apple-notes

This MCP server reads your local Apple Notes database and exposes a set of tools to Claude Desktop so you can search, read, and retrieve notes without exposing your entire library. The available tools include: get-all-notes to retrieve a list of notes, read-note to fetch the full content of a specific note, and search-notes to query notes by terms or metadata. The server is designed to run locally and communicate via standard MCP interfaces, allowing Claude to request data as needed while keeping processing on your machine. To use it, install and run the server with uvx or via the published package configuration, and then point Claude to the resulting MCP endpoint in its desktop configuration.

Once running, use the tools to quickly locate notes, preview summaries, or fetch full content for a chosen note. The get-all-notes tool returns identifiers and metadata to help you select a target for read-note, while search-notes supports keyword-based discovery. This setup is intended for local use on macOS where Apple Notes data resides, and it emphasizes read access with limited write capabilities.

Prerequisites:

• macOS with Apple Notes data accessible to the user running the server
• Python and uv (via uv) installed on the system
• Optional: Claude Desktop environment configured to connect to a local MCP server

Installation steps (recommended path using uv):

1. Install the MCP server package (published configuration):

uvx apple-notes-mcp

This installs the Apple Notes MCP server package and prepares it for use with Claude Desktop.

2. If you prefer managing via pip directly (development-friendly):

uv pip install apple-notes-mcp

3. Run the server using the published configuration:

# This starts the MCP server for Claude Desktop
# The exact command depends on how uvx is installed; the published config uses the following:
uvx apple-notes-mcp

4. Ensure Claude Desktop is configured to point at the local MCP server. For macOS, update:

• ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

5. Grant necessary permissions:

• macOS: Full Disk Access for the MCP server process to read the Apple Notes database (required for access).

Notes:

• If you’re developing locally, you can use the development configuration snippet to run from your project directory:

"mcpServers": {
  "apple-notes-mcp": {
    "command": "uv",
    "args": [
      "--directory",
      "{project_dir}",
      "run",
      "apple-notes-mcp"
    ]
  }
}

Tips and considerations:

• The server only provides read access to Apple Notes by design (no note creation or editing features). Some fields like encrypted notes, pinned notes, cloud sync status, attachments, and checklists are not fully supported yet.
• Ensure the Mac has granted Full Disk Access to the running MCP server process; otherwise, Apple Notes data may not be readable.
• If you encounter debugging issues, use the MCP Inspector to inspect MCP communications. You can launch it with: npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory {project_dir} run apple-notes-mcp
• If you’re deploying publicly or in CI, securely manage any environment variables used by the server or packaging tools.
• The npm_package field is null since this server uses uvx/Python packaging rather than a Node.js/npm package.