macos-screencap-mcp

A local MCP server (stdio) for macOS that takes screenshots and records the screen. It is a single native Swift binary built on ScreenCaptureKit and has no runtime dependencies.

With it, an agent such as Claude Code can:

• take a screenshot of a rectangle of the screen, a whole display, or one window (even when other windows cover it)

• let you drag-select an area to capture

• record a whole display or one window to MP4, either for a set time or from start to stop

• see what it captured, because screenshots are also returned inline as an image

Example requests to your agent:

Take a screenshot of the Safari window and tell me what's wrong with the layout.

Record my main display for 10 seconds.

Start recording the Simulator window. … OK, stop recording.

Requirements

• macOS 15 or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel

• Node.js, to run the server with npx (not needed if you build from source)

• Screen Recording permission for the app that launches the server (Terminal, iTerm, Claude Desktop, etc.): System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording. Restart that app after granting it.

Related MCP server: Screen MCP

Install

The npm package contains a prebuilt universal binary, so you don't need Swift or Xcode.

Claude Code

claude mcp add screencap --scope user -- npx -y macos-screencap-mcp

Then run claude mcp list to check that it connects, or /mcp inside a session.

The command has two halves, split by --:

• Before -- are options for Claude Code. screencap is the name you give the server; its tools appear as mcp__screencap__screenshot_window and so on. --scope user makes it available in all your projects. Use --scope project to save it to the repo's .mcp.json and share it with everyone who clones the repo. Leave the option out to add it to the current project, for you only.

• After -- is the command Claude Code runs to start the server. npx downloads the package and runs it. -y skips npx's "Ok to proceed?" prompt, which nobody would see and which would stall startup.

Options:

# Save captures somewhere other than ~/Desktop (-e goes before the --)
claude mcp add screencap --scope user -e SCREENCAP_OUTPUT_DIR=~/Screenshots -- npx -y macos-screencap-mcp

# Lock a specific version, or always fetch the newest with @latest
claude mcp add screencap --scope user -- npx -y macos-screencap-mcp@0.1.0

# Unregister
claude mcp remove screencap --scope user

Claude Desktop

Add this to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "screencap": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "macos-screencap-mcp"] }
  }
}

Other MCP clients

Run npx -y macos-screencap-mcp as a stdio server. To skip npx, install the package globally with npm install -g macos-screencap-mcp and use the command macos-screencap-mcp.

Build from source

Requires Xcode or the Swift 6 toolchain.

git clone https://github.com/freeflow-im/macos-screencap-mcp.git
cd macos-screencap-mcp
swift build -c release
claude mcp add screencap --scope user -- "$PWD/.build/release/macos-screencap-mcp"

Tools

Screenshot tools save full-resolution PNG files, or JPEG when output_path ends in .jpg. They also return a downscaled JPEG preview inline so the model can see the capture; pass include_image: false to skip it.

Recordings are H.264 MP4 by default, or MOV when output_path ends in .mov. Above 4096 px they switch to HEVC automatically. Recording options: fps (default 30), show_cursor (default true), system_audio, microphone.

Coordinates

All rectangles use macOS global display coordinates in points. The origin is the top-left of the main display, and displays to the left or above it have negative coordinates. This is the same space that list_displays and list_windows report, so you can pass a window's frame straight to screenshot_region. A rectangle is clipped to the display that contains its center.

File names and location

The capture tools take an optional name: a short description of the content, such as teams-tab-my-trips. The tool descriptions ask agents to pass one. The server cleans up the name, adds a timestamp and picks the folder:

teams-tab-my-trips_2026-10-28_16-30-02.png

When name is omitted, the server builds one from what it captured:

Names never overwrite an existing file. A collision within the same second gets a -2, -3, and so on.

Screenshots and recordings go to ~/Desktop, the same place macOS saves its own captures. Set SCREENCAP_OUTPUT_DIR to use another folder. output_path overrides all of this with an exact path.

If the server shuts down while recordings are still running (the client disconnects, SIGTERM, or SIGINT), it finalizes them first so the files stay playable.

Troubleshooting

• The server doesn't connect (claude mcp list shows it failing): check that you're on macOS 15 or later and that npx -y macos-screencap-mcp starts without errors in a terminal. If it starts, it waits silently for input; press Ctrl-C to exit.

• "Could not read screen content": the app that launched the server lacks Screen Recording permission. Grant it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording, then quit and reopen that app. Permission belongs to the launching app (e.g. Terminal), not to this binary.

• A window can't be found: only on-screen windows are listed, so minimized windows and windows on other Spaces don't appear. Call list_windows to see what is available.

• Interactive capture returns "cancelled": the user pressed Esc, or no one was at the screen to make a selection.

How it works

The server speaks MCP's newline-delimited JSON-RPC over stdin/stdout. All logging goes to stderr. Screenshots use SCScreenshotManager. Recordings use an SCStream with an SCRecordingOutput, which writes the video file directly. Interactive selection hands off to the system screencapture -i tool.

Releasing

Bump version in package.json and Sources/macos-screencap-mcp/Version.swift (the build fails if they differ), commit, then run npm publish. The prepack script builds the universal binary into bin/. npm can take a minute or two to make a new version available.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.