applenotes-mcp

An MCP server for Apple Notes that writes properly formatted notes with support for headings, bulleted and numbered lists, tables, ticked checklists, and file attachments (images, PDFs).

Why this exists

Other Apple Notes MCP servers drive Notes using AppleScript, and this results in a number of significant limitations. Writing a note through AppleScript requires handing HTML to Notes' importer which ignores the styling and bakes explicit inline font sizes onto everything it produces. Headings are bold spans rather than real headings, font sizes are wrong, and tables, checklists, and attachments cannot be created. Better HTML does not help: for example an explicit 13px is rewritten to 11px by the importer.

This MCP uses Shortcuts.app instead as the method of writing. Its built-in Make Rich Text from Markdown action produces a properly attributed string, and Notes' Append to Note App Intent ingests that natively, avoiding the HTML importer. Notes written this way contain proper formatting.

Using Shortcuts also lets us write the things that AppleScript does not (checklists, attachments, tables...)

Requirements

Developed and tested on macOS 26.5. The minimum version is not known because it depends on which Notes App Intents are present (in particular Set Checklist Items Checked, which Apple doesn't even list in the Shortcuts action library...).

You also need Python 3.13+ and uv.

Permissions

Two macOS permissions must be granted to whichever application runs the server - which is generally your terminal or the Claude Desktop app (i.e. not to Python or to Notes.app).

Full Disk Access (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access). Reading is done straight from Notes' own store at ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes/NoteStore.sqlite, which is protected. Without it the server still runs but degraded. read_note falls back to AppleScript HTML, and edit_note will refuse to edit.
Automation → Notes (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation). Prompted for on the first osascript call.

Setup

uv sync

claude mcp add applenotes -- uv run --directory /path/to/applenotes_mcp applenotes-mcp

On first use the server generates and signs the bridge shortcut and asks you to import it. This is a one-time confirmation that Shortcuts cannot be automated around: open the file it names and click Add Shortcut, then retry. The same happens if you later update the server and the installed shortcut falls behind — delete the old one and import the new.

Tools

Tool	Purpose
`create_note(title, markdown, folder?)`	Create a formatted note, attachments and all. Returns its ID.
`read_note(note_id)`	Read a note back as markdown.
`edit_note(note_id, markdown, title?)`	Replace a note's body. Destructive — see below.
`search_notes(query)`	Find notes by title. Returns `id<TAB>title<TAB>folder<TAB>modified<TAB>snippet`.
`search_note_text(query)`	Full-text search over title and body. Same rows as `search_notes`.
`list_folders()`	The folders a note can be filed into, as full paths.
`list_folder(folder)`	Browse one folder: its notes (newest first) and immediate subfolders.
`create_folder(path)`	Create a folder, making any missing parents. `create_note` still refuses unknown folders.

The tools are annotated (readOnlyHint, destructiveHint) and the server contains instructions to explain the tools to your model.

Limitations

Editing is destructive. Due to a variety of Apple-based limitations, editing involves reading the source note, creating an edited copy, and deleting the original. This means that:

the note gets a new internal ID and a new creation date
this messes up Shared Notes

If the note's structure cannot be properly read from NoteStore then the edit is refused rather than run from the degraded HTML. Still, every edit writes a JSON backup to ~/.local/share/applenotes-mcp/backups/ first, and the original also lands in Notes' Recently Deleted for 30 days so if anything goes wrong then you can just fish it out of the bin.

Heading depth is flattened below level 3. Apple's markdown converter maps # to Notes' Title style and ## to its Heading style, both of which round trip intact. ### maps to Heading as well — Notes has a Subheading style (style_type 2) but the converter never emits it so ### Foo reads back as ## Foo.

Links gain a trailing slash. Notes.app normalises a bare-host URL, so https://example.com comes back as https://example.com/.

Any highlighted text will revert back to normal text. It is possible to read the highlighting out of the note store, but there is no way through either Shortcuts or HTML to write a highlight.

Attachments show as "PDF Document" (or "Image", etc.), not a title. Notes shows the tile title from an attachment's ZTITLE field, which it only populates when you add a file through its own UI. Nothing in the automation surface can set it: the Add File to Note intent leaves it empty (its name parameter sets only the media filename, which Notes does not display), there is no rename intent, the attachment entity's name is not writable, and AppleScript cannot even see intent-created attachments. Attachment display size, by contrast, is settable — so label attachments by the surrounding note text.

Tests

uv sync
uv run pytest

This will test all the normal code logic, renderers, AppleScript use etc. The test suite also includes tests/fixtures/*.zdata which are real note protobufs that Notes.app itself wrote, paired with the AppleScript HTML and the expected markdown. These can be regenerated with uv run python tests/capture_fixtures.py, which writes .actual files that you then promote to .expected by hand if everything looks correct.

The suite also includes a set of live round trips which test the entire flow. These create and delete real notes, so they are off by default. Everything happens in a dedicated MCP Live Tests folder, which must exist and be empty before the tests start.

APPLENOTES_MCP_LIVE=1 uv run pytest -m live

Both live and APPLENOTES_MCP_LIVE must be set and both are checked before testing starts.

Licence

MIT — see LICENSE.