WorkFlow Companion

This repository is WorkFlow Companion's home: the source (src/index.js, MIT licensed), downloads (WorkFlow.mcpb for Claude Desktop) on the Releases page, and bugs and requests in Issues. The package itself installs from npm. On a Mac, use the open-source workflow-agent-bridge instead. All of Opticell's free tools for Claude: opticell-mcp.

Lets Claude on Windows or Linux work in your WorkFlow tasks, notes and projects: reading the queue, replying in threads, ticking checklists, filing notes, updating documents. It works in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, or any MCP client.

Free. It needs WorkFlow 5.2 or later on an iPhone, iPad or Mac, which does the actual work. No Mac needed:

Claude ──MCP──▶ companion ──▶ your private iCloud ──▶ WorkFlow on your iPhone, iPad or Mac
                                                  ◀── receipt + fresh snapshot

The companion never edits your WorkFlow data itself. It leaves commands in a zone of your own private iCloud database. WorkFlow applies them with the same checks as the app (read-only trial gate, email permission, the agent's signature) and lists every one in Command History. Nothing passes through Opticell's servers.

Which device answers. A Mac with WorkFlow open answers within seconds. An iPhone or iPad answers when iOS lets WorkFlow run: usually within minutes, sometimes only when you next open it, and not while WorkFlow has been swiped away in the app switcher. With both switched on, the Mac answers while it's awake and the iPhone stands by. Every command is applied exactly once, however many devices are on.

Set up

1. In WorkFlow on an iPhone or iPad: Settings → Windows Companion → Answer the Companion. On a Mac: Settings → Agent Bridge, then the Agent Bridge and Cloud Bridge switches.

2. Install Node.js 18 or later (LTS) if node -v doesn't show it: Windows winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS -e, Mac brew install node, Linux your package manager, or the installer from https://nodejs.org. Then close and reopen the terminal (and restart Claude Code) so node and npx are found; otherwise you'll see "node is not recognized".

3. In a normal terminal window:

   npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion@latest setup

   It opens https://companion.opticell-limited.com to sign in with the Apple Account WorkFlow uses on your iPhone or Mac, then asks you to paste the token that page shows. It asks questions, so it can't run from Claude Code's ! prompt or another non-interactive shell; there, pass --web-token <token> and --name <name>.

4. Add it to Claude:

   claude mcp add --scope user workflow -- npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion@latest

   On Windows, npx is a script, so Claude Code needs cmd /c in front:

   claude mcp add --scope user workflow -- cmd /c npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion@latest

   --scope user makes it available in every project on this computer.

   Claude Desktop needs no terminal. Download WorkFlow.mcpb from the product page and double-click it. Then sign in at https://companion.opticell-limited.com and paste the token into Settings → Extensions → WorkFlow Companion → Sign-in token.

Check it any time with npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion status.

Related MCP server: Notion Workflow MCP

Its name

Setup asks what Claude on this computer should be called in WorkFlow ("Companion" unless you choose, e.g. --name Server). That name is how work reaches it rather than the Mac's own Claude:

• Assign a task to it. WorkFlow offers the name once it has heard from the companion, and the Ask sheet lets you pick it.

• Write @Server in a comment or a note. A mention in a shared project's thread doesn't count, because other people can write there.

• What it writes is signed with its name, so a thread shows which Claude did what.

• One name, one computer. Setup refuses a name another computer already answers to, and asks for another. Every command is checked the same way, which covers Claude Desktop, where the name is a setting. Use setup --takeover when this computer replaces the other one. A name frees up by itself once its computer has been silent for two weeks.

• @Claude always means Claude on the Mac. A companion can't take that name, and mentions match whole words only, so @Claude2 never wakes the Mac.

Claude Desktop users set the name in the extension's settings.

Working on its own

With waking on, @Server from the app is enough: nobody has to be at this computer. Turn it on once Claude Code is installed and signed in here:

npx -y @opticell/workflow-companion wake-on

• Every 2 minutes a hidden scheduled job (Task Scheduler on Windows, cron elsewhere) checks this name's queue in iCloud. That's one small call; the task list is downloaded only when it changed.

• New work starts one Claude Code session (claude -p, no window). It reads the task, comments that it's picked it up (your phone shows "Server is on it"), does the work and replies in the thread.

• What counts as new: a task newly assigned to the name, a new @Server comment from a person, a person's follow-up on an assigned task, or an edited note that mentions it. Its own replies never wake it.

• Handled once. One session at a time; work already handled never starts another. A session that couldn't start at all (not signed in to Claude, a usage limit) is retried twice more, then says so in the thread.

• A time limit, 45 minutes by default (--max-minutes). A session stopped by it says so in the thread.

• What it may do. By default only the WorkFlow tools (mcp__workflow): reading tasks and replying. To let it run commands on this computer, pass --allow-tools "mcp__workflow Bash Read" (any Claude Code permission rules). Anyone who can write @Server in your WorkFlow could then run commands here, so decide that deliberately. Shared projects never reach it.

• Windows: a scheduled task normally runs only while the user is logged in. To run while logged off, change the task "WorkFlow Companion wake" to "Run whether user is logged on or not" in Task Scheduler.

• --workdir sets the folder sessions start in (your home folder otherwise), --model the Claude model, --claude the path to Claude Code if it isn't found. --skip-existing treats what's already queued as handled.

• The log is ~/.workflow-companion/wake.log. wake-off stops it all.

Staying up to date

• Claude Code runs whatever its registration names. Register it with @latest (setup prints the exact line) and every new session uses the newest release.

• The scheduled jobs (keep-alive, waking) run a saved copy that npm never touches, so they update themselves. At most every 6 hours they read npm's entry for the package (registry.npmjs.org/@opticell/workflow-companion/latest). When it's newer, they download the release, check it against npm's sha512 checksum and that Node can parse it, then swap it in. Turn this off with auto-update off, and update by hand with update.

• Its version is reported. Every ten minutes or so while it runs, each companion writes its version, computer and check-in time to your iCloud. WorkFlow 5.3.2 shows them in Settings → Agent Bridge → Who's Bridged, and status lists every companion's version.

Commands

Worth knowing

• Something has to be answering. A command sent while nothing is waits in iCloud and runs when WorkFlow next looks. The tool says so, and its receipt shows later in workflow_state.

• Reads come from a snapshot. WorkFlow publishes it a few seconds after each change, so a read straight after a write can lag slightly.

• Files go through your iCloud (1.6). Attaching a file, filing a document into a project or adding a new version uploads the file to your own iCloud; WorkFlow 5.3 or later on the answering Mac or iPhone attaches it and then deletes the uploaded copy. Up to 50 MB a file. An older WorkFlow ignores the upload and reports the file as missing.

• The token is a password. ~/.workflow-companion/token.txt opens your WorkFlow data in iCloud. Apple replaces it on every request, and the companion saves each replacement at once. Several Claude sessions on one computer can share it: they take turns. Don't copy it to another machine. Each computer should run its own setup.

• Keep-alive. Apple ends a sign-in left unused for somewhere between 9 and 14 hours. The companion renews it every two hours while Claude has it running. Setup also schedules workflow-companion keepalive every three hours: in Task Scheduler on Windows (it runs without a console window) or in cron elsewhere. signout removes that schedule; --no-schedule skips it.

• "Sign in again" means Apple ended the session (HTTP 401/421), for example after the computer was off for a long time. Run setup again.

Tools

The same 29 tools as the Mac's Agent Bridge MCP server, including: workflow_queue, workflow_get_task, workflow_comment, workflow_set_status_line, workflow_check_subtasks, workflow_update_task, workflow_create_task, workflow_list_notes, workflow_reply_note, workflow_list_projects, workflow_list_documents, workflow_update_document, workflow_draft_email and workflow_state.

© Opticell Limited · https://www.opticell-limited.com/companion

Source and licence

src/index.js is the whole server: one file, Node 18 or later, no dependencies. It is MIT licensed (see LICENSE). The published npm package is the same file with WorkFlow's CloudKit API token filled in at build time (the token is not a secret: it only lets a signed-in user reach their own data). Run from source, setup asks for it with --api-token.

The Dockerfile runs the server over stdio. MCP directories use it to check that the server starts and lists its tools, which it does without signing in.