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 domainsFind 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 providedWrite 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
find:equivalent to running
defaults find <word>
defaults-read:equivalent to running
defaults read <domain> <key>if
keyis not provided, the entire domain is read
defaults-write:equivalent to running
defaults write <domain> <key> <value>
Related MCP server: Project Content Server
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:
--tokenorUV_PUBLISH_TOKENOr username/password:
--username/UV_PUBLISH_USERNAMEand--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.