macos-control-mcp

Give AI agents eyes and hands on macOS.

What is this?

An MCP server that lets AI agents see your screen, read text on it, and interact — click, type, scroll — just like a human sitting at the keyboard. Unlike blind script runners, this MCP gives agents state awareness: they screenshot the screen, OCR it to get text with pixel coordinates, then click exactly where they need to.

The See-Think-Act Loop

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                 │
│   1. SEE        screenshot / screen_ocr         │
│      ↓          "What's on the screen?"         │
│                                                 │
│   2. THINK      AI reasons about the content    │
│      ↓          "I need to click the Save btn"  │
│                                                 │
│   3. ACT        click_at / type_text / press_key│
│                 "Click at (425, 300)"           │
│                                                 │
│      ↻ repeat                                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

This is what makes it powerful: the agent sees the result of every action and can course-correct, retry, or move on — just like you would.

Quick Start

No install needed — run directly with npx:

npx -y macos-control-mcp

On first run, a Python virtual environment is automatically created at ~/.macos-control-mcp/.venv with the required Apple Vision and Quartz frameworks. This takes ~60 seconds once and persists across updates.

Video Showcasing the MCP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aswlsElHV5o

Configure Your AI Client

All clients use the same command: npx -y macos-control-mcp

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

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

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

claude mcp add macos-control -- npx -y macos-control-mcp

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "macos-control": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "macos-control-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project:

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

Open Cline extension settings → MCP Servers → Add:

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

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

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

Permissions

macOS requires two permissions for full functionality:

1. Screen Recording — for screenshots and OCR
2. Accessibility — for clicking, typing, and reading UI elements

Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and add your terminal app (Terminal, iTerm2, VS Code, etc.) to both lists. You'll be prompted on first use.

Tools (19)

See the screen

Interact with the screen

App management

Accessibility tree

Browser automation

Utilities

Example Workflows

Fill out a web form

You: "Go to example.com/signup and fill in my details"

Agent:
1. open_url("https://example.com/signup")
2. screenshot() → sees the form
3. screen_ocr() → finds "Email" field at (300, 250)
4. click_at(300, 250) → clicks the email field
5. type_text("user@example.com")
6. find_text_on_screen("Submit") → gets button coordinates
7. click_at(350, 500) → submits the form
8. screenshot() → confirms success

Navigate an unfamiliar app

You: "Change the font size to 16 in TextEdit"

Agent:
1. launch_app("TextEdit")
2. screenshot() → sees the app
3. get_ui_elements("TextEdit") → finds menu items
4. press_key("t", ["command"]) → opens Fonts panel
5. screenshot() → sees the font panel
6. find_text_on_screen("Size") → locates the size field
7. click_at(x, y) → clicks size field
8. type_text("16")
9. press_key("return")

Extract info from an email

You: "Copy the tracking number from the shipping email in Mail"

Agent:
1. launch_app("Mail")
2. screenshot() → sees the inbox
3. find_text_on_screen("Your order has shipped") → locates the email
4. click_at(x, y) → opens the email
5. screenshot() → sees the email content
6. screen_ocr() → extracts all text including tracking number
7. set_clipboard("1Z999AA10123456784") → copies to clipboard

Take a screenshot and describe what's on screen

You: "What do I have open right now?"

Agent:
1. screenshot() → captures the full screen
2. Describes what it sees: apps, windows, content
3. list_running_apps() → ["Safari", "Slack", "VS Code", "Spotify"]
4. "You have Safari open on Twitter, Slack with 3 unread messages, and VS Code editing index.ts"

Debug a UI issue

You: "The submit button on this page isn't working, can you check what's happening?"

Agent:
1. screenshot() → sees the page
2. find_text_on_screen("Submit") → locates button at (500, 600)
3. get_ui_elements("Safari") → inspects accessibility tree
4. "The button has aria-disabled=true. There's a required field 'Phone' that's empty."
5. find_text_on_screen("Phone") → locates the field
6. click_at(x, y) → clicks the field
7. type_text("+1 555-0123")
8. click_at(500, 600) → clicks Submit again
9. screenshot() → confirms it worked

Control Spotify

You: "Pause the music and turn the volume down"

Agent:
1. launch_app("Spotify")
2. screenshot() → sees Spotify is playing
3. find_text_on_screen("Pause") → locates pause button
4. click_at(x, y) → pauses playback
5. find_text_on_screen("Volume") → locates volume slider area
6. click_at(x, y) → adjusts volume
7. screenshot() → confirms paused and volume lowered

Work with Finder

You: "Create a new folder on my Desktop called 'Project Assets' and move it to Documents"

Agent:
1. launch_app("Finder")
2. press_key("d", ["command", "shift"]) → opens Desktop
3. screenshot() → sees Desktop in Finder
4. press_key("n", ["command", "shift"]) → creates new folder
5. type_text("Project Assets")
6. press_key("return")
7. screenshot() → confirms folder created

Send a message in Slack

You: "Send 'build is green, ready to deploy' in the #engineering channel on Slack"

Agent:
1. launch_app("Slack")
2. screenshot() → sees Slack
3. press_key("k", ["command"]) → opens Quick Switcher
4. type_text("engineering")
5. press_key("return") → opens #engineering
6. screenshot() → confirms channel is open
7. click_at(x, y) → clicks message input
8. type_text("build is green, ready to deploy")
9. press_key("return") → sends message
10. screenshot() → confirms sent

Research and copy data from a website

You: "Look up the current price of AAPL on Google Finance and copy it"

Agent:
1. open_url("https://google.com/finance/quote/AAPL:NASDAQ")
2. screenshot() → sees the page loading
3. screen_ocr() → reads all text on the page
4. Finds the price: "$187.42"
5. set_clipboard("$187.42")
6. "Copied AAPL price $187.42 to your clipboard"

Multi-app workflow

You: "Take what's in my clipboard, search for it in Safari, and screenshot the results"

Agent:
1. get_clipboard() → "best mechanical keyboards 2025"
2. launch_app("Safari")
3. press_key("l", ["command"]) → focuses address bar
4. type_text("best mechanical keyboards 2025")
5. press_key("return") → searches
6. screenshot() → captures the search results
7. "Here are the search results for 'best mechanical keyboards 2025'"

Navigate System Settings

You: "Turn on Dark Mode"

Agent:
1. launch_app("System Settings")
2. screenshot() → sees System Settings
3. find_text_on_screen("Appearance") → locates the option
4. click_at(x, y) → opens Appearance settings
5. screenshot() → sees Light/Dark/Auto options
6. find_text_on_screen("Dark") → locates Dark mode option
7. click_at(x, y) → enables Dark Mode
8. screenshot() → confirms Dark Mode is on

Requirements

• macOS 13+ (Ventura or later)
• Node.js 18+
• Python 3.9+ (pre-installed on macOS — needed for OCR and mouse control)

How It Works

• Screenshots — native screencapture CLI
• OCR — Apple Vision framework (VNRecognizeTextRequest) via Python bridge, returns text with bounding box coordinates
• Mouse — Quartz Core Graphics events via Python bridge for precise pixel-level control
• Keyboard & Apps — AppleScript via osascript for key presses, app launching, and UI element interaction
• Python env — auto-managed venv at ~/.macos-control-mcp/.venv/ with only two packages (pyobjc-framework-Vision, pyobjc-framework-Quartz)

Troubleshooting

"Permission denied" or blank screenshots → Add your terminal to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording

Clicks don't work → Add your terminal to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility

Python setup fails → Ensure python3 is in your PATH. Run python3 --version to check. Non-Python tools (keyboard, apps, clipboard) still work without it.

OCR returns empty results → Make sure Screen Recording permission is granted. Try a full-screen OCR first (without the app parameter).

"App not found" errors → Use the exact app name as shown in Activity Monitor (e.g., "Google Chrome" not "Chrome").

License

MIT