalog`	Search the Shortcuts action catalog — see below
`mac_setup` / `mac_status`	Install the read recipes, check what's ready

The bundled recipes are read-only. mac_run_shortcut can run any installed Shortcut, including one that writes data or sends messages. Its description asks the agent to check with you when the behavior is unknown; this is not an enforced read-only sandbox.

Everything read from your Mac comes back tagged as data, not instructions, so a note that says "ignore your previous instructions" is handed to the agent as text rather than as a command.

The action catalog

action-catalog.json in this package documents 539 Shortcuts actions — for each one, the parameter keys it accepts, their types, labels, output type and required permissions.

Apple does not publish this. It was extracted from the live WFActionRegistry on macOS 27.

It matters because a wrong parameter key does not raise an error — it is silently ignored, and your shortcut returns a confident wrong answer. We measured exactly that: a composed shortcut with a plausible-but-wrong key returned 0 instead of 3, with no warning.

Use mac_action_catalog to look up a key, or just read the JSON. MIT, take it.

is.workflow.actions.addnewevent  — 새로운 이벤트  [harvested]
  출력: EKEvent
  권한: calendar, contacts, needs-interaction
  · WFCalendarItemTitle (text) — 제목
  · WFCalendarItemStartDate (date) — 시작일
  …

Coverage: 497 harvested from the registry, 9 inferred from cached definition strings, 33 not present on macOS (iOS-only actions, plus a few strings that are not actions at all — including one Apple typo).

Setup, honestly

mac-shortcuts-mcp setup signs the bundled recipes on your Mac and opens each in the Shortcuts app. You click Add Shortcut once per recipe.

The package ships readable XML plists, not signed binaries. Open recipes/*.plist and see exactly what you are installing. An open-source tool that asks you to install opaque blobs is not really open.

Pass --auto and it will click Add Shortcut for you using the Accessibility API. That needs Accessibility permission, so it is off by default — a tool should not quietly ask for that.

The first time a recipe touches Contacts or Calendar, macOS asks for permission. That prompt belongs to Shortcuts, not to this server.

Limits

This does nothing while your Mac is asleep. Processes are stopped; there is nothing to talk to. Screen lock is fine — we measured 62 of 63 calls succeeding with the screen locked, at the same speed as unlocked. Sleep is the real wall.

The bundled recipes read data; arbitrary installed Shortcuts may have side effects. macOS only. Results go to the agent you connected.

When you need a device that is never asleep

A Mac in a bag cannot answer. A phone in your pocket can.

Askew does the same thing for a locked iPhone — your agent runs a Shortcut on the phone and gets the result back in about three seconds, screen off, phone in your pocket. That one is not free, and it is a different problem: it needs a push relay, end-to-end encryption and an app. This tool is the part that does not.

License

MIT. Issues and pull requests welcome.

한국어

에이전트가 내 맥을 읽게 해 줍니다. 일정·미리 알림·메모·연락처·클립보드·위치·날씨를 애플 단축어로 읽습니다. 읽기 전용, 로컬, 계정 없음, 서버 없음.

npx -y mac-shortcuts-mcp setup      # 읽기 레시피 설치 (처음 한 번)

에이전트가 퍼스트파티 앱을 못 읽는 건 권한이 없어서고 API도 없기 때문입니다. 단축어는 읽을 수 있습니다. 이 서버는 일을 Shortcuts.app에 넘기고 결과 텍스트만 받아 옵니다.

기본 레시피는 읽기 전용입니다. 다만 mac_run_shortcut은 쓰기·메시지 발송을 포함한 설치된 단축어도 실행할 수 있습니다. 동작을 모르면 사용자에게 먼저 묻도록 안내하지만, 읽기 전용을 강제하는 격리 환경은 아닙니다. 맥에서 읽어 온 내용은 전부 지시가 아니라 자료라는 꼬리표를 달고 갑니다.

동작 카탈로그 539종을 같이 공개합니다. 동작마다 어떤 매개변수 키를 받는지, 애플이 문서로 내지 않는 값입니다. 키가 틀리면 오류 없이 조용히 무시되고 틀린 답이 옵니다 — 실제로 그렇게 재 봤습니다. 실행은 누구나 할 수 있지만 만드는 건 이 표가 있어야 합니다.

한계: 맥이 자면 아무것도 못 합니다. 화면 잠금은 괜찮습니다(잠근 채로 63회 중 62회 성공, 속도도 같음). 자는 게 벽입니다.

자지 않는 기기가 필요하면 그건 폰입니다. Askew가 잠긴 아이폰에 같은 일을 합니다. 화면을 켜지 않고 3초쯤에 결과가 돌아옵니다. 그건 무료가 아니고 다른 문제입니다 — 푸시 릴레이와 종단 암호화와 앱이 필요합니다. 이 도구는 그게 필요 없는 부분입니다.

Add this server

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent?

Does Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent need an API key?

What transport does Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent use?

When was Mac Shortcuts — Read Your Mac From Any Agent last checked?

Documentation

mac-shortcuts-mcp

Why this exists

What it can do

The action catalog

Setup, honestly

Limits

When you need a device that is never asleep

License

한국어