macOS App Launcher

A fast MCP server for opening, focusing, and quitting macOS apps — and opening links in your browser — by voice or from any MCP client.

Much faster than macos-mcp — uses open -a and osascript directly with no heavy runtime overhead.

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d5bd89a0-ec39-4519-9341-63b4cebf881d

Related MCP server: OpenAra

Tools

Open URLs by voice

Say something like "open google.com" or "go to notion.so" and it opens in your default browser. It automatically adds https:// if you don't include it.

Built-in aliases

Say natural names — the server resolves them automatically:

See APP_ALIASES in macos-app-launcher.ts for the full list.

Requirements

• macOS

• Node.js 18+ — download from nodejs.org if needed

Install

git clone https://github.com/gabeperez/macos-app-launcher.git
cd macos-app-launcher
npm install
chmod +x start.sh

⚠️ The chmod +x start.sh step is required. You'll get an EACCES error in VoiceOS if you skip it.

Connect to VoiceOS

See the VoiceOS install guide for step-by-step setup, or add it manually:

Settings → Integrations → Custom Integrations → Add

For example: /Users/yourname/macos-app-launcher/start.sh

Then speak:

• "Open Chrome"

• "Launch Spotify"

• "Focus Slack"

• "Quit Discord"

• "Set volume to 40"

• "Open github.com"

• "Go to notion.so"

• "What apps are open?"

Connect to Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "macos-app-launcher": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/macos-app-launcher/start.sh"
    }
  }
}

Why faster than macos-mcp?

macos-mcp runs via bun with a full JS runtime init on every invocation. This server uses open -a (~50ms, native macOS) and osascript directly — no heavy dependencies, no startup delay.

License

MIT