The macOS Defaults MCP Server allows you to read and write macOS system settings via a command-line interface:
- List Domains: List all available macOS preference domains, equivalent to
defaults domains
- Find Entries: Search for preference domains containing a specified word, similar to
defaults find <word>
- Read Defaults: Read specific settings from a domain and key (
defaults read <domain> <key>
), or read the entire domain if no key is provided - Write Defaults: Set specific values for settings within a macOS preference domain, equivalent to
defaults write <domain> <key> <value>
Enables reading and writing macOS defaults (system and application settings) through tools for listing domains, finding settings, and reading/writing configuration values.
mcp-server-macos-defaults MCP server
MCP server for reading/writing macOS defaults (settings)
Components
Tools
list-domains
:- equivalent to running
defaults domains
- equivalent to running
find
:- equivalent to running
defaults find <word>
- equivalent to running
defaults-read
:- equivalent to running
defaults read <domain> <key>
- if
key
is not provided, the entire domain is read
- equivalent to running
defaults-write
:- equivalent to running
defaults write <domain> <key> <value>
- equivalent to running
Quickstart
Install
Claude Desktop
On MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Development
Building and Publishing
To prepare the package for distribution:
- Sync dependencies and update lockfile:
- Build package distributions:
This will create source and wheel distributions in the dist/
directory.
- Publish to PyPI:
Note: You'll need to set PyPI credentials via environment variables or command flags:
- Token:
--token
orUV_PUBLISH_TOKEN
- Or username/password:
--username
/UV_PUBLISH_USERNAME
and--password
/UV_PUBLISH_PASSWORD
Debugging
Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging experience, we strongly recommend using the MCP Inspector.
You can launch the MCP Inspector via npm
with this command:
Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL that you can access in your browser to begin debugging.
local-only server
The server can only run on the client's local machine because it depends on local resources.
MCP server that enables reading and writing macOS system preferences and application settings through the defaults system.
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