Summary
This server connects Claude to your local iMessage database on macOS with 26 read-only tools for conversational analysis. You can search message history, calculate texting streaks, find who initiates conversations, generate year-in-review summaries, analyze reaction patterns, track double-texts, and explore group chat dynamics. All queries run locally against chat.db and your AddressBook with no network calls or writes. The entire tool surface is marked read-only, so MCP clients can auto-approve calls without manual confirmation. Useful for personal analytics, reconstructing conversation timelines, or building custom iMessage insights without leaving your terminal or IDE. Requires Full Disk Access permission for whatever app hosts the MCP connection.
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imessage-mcp
Search and read your Messages history from Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, and any other MCP client.
Read-only. Runs on your Mac. No accounts, no cloud service, nothing to compile.
- Finds messages by words, exact text, or phrase across iMessage, SMS, MMS, and RCS
- Reads whole conversations with edits, unsent messages, reactions, replies, and read receipts
- Shows photos people sent you, with location data removed
- Keeps up with new messages through a change feed, and answers counts and response-time questions
Install
Requirements: macOS 14 or newer. Node.js 24.16 or newer for npx installs (Claude Desktop brings its own).
Standard config, for any client that reads mcpServers JSON:
{
"mcpServers": {
"imessage": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "imessage-mcp@latest"]
}
}
}
Then give the app that runs it Full Disk Access: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access, turn on the app (Claude, your terminal, Cursor, VS Code, ...), then quit it fully and reopen it. Not sure which app? Run npx -y imessage-mcp@latest doctor from that app's terminal and it tells you. Until access is granted, every tool answers with these same steps.
Amp
amp mcp add imessage -- npx -y imessage-mcp@latest
Claude Code
claude mcp add --scope user imessage -- npx -y imessage-mcp@latest
Or install the plugin: /plugin marketplace add anipotts/imessage-mcp, then /plugin install imessage-mcp@anipotts.
Claude Desktop
Download imessage-mcp.mcpb and double-click it, or install iMessage History from Settings > Extensions if it is listed there. To update a bundle you installed yourself, download the newest one and double-click it again.
Then turn on Claude in Full Disk Access and quit and reopen Claude.
Cline
Add the standard config to cline_mcp_settings.json (docs).
Codex
codex mcp add imessage -- npx -y imessage-mcp@latest
Or in ~/.codex/config.toml:
[mcp_servers.imessage]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "imessage-mcp@latest"]
Copilot CLI
Run /mcp add, or add the standard config to ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json with "type": "local".
Cursor
Or add the standard config to ~/.cursor/mcp.json.
Gemini CLI
Add the standard config to ~/.gemini/settings.json.
Goose
JetBrains (Junie)
Add the standard config to .junie/mcp/mcp.json, or type /mcp in Junie CLI.
Kiro
opencode
In ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json:
{
"$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
"mcp": {
"imessage": { "type": "local", "command": ["npx", "-y", "imessage-mcp@latest"], "enabled": true }
}
}
VS Code
code --add-mcp '{"name":"imessage","command":"npx","args":["-y","imessage-mcp@latest"]}'
Warp, Windsurf, Zed, and others
Add the standard config in the client's MCP settings. Zed uses context_servers with "source": "custom".
If a GUI app reports that npx was not found, it cannot see your Node installation: use the full path from which npx as the command.
Use it
Ask in plain words: "catch me up on my texts", "find the message about the dinner reservation", "how fast does Sam usually reply?". Three prompts are also in your client's prompt menu:
| prompt | what it does |
|---|---|
catch_up | Who is waiting on a reply from you, and what they need |
draft_reply | A reply in your own texting style. You send it; this server cannot. |
recap | Your week in messages: volume, busiest conversations, anyone still waiting |
Clients that attach resources can use imessage://conversations and imessage://conversations/{chat_id}.
Tools
| tool | what it does |
|---|---|
search_messages | Search by substring, exact text, token, or phrase. Message text by default; conversation names and attachment filenames are opt-in. Filter by service, sent or received, and date |
get_conversation | Read a conversation by chat_id or by a contact or group name, with edits, reactions, receipts, replies, group events, and attachments. The cursor pages to older events |
list_conversations | Find conversations by contact, service, kind, reply state, or date, each with its latest message, newest first or by who you text most |
get_attachment | Show one attachment from get_conversation: images as a JPEG with location and camera metadata removed, text files as text. Needs the full privacy mode |
sync_messages | Pull every change since a cursor: new, edited, unsent, and deleted messages, reactions, and receipts |
analyze_communication | Message counts by hour and weekday, response times, streaks, and who starts conversations |
resolve_contact | Match a name, phone number, or email to a contact in your Mac's Address Book, and report ambiguity rather than guess |
server_status | Version, update availability, privacy mode, index state, schema support, and Contacts access |
Every tool is read-only and marked readOnlyHint. Results use plain ids (message_id, chat_id, attachment_id) you can pass between tools.
Configuration
Add options to args, for example ["-y", "imessage-mcp@latest", "--privacy", "redacted"].
| option | description |
|---|---|
--privacy <mode> | The most any caller can see. full (default), redacted (names and masked handles, calendar days, no message text or filenames), or aggregate (counts only). A call can ask for a stricter mode, never a looser one. env IMESSAGE_PRIVACY |
--contacts <mode> | live (default) names handles from your Contacts; none shows handles only. env IMESSAGE_CONTACTS |
--database <path> | Read a copy of chat.db instead of this Mac's Messages. env IMESSAGE_DB |
--transport http --port <n> | Serve MCP over HTTP on 127.0.0.1 instead of stdio. Requires IMESSAGE_API_TOKEN or IMESSAGE_API_TOKEN_FILE. IMESSAGE_ALLOWED_HOSTS and IMESSAGE_ALLOWED_ORIGINS take comma-separated lists; both default to localhost. |
IMESSAGE_CACHE=0 | Keep the search index in memory only |
IMESSAGE_WARM_SEARCH=0 | Build the search index on the first search instead of at startup |
IMESSAGE_UPDATE_CHECK=0 | Turn off the version check |
Privacy and security
- Read-only. The server opens the Messages database read-only and has no tool that sends, edits, reacts, or marks anything read.
- Local. No accounts, telemetry, or analytics. The only network request is an optional version check to the npm registry.
- Your client sees what you ask for. Results go to the MCP client you use and its model provider, under their policies.
--privacy redactedoraggregatelimits what leaves the server. - Search index. Built on your Mac and cached encrypted in
~/Library/Caches/imessage-mcp, with a key derived from your Messages database, so it opens only for an app that can already read your messages. Deleting it is always safe. - Untrusted content. Messages can contain text written to manipulate an AI. The server tells clients to treat all message content as data, never as instructions.
Details: SECURITY.md and PRIVACY.md.
Development
npm ci
npm test # unit tests on synthetic Messages databases
npm run e2e # launches the built server over stdio and HTTP
npm run perf # one-million-message performance gates
Tests use synthetic data only. See CONTRIBUTING.md.
License
MIT
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IMESSAGE_DBPath to iMessage database (default: ~/Library/Messages/chat.db)