apple-notifier-mcp

Apple Notifier MCP Server

Send native macOS notifications and interact with system dialogs through any MCP-compatible client like Claude Desktop or Cline.

Prerequisites

• macOS
• Node.js >= 18
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cline)

Troubleshooting: Notifications Not Appearing

For notifications to display, the terminal or application running the MCP server needs notification permissions in macOS.

Grant Notification Permissions

1. For Claude Desktop users:

   • Open System Preferences (or System Settings on macOS Ventura+)
   • Go to Notifications
   • Find Node or terminal-notifier (whichever appears)
   • Enable Allow Notifications
   • Set alert style to Banners or Alerts

2. For Claude Code / Terminal users:

   • Open System Preferences > Notifications
   • Find Terminal (or iTerm if using iTerm2)
   • Enable Allow Notifications

3. If the app doesn't appear in Notifications settings:

   • Run a test notification manually in Terminal:

     osascript -e 'display notification "Test" with title "Hello"'
     

   • This should trigger macOS to prompt for or register notification permissions
   • Then check System Preferences again

4. Check Focus Mode / Do Not Disturb:

   • Ensure Focus Mode or Do Not Disturb is not enabled
   • Check the Control Center in the menu bar

Verify Notifications Work

Test from terminal before using via MCP:

osascript -e 'display notification "Test message" with title "Test title"'

If this shows a notification, the MCP server should work correctly.

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Apple Notifier for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install apple-notifier-mcp --client claude

Manual Installation

1. Install the package globally:

npm install -g apple-notifier-mcp

2. Add to your MCP configuration file:

For Cline (cline_mcp_settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-notifier": {
      "command": "apple-notifier-mcp"
    }
  }
}

For Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-notifier": {
      "command": "apple-notifier-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Features

Send Notifications

Display native macOS notifications with customizable content.

Parameters:

• title (required): string - The title of the notification
• message (required): string - The main message content
• subtitle (optional): string - A subtitle to display
• sound (optional): boolean - Whether to play the default notification sound (default: true)

Display Prompts

Show interactive dialog prompts to get user input.

Parameters:

• message (required): string - Text to display in the prompt dialog
• defaultAnswer (optional): string - Default text to pre-fill
• buttons (optional): string[] - Custom button labels (max 3)
• icon (optional): 'note' | 'stop' | 'caution' - Icon to display

Text-to-Speech

Use macOS text-to-speech capabilities.

Parameters:

• text (required): string - Text to speak
• voice (optional): string - Voice to use (defaults to system voice)
• rate (optional): number - Speech rate (-50 to 50, defaults to 0)

Take Screenshots

Capture screenshots using macOS screencapture.

Parameters:

• path (required): string - Path where to save the screenshot
• type (required): 'fullscreen' | 'window' | 'selection' - Type of screenshot
• format (optional): 'png' | 'jpg' | 'pdf' | 'tiff' - Image format
• hideCursor (optional): boolean - Whether to hide the cursor
• shadow (optional): boolean - Whether to include window shadow (only for window type)
• timestamp (optional): boolean - Add timestamp to filename

File Selection

Open native macOS file picker dialog.

Parameters:

• prompt (optional): string - Prompt message
• defaultLocation (optional): string - Default directory path
• fileTypes (optional): object - File type filter (e.g., {"public.image": ["png", "jpg"]})
• multiple (optional): boolean - Allow multiple file selection

Example Usage

// Send a notification
await client.use_mcp_tool("apple-notifier", "send_notification", {
  title: "Hello",
  message: "World",
  sound: true
});

// Show a prompt
const result = await client.use_mcp_tool("apple-notifier", "prompt_user", {
  message: "What's your name?",
  defaultAnswer: "John Doe",
  buttons: ["OK", "Cancel"]
});

// Speak text
await client.use_mcp_tool("apple-notifier", "speak", {
  text: "Hello, world!",
  voice: "Samantha",
  rate: -20
});

// Take a screenshot
await client.use_mcp_tool("apple-notifier", "take_screenshot", {
  path: "screenshot.png",
  type: "window",
  format: "png"
});

// Select files
const files = await client.use_mcp_tool("apple-notifier", "select_file", {
  prompt: "Select images",
  fileTypes: {
    "public.image": ["png", "jpg", "jpeg"]
  },
  multiple: true
});

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

Running evals

The evals package loads an mcp client that then runs the index.ts file, so there is no need to rebuild between tests. You can load environment variables by prefixing the npx command. Full documentation can be found here.

OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key  npx mcp-eval src/evals/evals.ts src/index.ts

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.