Apple Reminders MCP Server

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A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides native integration with Apple Reminders on macOS. This server allows you to interact with Apple Reminders through a standardized interface with comprehensive management capabilities.

Features

Core Functionality

• List Management: View all reminders and reminder lists with advanced filtering
• Reminder Operations: Create, update, delete, and move reminders across lists
• Rich Content: Support for titles, notes, due dates, URLs, and completion status
• Native Integration: Seamless integration with macOS Apple Reminders app

Advanced Features

• Smart Organization: Automatic categorization by priority, due date, category, or completion status
• Powerful Search: Filter reminders by completion status, due dates, and search terms
• Batch Operations: Organize multiple reminders with intelligent strategies
• Permission Management: Proactive validation of system permissions
• Flexible Date Handling: Support for both date-only and date-time formats with locale awareness
• Unicode Support: Full international character support with validation

Technical Excellence

• Unified API: Streamlined tool architecture with action-based operations
• Type Safety: Comprehensive TypeScript coverage with Zod validation
• Performance: Swift binaries for performance-critical operations
• Error Handling: Consistent error responses with detailed feedback

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• macOS (required for Apple Reminders integration)
• Xcode Command Line Tools (required for compiling Swift code)
• pnpm (recommended for package management)

Quick Start

Install globally via npm:

npm install -g mcp-server-apple-reminders

Configuration

Configure Cursor

1. Open Cursor
2. Open Cursor settings
3. Click on "MCP" in the sidebar
4. Click "Add new global MCP server"
5. Configure the server with the following settings:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "apple-reminders": {
         "command": "mcp-server-apple-reminders",
         "args": []
       }
     }
   }

Configure ChatWise

1. Open ChatWise
2. Go to Settings
3. Navigate to the Tools section
4. Click the "+" button
5. Configure the tool with the following settings:
   • Type: stdio
   • ID: apple-reminders
   • Command: mcp-server-apple-reminders
   • Args: (leave empty)

Configure Claude Desktop

You need to configure Claude Desktop to recognize the Apple Reminders MCP server. There are two ways to access the configuration:

Option 1: Through Claude Desktop UI

1. Open Claude Desktop app
2. Enable Developer Mode from the top-left menu bar
3. Open Settings and navigate to the Developer Option
4. Click the Edit Config button to open claude_desktop_config.json

Option 2: Direct File Access

For macOS:

code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

For Windows:

code %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add Server Configuration

Add the following configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-reminders": {
      "command": "mcp-server-apple-reminders",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop

For the changes to take effect:

1. Completely quit Claude Desktop (not just close the window)
2. Start Claude Desktop again
3. Look for the tool icon to verify the Apple Reminders server is connected

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can ask Claude to interact with your Apple Reminders. Here are some example prompts:

Creating Reminders

Create a reminder to "Buy groceries" for tomorrow at 5 PM.
Add a reminder to "Call mom" with a note "Ask about weekend plans".
Create a reminder in my "Work" list to "Submit report" due next Friday.

Update Reminders

Update the reminder "Buy groceries" with a new title "Buy organic groceries".
Update "Call mom" reminder to be due today at 6 PM.
Update the reminder "Submit report" and mark it as completed.
Change the notes on "Buy groceries" to "Don't forget milk and eggs".

Managing Reminders

Show me all my reminders.
List all reminders in my "Shopping" list.
Show my completed reminders.

Working with Lists

Show all my reminder lists.
Show reminders from my "Work" list.

The server will:

• Process your natural language requests
• Interact with Apple's native Reminders app
• Return formatted results to Claude
• Maintain native integration with macOS

Available MCP Tools

This server provides two unified MCP tools for comprehensive Apple Reminders management:

Reminders Tool

Tool Name: reminders

A comprehensive tool for managing Apple Reminders with action-based operations. Supports all reminder operations through a single unified interface.

Actions: list, create, update, delete, move, organize

Parameters by Action

List Action (action: "list"):

• list (optional): Name of the reminder list to show
• showCompleted (optional): Include completed reminders (default: false)
• search (optional): Search term to filter reminders by title or content
• dueWithin (optional): Filter by due date range ("today", "tomorrow", "this-week", "overdue", "no-date")

Create Action (action: "create"):

• title (required): Title of the reminder
• dueDate (optional): Due date in format 'YYYY-MM-DD' or 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss'
• list (optional): Name of the reminders list to add to
• note (optional): Note text to attach to the reminder
• url (optional): URL to associate with the reminder

Update Action (action: "update"):

• title (required): Current title of the reminder to update
• newTitle (optional): New title for the reminder
• dueDate (optional): New due date in format 'YYYY-MM-DD' or 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss'
• note (optional): New note text
• completed (optional): Mark reminder as completed/uncompleted
• list (optional): Name of the list containing the reminder
• url (optional): New URL to attach to the reminder

Delete Action (action: "delete"):

• title (required): Title of the reminder to delete
• list (optional): Name of the list containing the reminder

Move Action (action: "move"):

• title (required): Title of the reminder to move
• fromList (optional): Source list name
• toList (required): Destination list name

Organize Action (action: "organize"):

• strategy (required): Organization strategy ("priority", "due_date", "category", "completion_status")
• sourceList (optional): Source list to organize from
• createLists (optional): Create new lists automatically (default: true)

Example Usage

{
  "action": "create",
  "title": "Buy groceries",
  "dueDate": "2024-03-25 18:00:00",
  "list": "Shopping",
  "note": "Don't forget milk and eggs",
  "url": "https://example.com/shopping-list"
}

{
  "action": "list",
  "list": "Work",
  "showCompleted": false,
  "dueWithin": "today"
}

{
  "action": "organize",
  "strategy": "category",
  "sourceList": "Inbox",
  "createLists": true
}

Lists Tool

Tool Name: lists

Manage reminder lists - view existing lists or create new ones for organizing reminders.

Actions: list, create

Parameters by Action

List Action (action: "list"):

• No additional parameters required

Create Action (action: "create"):

• name (required): Name for new reminder list

Example Usage

{
  "action": "create",
  "name": "Project Alpha"
}

Response Formats

Success Response:

{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "Successfully created reminder: Buy groceries"
    }
  ],
  "isError": false
}

List Response:

{
  "reminders": [
    {
      "title": "Buy groceries",
      "list": "Shopping",
      "isCompleted": false,
      "dueDate": "2024-03-25 18:00:00",
      "notes": "Don't forget milk",
      "url": null
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "filter": {
    "list": "Shopping",
    "showCompleted": false
  }
}

Organization Strategies

The server provides intelligent reminder organization capabilities through four built-in strategies:

Priority Strategy

Automatically categorizes reminders based on priority keywords:

• High Priority: Contains words like "urgent", "important", "critical", "asap"
• Medium Priority: Default category for standard reminders
• Low Priority: Contains words like "later", "someday", "eventually", "maybe"

Due Date Strategy

Organizes reminders based on their due dates:

• Overdue: Past due dates
• Today: Due today
• Tomorrow: Due tomorrow
• This Week: Due within the current week
• Next Week: Due next week
• Future: Due beyond next week
• No Date: Reminders without due dates

Category Strategy

Intelligently categorizes reminders by content analysis:

• Work: Business, meetings, projects, office, client related
• Personal: Home, family, friends, self-care related
• Shopping: Buy, store, purchase, groceries related
• Health: Doctor, exercise, medical, fitness, workout related
• Finance: Bills, payments, bank, budget related
• Travel: Trips, flights, hotels, vacation related
• Education: Study, learn, courses, books, research related
• Uncategorized: Doesn't match any specific category

Completion Status Strategy

Simple binary organization:

• Active: Incomplete reminders
• Completed: Finished reminders

Usage Examples

Organize all reminders by priority:

Organize my reminders by priority

Categorize work-related reminders:

Organize reminders from Work list by category

Sort overdue items:

Organize overdue reminders by due date

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read the contributing guidelines first.

Development

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

1. Build the project (TypeScript and Swift binary):

npm run build

Project Structure

.
├── src/                          # Source code directory
│   ├── index.ts                  # Main entry point
│   ├── server/                   # MCP server implementation
│   │   ├── server.ts             # Server configuration and lifecycle
│   │   ├── handlers.ts           # Request handlers and routing
│   │   └── *.test.ts             # Server tests
│   ├── swift/                    # Native Swift integration code
│   │   ├── bin/                  # Compiled Swift binaries
│   │   ├── GetReminders.swift    # Swift source file
│   │   └── build.sh              # Swift build script
│   ├── tools/                    # MCP tool definitions and handlers
│   │   ├── definitions.ts        # Tool schemas and validation
│   │   ├── handlers.ts           # Tool implementation logic
│   │   ├── index.ts              # Tool registration
│   │   └── *.test.ts             # Tool tests
│   ├── types/                    # TypeScript type definitions
│   │   └── index.ts              # Core type definitions
│   ├── utils/                    # Helper functions and utilities
│   │   ├── __mocks__/            # Test mocks
│   │   ├── *.ts                  # Utility modules
│   │   └── *.test.ts             # Utility tests
│   ├── validation/               # Schema validation utilities
│   │   └── schemas.ts            # Zod validation schemas
│   └── test-setup.ts             # Test environment setup
├── dist/                         # Compiled JavaScript output
│   ├── index.js                  # Main compiled entry point
│   ├── swift/bin/                # Compiled Swift binaries
│   ├── server/                   # Server compiled files
│   ├── tools/                    # Tools compiled files
│   ├── types/                    # Types compiled files
│   ├── utils/                    # Utils compiled files
│   └── validation/               # Validation compiled files
├── node_modules/                 # Node.js dependencies
├── package.json                  # Package configuration
├── tsconfig.json                 # TypeScript configuration
├── jest.config.mjs               # Jest test configuration
├── pnpm-lock.yaml               # pnpm lock file
└── *.md                         # Documentation files

Available Scripts

• npm run build - Build both TypeScript and Swift components (REQUIRED before starting server)
• npm run build:ts - Build TypeScript code only
• npm run build:swift - Build Swift binary only
• npm run dev - TypeScript development mode with file watching
• npm run start - Start the MCP server
• npm run test - Run comprehensive test suite
• npm run clean - Clean build artifacts

Dependencies

Runtime Dependencies:

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk ^1.5.0 - MCP protocol implementation
• moment ^2.30.1 - Date/time handling utilities
• zod ^3.24.2 - Runtime type validation

Development Dependencies:

• typescript ^5.8.2 - TypeScript compiler
• @types/node ^20.0.0 - Node.js type definitions
• @types/jest ^29.5.12 - Jest type definitions
• jest ^29.7.0 - Testing framework
• ts-jest ^29.1.2 - Jest TypeScript support

Build Tools:

• Swift binaries for native macOS integration
• TypeScript compilation for cross-platform compatibility