Apple Photos MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants like Claude to query, search, export, and inspect the macOS Apple Photos library — plus opt-in album and metadata write tools — backed by the osxphotos library.

Read-only by default. Out of the box the library is never modified — exports write files to a directory you choose, nothing more. A set of opt-in write tools (albums, titles, descriptions, keywords, favorites, dates, imports — never deletion) unlocks only when you explicitly set APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES=1; without that flag, 2.x behaves exactly like the read-only 1.x releases.

What is This?

This server acts as a bridge between AI assistants and Apple Photos. Once configured, you can ask Claude (or any MCP-compatible AI) to:

• "Find all my photos from our trip to Spain in 2023"

• "Show me my favorite sunset photos" — and actually see them (get-thumbnail returns viewable images)

• "How many photos do I have? What are my top keywords?"

• "Find photos of Sarah from last summer and export them to ~/Desktop/sarah-summer"

• "What did I import this week?" (addedInLast), "Find my screenshots from 2024"

• "Do I have duplicate photos?" (find-duplicates groups exact duplicates)

• "List my albums"

• "Tell me everything about photo UUID ABC-123" — including EXIF camera data

• With writes enabled: "File these into a Trailcam album", "Tag them all deer", "Favorite the best one and caption it"

The AI assistant communicates with this server, which uses osxphotos to read the Photos library SQLite database directly. All data stays local on your machine.

Related MCP server: mcp-osxphotos

Quick Start

Using Claude Code (Easiest)

If you're using Claude Code (in Terminal or VS Code), just ask Claude to install it:

Install the sweetrb/apple-photos-mcp MCP server so you can help me query my Apple Photos library

Claude will handle the installation and configuration automatically. Or register it yourself with one deterministic command:

claude mcp add apple-photos -s user -- npx -y apple-photos-mcp

The Python osxphotos dependency installs automatically on first use (a one-time, ~minute-long setup), so the only manual step is granting Full Disk Access — see Requirements below.

Using the Plugin Marketplace

Install as a Claude Code plugin for automatic configuration and enhanced AI behavior:

/plugin marketplace add sweetrb/apple-photos-mcp
/plugin install apple-photos

This method also installs a skill that teaches Claude when and how to use Apple Photos effectively.

A few things to know about the plugin install:

• The plugin is a git clone under ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/apple-photos-mcp/, and the server runs straight from that clone (no build step needed).

• The first tool call auto-bootstraps a Python venv with osxphotos inside that clone — a one-time, ~minute-long setup that requires Python 3.11+ on your PATH (stock macOS ships 3.9; brew install python@3.12).

• Full Disk Access must be granted to the HOST app running Claude Code (Terminal, iTerm, VS Code, Claude Desktop) — see Requirements below.

Using the Codex Marketplace

The same plugin is available for Codex. Add the marketplace and install the plugin:

codex plugin marketplace add sweetrb/apple-photos-mcp
codex plugin add apple-photos@apple-photos-mcp

The Codex plugin runs the published apple-photos-mcp server through npx and ships the same Apple Photos skill, so behavior matches the Claude Code plugin. Because the server is a Python-sidecar (osxphotos) server, the first tool call after an npx launch auto-bootstraps a project-local Python venv with osxphotos (a one-time, ~minute-long setup), and the host process still needs Full Disk Access — see Requirements below.

Other Hosts (Hermes, Antigravity)

Two more hosts can run the same apple-photos MCP server (npx -y apple-photos-mcp). As a Python-sidecar (osxphotos) server it also needs Full Disk Access; see Requirements.

• Hermes Agent (NousResearch) — Hermes has no plugin/marketplace drop-in, so there is nothing in this repo to install from. Register the server with the CLI:

  hermes mcp add apple-photos --command npx --args -y apple-photos-mcp

  Or add it to ~/.hermes/config.yaml by hand:

  mcp_servers:
    apple-photos:
      command: npx
      args: ["-y", "apple-photos-mcp"]

  Restart your Hermes session afterward so the tools load.

• Antigravity (Google) — add the server entry from .antigravity-plugin/mcp_config.json to ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json (or via Antigravity's MCP settings).

Manual Installation

1. Install the server:

npm install -g apple-photos-mcp

2. Python deps install automatically. The first tool call auto-bootstraps a project-local Python venv with osxphotos (a one-time setup that can take ~a minute; progress is logged to stderr). You do not need to install anything by hand.

To skip the first-call delay, you can pre-warm the venv ahead of time:

pnpm run setup   # optional — pre-installs osxphotos so the first tool call is instant

Auto-setup needs Python 3, pip, and network access. If any are missing — or you disabled auto-setup via APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_NO_AUTO_SETUP=1 — run pnpm run setup (or pip3 install osxphotos) yourself. See Configuration and Troubleshooting.

3. Add to Claude Desktop (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-photos": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["apple-photos-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

4. Grant Full Disk Access to the app hosting the MCP server (Claude Desktop, Terminal, VS Code, etc.) — see Full Disk Access below.

5. Restart Claude Desktop and start using natural language:

"How many photos are in my library?"

Requirements

• macOS - The Photos library is macOS-only

• Node.js 20+ - Required for the MCP server

• Python 3.11+ - The server uses osxphotos under the hood and installs it automatically on first use into a project-local venv (one-time, ~a minute). You only need Python 3.11+, pip, and a network connection available. osxphotos requires Python ≥ 3.10 and the date filters need 3.11; macOS ships 3.9, so install a newer Python first (e.g. brew install python@3.12). Pre-warm it with pnpm run setup if you'd rather not wait on the first call.

• Apple Photos - Must have a Photos library (default location: ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary)

• Full Disk Access - The Photos library lives in a protected directory. The host app needs Full Disk Access — see below and the Full Disk Access Setup Guide.

Features

Querying

Export

Write tools (opt-in — read-only by default)

All seven are disabled unless APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES=1 — see Write tools (opt-in). None of them can delete a photo.

Diagnostics

Read tools also return structured JSON (structuredContent) alongside the human-readable text, so agents can consume results without parsing prose.

MCP resources & prompts

Resources expose read-only context the client can attach without a tool call: photos://library, photos://albums, photos://persons, photos://keywords, and the photos://photo/{uuid} template (full metadata for one photo). Prompts package common workflows: find-photos, export-photos, photo-summary.

Write tools (opt-in)

The server is read-only by default — nothing changes for existing users. Version 2.0.0 added five tools that can modify the Photos library (create-album, add-to-album, remove-from-album, set-photo-metadata, set-keywords), and 2.1.0 adds two more (set-photo-date, import-photos) behind the same gate. Every one of them is refused with a clear error until you opt in:

Enable via environment variable (e.g. in your MCP server config's env block, where the host honors it):

{ "env": { "APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES": "1" } }

Or via the config file (recommended for Claude Desktop, which strips env) — ~/Library/Application Support/apple-photos-mcp/config.json:

{
  "APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES": "1"
}

Then restart the MCP server (restart the host app, or the conversation in hosts that spawn per-conversation servers). The doctor tool reports the gate state either way — run it first if a write tool returns "Write tools are disabled".

The write tools stay registered even while disabled (MCP clients cache the tool list at startup, so hiding them would only hurt discoverability — a gated call returns the exact opt-in recipe instead).

Safety design

• No deletion, ever. There is deliberately no tool that deletes a photo, an album, or a folder. remove-from-album changes album membership only — the photos stay in All Photos and every other album. For actual deletion, quarantine photos into an album (the dedupe pattern) and delete inside Photos.app, where Recently Deleted gives you a 30-day safety net. The same no-delete rule cuts the other way for import-photos: an import cannot be programmatically undone (Photos' AppleScript has no photo-delete verb), so removing a mistaken import is a by-hand operation in Photos.app.

• Explicit targets only. Every write takes explicit UUIDs, names, or file paths — there are no wildcard/all-photos operations, and every target is validated to exist before anything is modified (unknown UUIDs come back as clear errors or per-UUID notFound lists; import source paths must exist under the same allowlist roots as export).

• Bounded batches. Album operations accept at most 100 UUIDs per call; imports at most 50 files.

• Reversible by design. Metadata writes echo before/after values so an agent can revert; set-keywords uses union semantics (read-merge-write) so keywords you don't mention are never clobbered; album adds are idempotent; set-photo-date is a dry run by default — it writes nothing until you pass dryRun: false, and always echoes before/after so an applied change can be reverted.

• The mechanism: writes drive Photos.app via AppleScript (the photoscript library). Photos is launched if it isn't running, and macOS asks for Automation permission for the host app with a one-time system prompt on the first write. Writes always target the library currently open in Photos.app (normally the system library) — the library parameter of the read tools does not apply. (Reads, by contrast, go through osxphotos straight to the Photos database — fast and prompt-free. Why writes can't use that same path — and why osxphotos/PhotoKit aren't an escape from AppleScript — is spelled out in docs/WRITE-BACKEND.md.)

• One quirk to know: Photos' AppleScript dictionary has no "remove from album" verb, so remove-from-album rebuilds the album (same name, remaining photos): the album's UUID changes (the response reports old and new) and any custom manual sort order is lost.

Tool Reference

This section documents all available tools. AI agents should use these tool names and parameters exactly as specified.

Discovery

health-check

Verify osxphotos is installed and the Photos library can be opened.

Parameters: None

Returns: osxphotos version, library path, and total photo count — or an error if the library is inaccessible.

doctor

Run a full setup diagnostic — six checks: the resolved Python interpreter (path + version — warns when it's older than the required 3.11, with brew install python@3.12 advice), osxphotos installation, sidecar mode (persistent vs one-shot fallback, plus the last respawn), the write-tools gate (enabled/disabled, with the opt-in recipe and — when enabled — whether the photoscript backend and Photos.app look usable), Photos library readability, and Full Disk Access — each reported as ok / warn / fail with an actionable message. This is the richer counterpart to health-check; reach for it first when a tool returns a permission or "unable to open" error.

Parameters: None

Returns: A per-check report. The structuredContent carries the raw { healthy, checks[] }, where each check has name, status (ok/warn/fail), and detail. The Full Disk Access check explicitly reports whether the host process can read the library — see Full Disk Access.

library-info

High-level stats about the Photos library.

Returns: Library path, Photos DB version, Photos.app version, counts of photos / movies / albums / folders / keywords / persons.

Query

query

Search the library with combinable filters. Returns photo summaries with UUIDs — use get-photo for full details on a specific match.

For the full filter syntax — accepted date forms, AND/OR combination semantics, exact-vs-substring matching, result ordering, and what is not filterable — see the Query Guide.

Exceeding a cap rejects the call at the input schema, before the library is opened — chunk larger UUID batches across multiple calls.

Example - Recent favorites of Sarah:

{
  "person": ["Sarah"],
  "favorite": true,
  "fromDate": "2025-06-01",
  "limit": 50
}

Example - Sunset keyword across two albums:

{
  "keyword": ["sunset"],
  "album": ["Vacation 2024", "Beach Trips"]
}

Example - The 20 most recent imports:

{
  "addedInLast": "7d",
  "newestFirst": true,
  "limit": 20
}

Example - 2024 screenshot cleanup candidates:

{
  "screenshot": true,
  "year": [2024]
}

Example - The best shots taken near the cabin:

{
  "near": "46.51,-87.42,5",
  "minScore": 0.6,
  "newestFirst": true,
  "limit": 20
}

Returns: count (the total number of matches), returned (the number of summaries in this response — capped at limit, default 500), and photo summaries (UUID, filename, date, dimensions, favorite/hidden flags, albums, keywords, persons).

get-photo

Get full metadata for a single photo by UUID.

Example:

{
  "uuid": "33AC0410-D367-43AE-A839-12C7EF482020"
}

Returns: All metadata for the photo: dimensions, original dimensions, dates (taken/added/modified), title, description, location (lat/lon), place (name/country), albums, keywords, persons, labels, an exif object (camera make/model, lens, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, focal length, exposure bias, flash, and duration/fps/codec for video — null when Photos recorded no EXIF, e.g. manufacturer-app uploads and scans), Photos' ML intelligence (score — the overall aesthetic score 0–1; detectedText — the text Photos' OCR indexed, macOS 13+; both null on library versions without them), iCloud shared-album social data (owner, comments, likes — only populated for shared assets), type flags (HDR / live / raw / edited / portrait / panorama / selfie / screenshot / slow-mo / time-lapse / burst), file paths (original, edited, raw, live-photo video), file size, UTI.

Recently Deleted: get-photo falls back to the trash, so it returns full metadata even for a photo sitting in Recently Deleted. query and export read the main library only — so a UUID that get-photo resolves may return nothing from query, and export will skip it with reason UUID not found (deleted or in trash).

get-photos

Get full metadata for a batch of photos (up to 50) in one call — the batch equivalent of get-photo, for dedupe reviews, EXIF audits, and captioning passes.

Example:

{
  "uuid": [
    "33AC0410-D367-43AE-A839-12C7EF482020",
    "1EB2B765-0765-43BA-A90C-0F0AE547B343"
  ]
}

Returns: count, photos (full per-photo detail — the same shape as get-photo, including the exif object, score, detectedText, shared-album owner/comments/likes, and the Recently-Deleted fallback), and notFound listing any requested UUIDs that matched nothing. Unknown UUIDs never fail the batch.

get-selected-photos

Get the photos currently selected in the Photos.app window — the bridge from "act on these photos" to UUIDs you can feed into get-photos, get-thumbnail, export, or add-to-album.

No parameters.

Requirements & behavior:

• Photos.app must be running with a visible selection; the tool returns a clear error otherwise, and never launches Photos itself.

• Read-only and not gated behind the writes flag, but it reads the selection over AppleScript, so the host app needs macOS Automation permission for Photos (one-time system prompt on first use).

• The selection comes from the library currently open in Photos.app; there is no library parameter.

Returns: count, photos (the same summary shape as query results — UUID, filename, date, dimensions, flags), and notFound for selected items the library index doesn't know yet (e.g. a just-finished import Photos hasn't checkpointed — reported with their filenames).

get-thumbnail

Return one photo as an inline viewable image — an MCP image content block (base64 JPEG/PNG) that vision-capable clients render directly. Serves the preview derivatives Photos has already generated, so nothing is exported and originals aren't transferred. Prefer this over export whenever the goal is to look at a photo rather than to obtain the file.

Returns: An image content block plus structured metadata: uuid, source path, width/height, mimeType, byteSize, and isDerivative (false means no suitable derivative existed and the image was rendered from the original via sips — never upscaled). Movies get a thumbnail only when Photos generated a poster-frame derivative; an iCloud-only photo with no local derivative or original returns an error suggesting export (which downloads on demand). Responses are capped at 8 MB: derivative selection pre-filters on that cap, but a sips-rendered fallback from a very high-resolution original can still exceed it and returns thumbnail is <n> bytes (cap 8388608); request a smaller minSize — lower minSize, or use export for the full file.

find-duplicates

Group exact duplicates using Photos' own fingerprint-based detection — the same data behind Photos' Duplicates album, no export or hashing required.

Returns: groupCount (total groups), returned, and groups ordered newest-first — each with the member uuids and per-member filename, date, size, width/height, and isMovie. Hidden and Recently-Deleted photos are never group members.

Exact means exact: the fingerprint matches identical image data only — edited copies, resized versions, and burst siblings will NOT group. Use get-thumbnail on a group's members to eyeball them before acting. This server cannot delete photos (Photos exposes no scriptable delete) — to act on duplicates, quarantine the extra copies into an album (create-album + add-to-album when writes are enabled, otherwise by hand in Photos.app) and review/delete inside Photos.app. See the dedupe pattern.

Browse

list-albums

List all albums in the library.

Returns: Each album's title, folder path, photo count, shared status, and UUID. iCloud Shared Albums are included and flagged isShared: true.

list-folders

List all folders in the library.

Returns: Each folder's title, parent folder, album count, and subfolder count.

list-keywords

List keywords sorted by usage count.

Returns: Keywords with their photo counts, sorted descending.

list-persons

List people detected by Photos face recognition, sorted by photo count.

Returns: Persons with their photo counts, sorted descending. Unidentified faces appear as _UNKNOWN_.

Export

export

Export one or more photos by UUID to a destination directory.

Example - Originals to a folder:

{
  "uuid": ["33AC0410-...", "EEFCEF1D-..."],
  "dest": "~/Desktop/exports"
}

Example - Edited versions plus raw and live-photo video:

{
  "uuid": ["33AC0410-..."],
  "dest": "~/Desktop/exports",
  "edited": true,
  "raw": true,
  "live": true,
  "overwrite": true
}

Returns: Destination path, count of files exported, count skipped, list of exported file paths, and a per-UUID reason for every skip (file already exists, UUID not found / in Recently Deleted, iCloud download failed, ...). Every requested UUID is accounted for in exported + skipped. Note that export reads the main library only: a photo in Recently Deleted is skipped with UUID not found (deleted or in trash) even though get-photo still resolves it (that tool falls back to the trash).

Destination allowlist: the destination is canonicalized (leading ~ expanded, .. normalized, symlinks resolved — including a not-yet-existing final directory) and must land under the home directory, /tmp, /private/tmp, or /Volumes. The check is segment-aware (/Volumesx does not pass as /Volumes), and the canonical path is what's exported into, so a symlink under an allowed root can't redirect the write outside it.

Filename collisions: Files keep the photo's original filename. If a file of that name already exists at the destination and overwrite is not set, the photo is skipped with reason already exists at destination — re-running an export never creates IMG_1234 (1).jpg-style duplicates. Pass overwrite: true to replace in place.

iCloud-only originals: If a photo's original isn't on disk (Photos is using "Optimize Mac Storage"), the export automatically falls back to Photos.app via AppleScript, which downloads the original on demand — same behavior as opening the photo in Photos. This is slower than a direct file copy; expect waits proportional to download size for large batches. Photos that genuinely can't be exported (e.g. edited=true requested but no edits exist) are still skipped with a per-UUID reason.

Progress notifications: For batch exports, the server emits one MCP progress notification per photo (progress/total plus a message naming the file being exported) when the client's request includes a progressToken — so hosts that surface progress can show a live counter instead of a silent multi-minute call. Clients that don't send a token simply get the final result, as before. (Progress requires the persistent sidecar; in the rare one-shot fallback mode the export still works but reports no intermediate progress.)

Write (opt-in — see Write tools)

All seven tools below require APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES=1 and return a clear opt-in error otherwise. They drive Photos.app via AppleScript (macOS Automation permission; Photos is launched if needed), always target the library currently open in Photos.app (no library parameter), and can never delete photos.

create-album

Create an album — or return the existing one of that name (created: false), so re-running a filing workflow never piles up duplicates.

Returns: album {uuid, name, path} and created. Without folder, the idempotency check matches an album of that name anywhere in the library; with folder, only inside that folder.

add-to-album

Add photos (by UUID) to an album (by name or UUID). Idempotent — Photos albums are sets.

Returns: album {uuid, name, path}, addedCount, added, alreadyPresent (members already in the album), and notFound (UUIDs that don't exist in the library). Fails only when the album doesn't exist or no requested photo exists.

remove-from-album

Remove photos from an album — never from the library (they remain in All Photos and every other album).

Returns: the album after the operation, removedCount, removed, notInAlbum (requested UUIDs that weren't members — harmless no-ops), albumRecreated, and previousAlbumUuid.

Album rebuild caveat: Photos' AppleScript has no remove verb, so removal rebuilds the album (create replacement → copy the kept photos → delete the original → rename). The album's UUID changes (use album.uuid from the response) and custom manual sort order is lost. When none of the UUIDs are members, nothing is rebuilt (albumRecreated: false).

If a rebuild is interrupted: the replacement is built under a scratch name apple-photos-mcp-tmp-<hex> and renamed last. If the call is killed mid-rebuild — e.g. the 10-minute rebuild budget expires while copying a very large album — the original album and every photo are safe, but an apple-photos-mcp-tmp-… album may be left behind; delete it in Photos.app. In the rare case the kill lands in the brief window after the original was deleted, the kept photos are still safe under that scratch name — rename it back. The scratch name is picked fresh (and collision-checked) per call, so repeatedly retrying a timing-out removal strands a distinct album each time.

set-photo-metadata

Set a photo's title, description, and/or favorite flag. Only the fields you pass are touched.

Returns: uuid, updated (which fields were written), and full before / after values of all three fields — revert a change by writing the before values back.

set-keywords

Add and/or remove keywords on a photo with union semantics: the photo's current keywords are read first and the edits merged in, so keywords you don't mention are always preserved — never a blind replace.

At least one of add / remove is required; a keyword in both is rejected.

Returns: uuid, before / after keyword lists, added / removed (what actually changed — adding an existing keyword is a no-op), and changed. If the merge changes nothing, no write is performed.

set-photo-date

Fix a photo's date/time — set an absolute date or shift by a number of seconds. Dry run by default: nothing is written until you pass dryRun: false. This rewrites the date in the Photos library database only (the same thing Photos.app's Adjust Date & Time does) — the file's EXIF is never modified.

* Exactly one of date / shiftSeconds is required.

Returns: uuid, before, after (the would-be date on a dry run), shiftSeconds (the effective delta), applied, and dryRun. Revert an applied change by re-running with date = the echoed before and dryRun: false.

import-photos

Import image/video files from disk into the Photos library, optionally straight into an existing album. Add-only: nothing is modified or deleted, and source files stay where they are (Photos copies them in).

Returns: requestedCount, importedCount, imported (uuid + filename per new item), and album when one was targeted. importedCount < requestedCount usually means Photos skipped duplicates.

Cannot be undone programmatically: Photos' AppleScript has no photo-delete verb, so removing a mistaken import means deleting it by hand in Photos.app.

Usage Patterns

Getting query filters right (date forms, AND/OR semantics, exact-match rules, ordering, paging) is covered in the Query Guide.

Basic Workflow

User: "How many photos do I have?"
AI: [calls library-info]
    "You have 30,968 items: 30,435 photos and 533 movies across 46 albums..."

User: "Find my favorite sunset photos"
AI: [calls query with keyword=["sunset"], favorite=true]
    "Found 12 favorite sunset photos. Here are the most recent..."

User: "Tell me about the first one"
AI: [calls get-photo with uuid="..."]
    "Taken on 2025-09-14 at 19:47, in Big Sur..."

Two-step: Query then Export

User: "Export all photos of Mollee from the beach to ~/Desktop/mollee-beach"
AI: [calls query with person=["Mollee"], keyword=["beach"]]
    "Found 109 photos."
AI: [calls export with the UUIDs and dest="~/Desktop/mollee-beach"]
    "Exported 109 files to ~/Desktop/mollee-beach."

Seeing Photos: Query then Thumbnail

User: "Show me the best photo from Saturday"
AI: [calls query with fromDate/toDate for Saturday, newestFirst=true]
    "Found 14 photos from Saturday."
AI: [calls get-thumbnail on a few candidates — the images render inline]
    "This one of the lake at sunset is the standout..."

Reviewing Recent Imports

User: "What came off the camera this week?"
AI: [calls query with addedInLast="7d", newestFirst=true, limit=20]
    "23 items imported in the last 7 days; here are the 20 newest..."

User: "Which of those have no keyword yet?"
AI: [calls query with addedInLast="7d", noKeyword=true]
    "9 of them are untagged."

Duplicate Cleanup

User: "Do I have duplicate photos?"
AI: [calls find-duplicates]
    "312 groups of exact duplicates."
AI: [calls get-thumbnail on members of the first few groups to verify visually]
    "Each group is byte-identical — e.g. IMG_3588.HEIC appears twice..."
AI: "I can't delete photos (read-only) — collect one copy of each into a
     quarantine album in Photos.app and delete from there."

With writes enabled, the AI can build that quarantine album itself — the album-quarantine pattern (deletion still happens only in Photos.app, with its 30-day Recently Deleted safety net):

User: "Quarantine the duplicate extras for me."
AI: [calls create-album name="Duplicates — review & delete"]
AI: [calls add-to-album with every group's extra copies (keeping the best of each)]
    "312 extra copies are in 'Duplicates — review & delete'.
     Review the album in Photos.app and delete from there."

Tagging and Filing (write tools)

User: "Tag this week's trailcam imports and file them into the Trailcam album"
AI: [calls query addedInLast="7d"] → UUIDs
AI: [calls create-album name="Trailcam"]        (idempotent — returns the existing album)
AI: [calls add-to-album album="Trailcam" uuid=[...]]
AI: [calls set-keywords per photo, add=["trailcam"]]
    "Filed 34 photos and tagged them 'trailcam' — existing keywords untouched
     (set-keywords merges, never replaces)."

Fixing Wrong Dates (write tools — dry-run first)

User: "Those trailcam photos are stamped with the upload time, not the capture
       time. The strip in the image says 05/14/2026 06:32."
AI: [calls set-photo-date uuid=... date="2026-05-14T06:32:00"]         (dryRun defaults to TRUE)
    "Preview: 2026-07-09T21:14:03 → 2026-05-14T06:32:00. Apply?"
User: "Yes"
AI: [calls set-photo-date uuid=... date="2026-05-14T06:32:00" dryRun=false]
    "Done — and the response echoed the old date, so I can revert if needed."

Whole batches with the same clock offset shift with shiftSeconds instead of an absolute date. Only the Photos-library date changes — the file's EXIF is untouched (same as Photos.app's Adjust Date & Time).

Acting on the Photos.app Selection

User: [selects six photos in Photos.app] "Add these to the Yearbook album"
AI: [calls get-selected-photos] → 6 UUIDs
AI: [calls add-to-album album="Yearbook" uuid=[...]]
    "Filed the 6 selected photos into Yearbook."

Browsing Library Structure

User: "What are my top 10 keywords?"
AI: [calls list-keywords with limit=10]
    "Photo Stream (1561), Mollee (109), beach (109), 2015 Feb Keweenaw..."

User: "Who appears most in my photos?"
AI: [calls list-persons with limit=10]
    "Rita Sweet (29), Robert B Sweet (28), Jennifer Sweet (24)..."

Targeting a Different Library

By default, all operations use the system Photos library. To work with a different .photoslibrary:

User: "Show albums in my old archive at /Volumes/Archive/Photos.photoslibrary"
AI: [calls list-albums with library="/Volumes/Archive/Photos.photoslibrary"]
    "32 albums in the archive..."

Installation Options

npm (Recommended)

npm install -g apple-photos-mcp

osxphotos installs automatically on the first tool call — no separate pip3 install needed.

From Source (with Project-Local venv)

git clone https://github.com/sweetrb/apple-photos-mcp.git
cd apple-photos-mcp
pnpm install
pnpm run setup   # OPTIONAL — pre-builds ./venv with osxphotos; otherwise it's built on first use
pnpm run build

The pnpm run setup step is optional: if you skip it, the server auto-bootstraps the venv on the first tool call (one-time, ~a minute). Running it ahead of time just avoids that first-call delay.

You can also install straight from GitHub with npm install -g github:sweetrb/apple-photos-mcp — but this builds from source at install time (requires pnpm), so prefer the registry install above unless you specifically want an unreleased commit.

If installed from source, use this configuration:

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

The server prefers a project-local venv at ./venv/bin/python3 if present, and otherwise falls back to system python3. If neither has osxphotos, the server auto-builds the venv on first use (unless APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_NO_AUTO_SETUP=1). The venv is also self-healing: it's picked up as soon as it exists — no server restart needed if you build or repair it while the server is running — and is rebuilt automatically if a package update changes its requirements.

Running from a clone in Claude Code (project-scope .mcp.json)

This repo ships a .mcp.json at its root so that, when you run claude from inside a clone, the server is registered automatically as a project-scope server — no manual config needed. Before launching, you must:

1. pnpm run build — compile the TypeScript to build/index.js.

2. pnpm run setup — optional; pre-builds the project-local venv at ./venv with osxphotos (the server prefers ./venv/bin/python3). Skip it and the server builds the venv on the first tool call.

3. Grant Full Disk Access to the app hosting Claude Code (Terminal, iTerm, VS Code, etc.) — the Photos library SQLite is in a protected directory and osxphotos reads it directly. See Full Disk Access.

Then launch Claude Code from the repo directory and approve the server when prompted.

The entrypoint is written as:

"args": ["${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/build/index.js"]

CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR is the variable Claude Code injects into a project/user-scoped server's environment, and it resolves to the repo root. You must launch claude from inside the repo for this to work — the bare . fallback is only a last resort and is not reliable, because it resolves against the launching process's working directory, not the repo.

Why not ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}? CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT is set only for marketplace plugin installs, never for a project-scope clone, so it can't drive the clone workflow. Conversely, a plugin install can't use CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR (in a plugin, that points at the user's project, not the plugin's own directory). Claude Code does not support nested defaults like ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}}, so a single entrypoint string cannot serve both contexts. The two distribution paths are therefore decoupled: the plugin carries its own MCP config in .claude-plugin/plugin.json (using ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}), while the root .mcp.json is dedicated to the clone workflow (using ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}). Because plugin.json declares its own mcpServers, the plugin does not also auto-load the root .mcp.json, so there is no double-registration.

Heads-up on scope precedence: project-scope (.mcp.json) outranks user-scope. If you also have an apple-photos entry registered at user scope (e.g. an absolute path in ~/.claude.json), the project-scope entry wins and the user-scope one is ignored entirely. Pick one — for local development on this repo, the project-scope .mcp.json is the intended source. To pin a specific local build instead, register it at local scope (claude mcp add apple-photos -s local -- node /abs/path/build/index.js), which outranks project scope.

Full Disk Access

The Photos library SQLite database lives in a protected directory (~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/database/). osxphotos reads this database directly — it does not go through Photos.app — so the host process needs Full Disk Access.

How to Grant Full Disk Access

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS)

2. Go to Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access

3. Click the + button

4. Add the application that hosts the MCP server:

   • Claude Desktop: Add /Applications/Claude.app

   • Terminal: Add /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

   • VS Code: Add /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app

   • iTerm: Add /Applications/iTerm.app

5. Restart the application after granting access

Verifying it worked

Run the doctor tool — it explicitly reports the Full Disk Access check (alongside the Python interpreter version, osxphotos install, and library readability) as ok / warn / fail, so it's the best way to confirm the grant took effect. health-check and library-info also work as a quick smoke test.

For the full why-and-how walkthrough, see the Full Disk Access Setup Guide.

Without Full Disk Access

The health-check tool will fail and report a permissions error, and doctor's Full Disk Access check will report fail. No tool will be able to open the library.

Configuration

All configuration is optional — the server works out of the box.

Environment variables

Configuration file (when the host strips env)

Some host apps (e.g. Claude Desktop) launch the MCP server with a scrubbed environment and ignore the env block in their server config, so there's no way to pass APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_* settings through it. In that case, put them in a JSON file the host doesn't manage — APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_CONFIG_FILE, or by default ~/Library/Application Support/apple-photos-mcp/config.json:

{
  "APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_MAX_BUFFER": "209715200",
  "APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES": "1"
}

(The second line opts in to the write tools — omit it to keep the server read-only.)

The server reads it at startup and merges values into the environment without overriding anything already set there (so an explicit env still wins). This is the recommended way to configure the server under Claude Desktop. Keep only non-secret config here.

Architecture

This package is a TypeScript MCP server with a Python sidecar:

• The MCP server (Node) speaks the Model Context Protocol over stdio. Every tool's inputSchema and outputSchema is advertised as JSON Schema 2020-12 — the dialect MCP standardized on and the only one modern clients will validate against. The MCP SDK's zod converter still emits draft-07, so the outgoing tools/list payload is normalized at the transport boundary (src/utils/jsonSchemaDialect.ts).

• A bundled Python script (src/utils/photos_reader.py) uses osxphotos to read the Photos library and returns JSON.

• The sidecar runs as a persistent process (photos_reader.py --serve): the TypeScript side spawns it once on first use and sends it line-delimited JSON requests over stdin, behind a serial gate (exactly one request in flight at a time). The Node event loop stays free, so the server keeps answering MCP traffic (pings, health-check, doctor) even during a long query or a minutes-long iCloud export.

• If serve mode is unavailable (old script, broken environment), the server transparently falls back to spawning a fresh one-shot Python process per call — same results, same error messages, just slower. doctor's sidecar_mode check reports which mode is active.

Performance

Opening a Photos library is expensive: python startup + import osxphotos + a full parse of the library database — about 4 seconds on a ~30k-photo library, and it grows with library size. The persistent sidecar pays that cost once: the parsed library stays resident, and follow-up calls complete in milliseconds (measured: ~4.5 s cold, then 6–160 ms warm on a 31k-photo library). Freshness is preserved — before every request the sidecar checks the library's Photos.sqlite modification time and re-parses automatically the moment the library changes (an import, an edit, an album rename). An idle sidecar is killed after APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_SIDECAR_IDLE_MS (default 5 min) to free memory, and the next call respawns it — so the ~4 s cost recurs only on the first call after a quiet period or a library change.

This is the same TS + Python-sidecar pattern used by apple-numbers-mcp for the numbers-parser Python library.

Security and Privacy

• Local only — All operations happen locally via osxphotos. No data is sent to external servers.

• Read-only by default — the library is never modified unless you explicitly set APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES=1 (see Write tools (opt-in)). Even with writes enabled, the tools are limited to album membership, photo metadata (titles, keywords, favorites, dates), and add-only imports — nothing can delete a photo — and every write requires explicit UUIDs/names/paths (no wildcard operations).

• Exports write to disk — export writes files to the destination directory you specify, and only into an allowlisted location: the destination must resolve (symlinks included) to a path under your home directory, /tmp, /private/tmp, or /Volumes. Confirm destinations before running on shared machines.

• No credential storage — The server doesn't store any passwords or authentication tokens.

Known Limitations

For the full rundown — read-only scope, iCloud export caveats, face/album behavior, and library lag — see docs/LIMITATIONS.md. For what query can and cannot filter by (and how), see docs/QUERY-GUIDE.md. The summary below is the quick version.

Troubleshooting

The first tool call is slow / "setting up the Python venv" in the logs

• This is expected: it's the one-time automatic venv build (creating ./venv and installing osxphotos). It can take ~a minute and logs progress to stderr. Subsequent calls are fast. Pre-warm with pnpm run setup to avoid it.

• If the build keeps hitting a timeout on a slow network, raise APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_SETUP_TIMEOUT (milliseconds; default 5 min).

"osxphotos not installed"

• Most common cause: your python3 is older than 3.11. Stock macOS ships Python 3.9, which is too old for the automatic venv setup to succeed. Install a newer Python (brew install python@3.12), then simply retry the tool call — the venv rebuilds automatically.

• Auto-setup also can't run when pip or network access is unavailable, or when you set APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_NO_AUTO_SETUP=1. Fix the missing piece (or unset the variable) and retry — or install by hand with pip3 install osxphotos (global) or scripts/setup.sh / pnpm run setup from a repo checkout (project-local venv).

• Run the doctor tool for a per-check diagnosis of what's missing.

• If you used a virtualenv, make sure it's the one at ./venv/ in the project directory.

"Library not found" or permission errors

• Grant Full Disk Access to the host app — see Full Disk Access.

• Verify the library path: default is ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary.

Photo not found / "Photo not found: "

• The UUID may be wrong — re-run query to get current UUIDs.

• The photo may have been permanently deleted from the library.

• export says "UUID not found (deleted or in trash)" but get-photo returns the photo? The photo is in Recently Deleted: get-photo falls back to the trash, while query and export read the main library only. Restore the photo in Photos.app to export it.

Exports skip files with "missing"

• Since 0.1.3, the export auto-downloads iCloud-only originals via Photos.app, so this skip should be rare. If it still happens:

  • "original not downloaded from iCloud (download attempt returned no files)" — Photos.app couldn't fetch it. Check iCloud connectivity, that you're signed in, and that the photo isn't excluded by a Photos sync setting.

  • "Photo does not have adjustments..." — edited=true was requested but the photo has no edited version. Retry without that flag.

  • "raw component not on disk (Photos.app fallback cannot fetch raw originals)" — raw=true was requested but the raw file isn't downloaded locally. Retry without the flag, or download the original in Photos.app first (File → Download Originals to this Mac).

"Write tools are disabled — apple-photos-mcp is read-only by default"

• Working as designed: the write tools require an explicit opt-in. Set APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES=1 in the server's environment or in ~/Library/Application Support/apple-photos-mcp/config.json, then restart the MCP server — see Write tools (opt-in).

• Run the doctor tool to confirm the gate state (its writes check reports enabled/disabled and, when enabled, whether the photoscript backend and Photos.app look usable).

Write tools fail with an AppleScript / "not authorized" error

• The host app needs macOS Automation permission to control Photos.app. The first write normally triggers a one-time system prompt — click OK. If it was denied, re-enable it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation → (your host app) → Photos, then retry.

• In headless contexts (no GUI session) the prompt can't be shown and the write fails with error -1743; run the first write from a normal GUI session once to grant it.

• Writes launch Photos.app if it isn't running — the first write after a reboot can take noticeably longer while Photos starts.

Photos.app errors when running

• Closing Photos.app may resolve database-lock errors. osxphotos opens the library in read-only mode but still requires that no writer holds an exclusive lock.

Every tool is rejected: "invalid outputSchema … unsupported dialect"

• The full message is Tool '<name>' has an invalid outputSchema: JSON Schema declares an unsupported dialect ("$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"). The default validator supports JSON Schema 2020-12 only. The server connects, but no tool is usable.

• Upgrade to apple-photos-mcp 2.1.10 or later (npx -y apple-photos-mcp@latest, or pnpm run build from a clone) and restart the host app. Versions up to 2.1.9 advertised draft-07 schemas because the MCP SDK's zod converter emits that dialect; 2.1.10 normalizes every advertised schema to 2020-12.

• Nothing else changes — no tool, parameter, or result differs between the two dialects for this server.

apple-photos server fails to connect when run from a clone

• Launch claude from inside the repo directory so CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR resolves to the repo root. The bare . fallback resolves against the launching process's working directory, not the repo, and is unreliable.

• Run pnpm run build first — the entrypoint ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/build/index.js won't exist until you compile.

• The ./venv with osxphotos builds automatically on the first tool call; run pnpm run setup only to pre-warm it, or if you've set APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_NO_AUTO_SETUP=1.

• Grant Full Disk Access to the host app (Terminal, iTerm, VS Code, etc.) — see Full Disk Access.

• Run claude mcp list and check for conflicting scopes. Project-scope (.mcp.json) outranks user-scope; a stale user-scope apple-photos entry pointing at a bad path can mask the project-scope one. To pin a specific build, register it at local scope: claude mcp add apple-photos -s local -- node /abs/path/build/index.js.

• If the server shows as pending, approve the project-scope server when Claude Code prompts you.

Development

pnpm install            # Install dependencies
pnpm run setup          # Create ./venv with osxphotos
pnpm run build          # Compile TypeScript
pnpm test               # Run unit tests
pnpm run test:integration  # Run integration tests against the real Photos library
pnpm run test:all       # Unit + integration
pnpm run test:coverage  # Unit tests with coverage report
pnpm run typecheck      # Type-check without emitting
pnpm run lint           # Check code style
pnpm run format         # Format code

The Python sidecar is a thin CLI that the TypeScript layer shells out to:

./venv/bin/python3 src/utils/photos_reader.py library-info
./venv/bin/python3 src/utils/photos_reader.py query --keyword sunset --limit 5
./venv/bin/python3 src/utils/photos_reader.py export --uuid <uuid> --dest /tmp/out

Author

Rob Sweet - President, Superior Technologies Research

A software consulting, contracting, and development company.

• Email: rob@superiortech.io

• GitHub: @sweetrb

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details. This project is not affiliated with Apple Inc. or the osxphotos project.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or PR at github.com/sweetrb/apple-photos-mcp.

Related Projects

Part of a family of macOS MCP servers:

• apple-mail-mcp — MCP server for Apple Mail (read, search, send, and organize email)

• apple-notes-mcp — MCP server for Apple Notes (create, search, update, and export notes)

• apple-numbers-mcp — MCP server for Apple Numbers (read and write .numbers spreadsheets)

• osxphotos — The Python library that powers this server

Recurring macOS permission prompts

If macOS keeps re-prompting for Full Disk Access or Automation for node (often after a brew upgrade), see docs/NODE-RUNTIME-AND-TCC-PERMISSIONS.md — the fix is to run this server under the official, Developer-ID-signed Node so the grant survives Node updates.