Apple Voice Memo MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides programmatic access to Apple Voice Memos on macOS. Use this to let Claude and other AI assistants interact with your voice recordings.

Pairs well with whisper-mcp for local transcription.

Features

• List voice memos - Browse all your voice memos with metadata

• Get memo details - Retrieve detailed information about specific recordings

• Get audio - Access the audio file path or base64-encoded audio data

• Get transcripts - Extract transcripts from memos (stored by Apple in the audio file)

• Transcribe memos - Generate transcripts using Apple's SFSpeechRecognizer

Related MCP server: jons-mcp-imessage

Requirements

• macOS Sonoma (14.0) or later (Sequoia recommended for transcription)

• Node.js 18+

• Full Disk Access permission (for accessing Voice Memos data)

• Voice Memos app must have been opened at least once

Installation

npm install -g apple-voice-memo-mcp

Or use directly with npx:

npx apple-voice-memo-mcp

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-voice-memo-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "apple-voice-memo-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

After editing, restart Claude Desktop.

Claude Code (CLI)

For Claude Code, add to your project's .mcp.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-voice-memo-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "apple-voice-memo-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or for user-wide configuration, add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-voice-memo-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "apple-voice-memo-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Tip: Use /mcp in Claude Code to verify the server is connected.

Local Development Setup

If running from source instead of npm:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-voice-memo-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/apple-voice-memo-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Permissions

1. Full Disk Access: Required to read the Voice Memos database

   • Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access

   • Add your terminal app or Claude Desktop

2. Speech Recognition (for transcription):

   • Required only if using the transcribe_memo tool

   • System will prompt when first used

MCP Tools

list_voice_memos

List all voice memos with metadata.

Parameters:

• limit (optional): Maximum number of results (1-100, default: 50)

• offset (optional): Pagination offset

• search (optional): Search term to filter by title

Example response:

{
  "memos": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "Meeting Notes",
      "date": "2025-01-07T10:30:00.000Z",
      "duration": 120.5,
      "hasTranscript": true
    }
  ],
  "total": 15
}

get_voice_memo

Get detailed metadata for a specific memo.

Parameters:

• id (required): Memo ID

get_audio

Retrieve the audio file.

Parameters:

• id (required): Memo ID

• format (optional): "path" or "base64" (default: "path")

get_transcript

Extract transcript from a memo.

Parameters:

• id (required): Memo ID

• format (optional): "text", "json", or "timestamped"

transcribe_memo

Transcribe a memo using SFSpeechRecognizer.

Parameters:

• id (required): Memo ID

• language (optional): Language code (default: "en-US")

How It Works

Data Access

Voice Memos data is stored in:

• Database: ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.VoiceMemos.shared/Recordings/CloudRecordings.db

• Audio files: Same directory, .m4a format

Transcript Storage

Apple stores transcripts directly inside the .m4a audio files using a custom MPEG-4 atom called tsrp. This MCP server parses these atoms to extract transcripts - no separate transcript files exist.

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jwulff/apple-voice-memo-mcp.git
cd apple-voice-memo-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Run in development
npm run dev

# Test with MCP inspector
npm run inspector

Troubleshooting

"Voice Memos database not found"

1. Ensure you've opened the Voice Memos app at least once

2. Grant Full Disk Access to your terminal/application

3. Check if iCloud sync is enabled for Voice Memos

"No transcript available"

• On macOS Sequoia+, open the memo in Voice Memos app to trigger automatic transcription

• Older macOS versions don't have automatic transcription

• Use the transcribe_memo tool to generate a transcript via SFSpeechRecognizer

Native module binding errors

If you see errors about missing better_sqlite3.node bindings:

npm rebuild better-sqlite3

This recompiles the native module for your current Node.js version.

License

MIT