💬 iMessage Bridge for Poke

Text Poke to read and send your iMessages.

A tiny local server runs on your Mac, Poke reaches it over a private tunnel, and a menu bar switch turns it on and off. Your messages never leave your Mac unless you ask Poke to act on them.

What it feels like

You: what did the last person text me? Poke: Sarah said "running 10 late, order me a flat white" — want me to reply? You: yeah tell her got it 👍 Poke: Sent ✅

You're texting an assistant that can actually reach into your real iMessages — from your phone, from anywhere, as long as your Mac is awake.

Related MCP server: jons-mcp-imessage

How it works

 your phone           Poke cloud            your Mac (awake)
┌──────────┐         ┌──────────┐    private tunnel   ┌────────────────────────────┐
│  text    │ ──────▶ │   Poke   │ ─────────────────▶ │ FastMCP server :8765        │
│  "Poke…" │         │  (LLM)   │ ◀───────────────── │   └▶ imsg CLI ▶ Messages.app │
└──────────┘         └──────────┘                     └────────────────────────────┘

Poke is an MCP host: it discovers the tools your server exposes and calls them mid-conversation. The server wraps imsg, a CLI that reads your local chat.db and drives Messages.app.

Each person runs their own copy. Recipe links are not shareable — a shared link would point Poke at your Mac and your texts. Share the repo, not your link.

Quick start

Prerequisites: macOS 12+, Homebrew, and a Poke account.

git clone https://github.com/ish-cs/imessage-poke-bridge.git
cd imessage-poke-bridge
./install.sh

The installer handles everything: installs deps (imsg, Node, poke CLI, uv), sets up the server + tunnel as background services, logs you into Poke, mints your recipe link, and adds the iMessage Bridge menu bar app.

Two permissions you must grant

macOS requires these and no installer can do them for you:

Then click iMSG ● in your menu bar (○ = off) and start texting Poke.

Using it

Text Poke naturally:

• "what did mom text me?"

• "tell Sarah I'm running 10 min late"

• "what did I miss today?"

• "send the photo at ~/Desktop/ticket.png to the group"

Works whenever your Mac is awake. Lid closed / asleep = the bridge is dark until you wake it. (We deliberately don't keep your Mac awake — your battery thanks us.)

Tools

Contact names come from your local AddressBook — covered by the Full Disk Access grant, so no extra Contacts permission.

Menu bar app

Auto-starts at login and self-restarts if it crashes.

Configuration

Set in the launchd plist or environment:

Safety & privacy

• Audit log — every send is appended to ~/.imsg-bridge/sends.jsonl. Review exactly what Poke did in your name.

• Rate limit + allowlist — guard rails on the send tools (see Configuration).

• Local-first — messages stay on your Mac; only what Poke acts on is sent to it.

⚠️ Anything in your messages — secrets, 2FA codes, private notes — becomes readable by Poke (an LLM). Don't text yourself API keys, and rotate any that are already in your history.

Troubleshooting

Logs live in ~/.imsg-bridge/ (server.log, tunnel.log, menubar.log).

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

Removes the services, menu bar app, and files. Revoke Full Disk Access manually in System Settings, and remove the integration at poke.com/settings if you want.

Limitations

• Your Mac must be awake. iMessage only exists on your Mac; there's no free cloud option (a cloud Mac costs $100+/mo).

• SIP-on features only. Typing indicators, read receipts, edit/unsend, polls, and rich effects need SIP disabled and are intentionally not exposed.

• Not notarized yet. MVP installs from source.

• Contact matching is by last-10-digits, so some international numbers may mismatch.

Roadmap

• Signed + notarized .dmg installer

• Dependency-free Swift/Go rewrite

Architecture

server.py     FastMCP server wrapping imsg — 10 tools, stateless HTTP,
              path-prefix shim for Poke's /<id>/mcp routing, optional bearer auth,
              AddressBook contact resolution, send audit + rate limit.
menubar.py    pyobjc menu bar controller for the launchd services.
install.sh    per-user setup: deps, services, recipe capture, menu bar agent.
uninstall.sh  teardown.

License

MIT © Ishaan Pandey