Now MCP

Now MCP synchronizes data known to an iOS app at its most recent sync to a self-hosted server and exposes that data through Remote MCP. It does not claim continuous background or real-time observation.

Requirements

• Node.js 24 LTS and npm 11

• Xcode 26 or newer with an iOS 26 or newer Simulator runtime

• XcodeGen 2.44 or newer only when regenerating the committed Xcode project

Related MCP server: AppScope MCP Server

Server

npm install
npm run generate:tokens > .env
npm run dev
curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/healthz

npm run generate:tokens creates independent random DEVICE_TOKEN and MCP_TOKEN values. Use npm run generate:tokens -- --json when a script needs machine-readable output. Keep the generated .env private; production supervisors should inject these values through their secret configuration.

The health endpoint returns HTTP 200 with status: "ok". Run the full server check with npm run verify:server.

Configuration keys are documented in .env.example. npm run dev and npm start load .env automatically from the current package directory (and fall back to the repository root when run from server/). Injected environment variables take precedence. Never reuse the example token values.

Phase 2 adds the authenticated sync API. See the complete request and response contract in Sync API. A minimal status request is:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $DEVICE_TOKEN" \
  http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/sync/status

Phase 3 adds the MCP endpoint at POST /mcp. Configure a Streamable HTTP client with Authorization: Bearer <MCP_TOKEN>; this credential must differ from the device credential. See MCP Server for tools and error semantics.

iOS app

Open ios/Now.xcodeproj, select an iOS 26 or newer simulator, and run the Now scheme. To regenerate the checked-in project after editing ios/project.yml:

cd ios
xcodegen generate

For a non-signing command-line build:

xcodebuild -project ios/Now.xcodeproj -scheme Now \
  -sdk iphonesimulator -destination 'generic/platform=iOS Simulator' \
  -derivedDataPath /tmp/now-mcp-derived-data CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO build

Documentation

• Architecture

• MCP Server

• Platform, deployment, and secrets decision

• Implementation phases

macOS client

The macOS command-line client is in macos/. Build it with swift build and run it with NOW_SERVER_URL, NOW_DEVICE_TOKEN, and a stable NOW_DEVICE_ID. It invokes dayflow export --json for historical app usage and uploads a minute-sized sample for the current frontmost app. macOS privacy permissions and the installed Dayflow CLI determine which rows are available.

Phases 0-5 are implemented: the server has a repeatable SQLite migration, typed repositories, 30-day retention, an authenticated versioned batch sync API, and seven authenticated read-only MCP tools. The iOS app now requests read-only HealthKit access, persists an idempotent offline queue, uploads with the device token, and presents Liquid Glass overview, detail, access, and sync controls. The iOS project now contains an isolated screen-time feasibility collector. It can request individual Family Controls authorization when the framework is available and reports the remaining DeviceActivityReport extension boundary. Apple does not provide a supported API for the containing app to retrieve and serialize arbitrary historical per-app report rows, so screen-time upload is not enabled. The collector's failure cannot block HealthKit synchronization.

The app also registers HealthKit background delivery and iOS BackgroundTasks for opportunistic refresh and processing. See iOS background sync for the scheduling limits and the conditions under which an upload can be deferred.