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). Use Node 24 LTS for encrypted cache support. Runtimes without SQLite checkpoint APIs, including Node 25, search in memory and rebuild after a restart; doctor reports this.

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, conversation memberships, 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 and cache state, schema support, conversation membership counts, 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.

Apple can record the same message in several conversations. Search returns that message once with all canonical chat_ids and their conversations labels. A single membership also includes chat_id and conversation; for shared results, pass the relevant id from chat_ids to get_conversation. Only Apple's explicit lookup evidence combines chat aliases. Shared messages do not combine unrelated conversations.

Global and contact message counts deduplicate shared records within the requested scope. Conversation timelines and sequence metrics retain each recorded membership, so adding per-conversation counts can exceed the global count. Sync includes chat_ids on changes and emits message_membership_changed with previous_chat_ids; its changed_at is null because Apple does not timestamp these joins. Logged memberships describe the change when observed; available text, sender and receipt fields describe current source state. Upgrading the index format rebuilds its cache once and invalidates older sync cursors; start a new sync when it returns DATABASE_CHANGED.

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 redacted or aggregate limits what leaves the server.
• Search index. Built on your Mac and, when SQLite checkpoint APIs are available, 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. server_status reports an unavailable or failed cache while searches continue from memory.
• 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.

Dependency PRs use protected auto-merge. A daily health check detects expiring credentials and stalled updates; see maintenance and recovery.

• Before the auto-merge token expires, renew both secret copies or replace the owner-token workflow with a repository-scoped GitHub App.
• After extended inactivity, verify that GitHub has not disabled scheduled workflows. Dependency merges do not publish a release.

License

MIT