apple-swift-mcp

Native Swift MCP server for Apple apps. Compiled binary with embedded TCC usage descriptions — Calendar, Reminders, Contacts, and Maps talk to EventKit / Contacts / MapKit directly. Mail, Messages, Notes still go through AppleScript (no public framework exists) but run in-process via NSAppleScript instead of spawning osascript. Photos combines PhotoKit (structured search, albums, favorites, export/import) with the same in-process AppleScript for title/description/keyword metadata and free-text search.

• GitHub: github.com/chrischall/apple-swift-mcp

Install

Download the latest .mcpb from GitHub Releases and double-click to install in Claude Desktop. First run prompts for TCC permissions (Calendar, Reminders, Contacts, full disk if reading chat.db).

Requires macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon. Intel users can build from source (swift build -c release).

Tools

Calendar / Reminders

• calendar — list, search, create, update, delete events
• reminders — list reminder lists and items; create, complete, delete

Contacts / Maps

• contacts — search by name, phone, or email
• maps — directions, search nearby places

Mail / Messages / Notes

• mail — search, read, send; discover accounts/mailboxes. Search reads Mail's Envelope Index directly (needs Full Disk Access), so it is fast on large accounts and returns results newest first.
• messages — send iMessage / SMS, query chat.db for history, group chats
• notes — list, search (optionally with bodies inline), get a full note (pageable), folders, create, update, delete

Photos (PhotoKit + AppleScript)

• photos — list/search assets and albums, get asset detail, favorite/organize/import/export, get a JPEG rendition, set title/description/keywords, free-text search

Environment

Optional user config (set in Claude Desktop → Settings → MCP):

• APPLE_MCP_DEFAULT_CALENDAR — default calendar name for event creation
• APPLE_MCP_DEFAULT_REMINDER_LIST — default list name for reminder creation

Notes

• Binary is arm64-only because some transitive MCP SDK deps (swift-collections, swift-service-lifecycle) don't declare x86_64.
• EventKit / Contacts / MapKit-backed tools are orders of magnitude faster than the equivalent AppleScript path.
• Messages tool reads chat.db directly for history; sending uses AppleScript.
• mail search takes multiple terms in one call — prefer that over one call per term:
  • invoice overdue — both (implicit AND)
  • invoice OR receipt — either (OR must be uppercase)
  • "past due" — quoted phrase
  • from: / to: / subject: — field scoping, combinable with AND
• A mail timeout comes back as an explicit error, never as an empty result list. If you see "the search completed and matched no messages", the search really did finish and find nothing. If you see "Timed out", nothing was retrieved and the query needs narrowing — do not report it as "no mail found".