apple-photos-mcp
Advanced tools
MCP server for Apple Photos - query, search, export, and inspect the macOS Photos library via Claude and other AI assistants, plus opt-in album/metadata write tools (read-only by default)
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.
This server acts as a bridge between AI assistants and Apple Photos. Once configured, you can ask Claude (or any MCP-compatible AI) to:
get-thumbnail returns viewable images)addedInLast), "Find my screenshots from 2024"find-duplicates groups exact duplicates)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.
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.
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:
~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/apple-photos-mcp/, and the server runs straight from that clone (no build step needed).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).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.
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).
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?"
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.~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary)| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Library Stats | Total counts of photos, movies, albums, folders, keywords, persons |
| Query | Search by taken-date or import-date range (addedInLast: "7d" for "recently imported"), album, keyword, person, ML label, place name, GPS radius (near), folder, year, file size, media type (screenshot, screen recording, selfie, panorama, live, portrait, time-lapse, slow-mo, burst), aesthetic score (minScore), OCR-detected text (detectedText), favorite/hidden flags, or title/description substring — with newestFirst ordering |
| Photo Details | Full metadata for one photo: dimensions, location, place, EXIF camera data (make/model, lens, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, focal length), Photos' ML intelligence (aesthetic score, OCR detectedText), shared-album social data (owner, comments, likes), optional burst-sibling expansion, and type flags (HDR, live, portrait, panorama, raw, edited, etc.) |
| Batch Details | get-photos fetches full metadata for up to 50 UUIDs in one call |
| Selection Bridge | get-selected-photos returns the photos currently selected in the Photos.app window — "act on these photos" |
| Thumbnails | get-thumbnail returns a photo as an inline viewable image (MCP image content block) from Photos' pre-generated derivatives — see photos without exporting |
| Find Duplicates | find-duplicates groups exact duplicates using Photos' own fingerprint detection |
| List Albums | All albums with their folder paths and photo counts |
| List Folders | All folders with parent and album/subfolder counts |
| List Keywords | Keywords sorted by usage count |
| List Persons | People detected by Photos face recognition, sorted by photo count |
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Export Originals | Copy original photos to a destination directory |
| Export Edited | Copy the edited version instead of the original |
| Live Photos | Optionally include the live-photo video alongside the still |
| Raw Files | Optionally include the raw (NEF, CR2, etc.) sidecar |
| Multi-photo Export | Export multiple UUIDs in a single call |
| Auto iCloud Download | If an original isn't on disk, export falls back to Photos.app to download it on demand — no extra parameter needed |
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Create Album | create-album creates an album (optionally nested in a folder path); idempotent — an existing album of that name is returned instead of duplicated |
| Add to Album | add-to-album files photos (by UUID) into an album; idempotent, reports added / already-present / not-found per UUID |
| Remove from Album | remove-from-album takes photos out of an album — never out of the library (see the caveats) |
| Set Metadata | set-photo-metadata sets title / description / favorite, echoing before/after values so changes can be reverted |
| Set Keywords | set-keywords adds/removes keywords with union semantics — existing keywords you don't mention are always preserved |
| Set Date | set-photo-date fixes a photo's date/time (absolute or shifted by seconds) — dry run by default, with before/after echoed for reverts; Photos-library date only, EXIF untouched |
| Import | import-photos brings files into the library (optionally into an existing album) — add-only, with source paths validated against the same allowlist as export |
All seven are disabled unless APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES=1 — see Write tools (opt-in). None of them can delete a photo.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Health Check | Verify osxphotos is installed and the library can be opened |
| Doctor | Richer setup diagnostic — six checks: Python interpreter (path + version), osxphotos install, sidecar mode (persistent vs one-shot fallback), the write-tools gate (enabled/disabled + backend readiness), Photos library readability, and Full Disk Access, each reported ok / warn / fail with actionable advice |
Read tools also return structured JSON (structuredContent) alongside the human-readable text, so agents can consume results without parsing prose.
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.
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).
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.notFound lists; import source paths must exist under the same allowlist roots as export).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.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.)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.This section documents all available tools. AI agents should use these tool names and parameters exactly as specified.
health-checkVerify 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.
doctorRun 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-infoHigh-level stats about the Photos library.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary (defaults to system library) |
Returns: Library path, Photos DB version, Photos.app version, counts of photos / movies / albums / folders / keywords / persons.
querySearch 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.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string[] | No | Specific UUIDs to fetch (max 1000 entries, each ≤ 256 chars) |
album | string[] | No | Album name(s); ANY-match, exact full folder path + name (max 100 entries) |
keyword | string[] | No | Keyword(s); ANY-match, exact whole-string (max 100 entries) |
person | string[] | No | Person name(s); ANY-match, exact whole-string (max 100 entries) |
fromDate | string | No | ISO 8601 inclusive lower bound on photo date (e.g. "2025-06-01") |
toDate | string | No | ISO 8601 upper bound on photo date. A bare date (e.g. "2025-06-30") includes that whole day; a full datetime (e.g. "2025-06-30T18:00:00") is a precise exclusive bound |
favorite | boolean | No | Only favorites |
notFavorite | boolean | No | Exclude favorites |
hidden | boolean | No | Only hidden photos |
notHidden | boolean | No | Exclude hidden photos (default behavior) |
photos | boolean | No | Include still photos |
movies | boolean | No | Include movies |
title | string | No | Substring match on title (case-sensitive, ≤ 1024 chars) |
description | string | No | Substring match on description (case-sensitive, ≤ 2048 chars) |
addedAfter | string | No | ISO 8601 inclusive lower bound on IMPORT date (dateAdded — when the photo entered the library, not when it was taken) |
addedBefore | string | No | ISO 8601 upper bound on import date; a bare date includes that whole day |
addedInLast | string | No | Imported within a trailing window — "<number><unit>", unit s/m/h/d/w (e.g. "7d", "24h") |
label | string[] | No | ML classification label(s) Photos computed (the labels field of get-photo, e.g. Dog, Beach); ANY-match, exact whole-string (max 100) |
folder | string[] | No | Folder name(s)/path(s) — photos in albums inside the folder; ANY-match (max 100) |
place | string[] | No | Place-name substring(s) from reverse geocoding (city, region, landmark). Multiple values are ANDed, not ORed (max 100) |
hasLocation | boolean | No | true = only photos WITH GPS coordinates; false = only photos WITHOUT; omit for no filter |
near | string | No | GPS-radius filter: "lat,lon,radiusKm" (e.g. "46.5,-87.4,5") — only photos within the great-circle radius of the point. Composes (AND) with every other filter; photos without GPS data never match |
year | number[] | No | Taken in calendar year(s); ANY-match (max 100) |
minSize | number | No | Original file size at least this many bytes |
maxSize | number | No | Original file size at most this many bytes |
noKeyword | boolean | No | Only photos carrying no keyword at all |
burst | boolean | No | Only burst photos |
screenshot / screenRecording / selfie / panorama / live / portrait / timelapse / slowMo | boolean | No | Media-type filters — each true narrows to only that type |
video | boolean | No | Only videos/movies (alias of movies) |
minScore | number | No | Only photos whose Photos-computed overall aesthetic score (0–1) is at least this (e.g. 0.7 for "the good ones"). Post-filter; photos without a computed score never match |
detectedText | string | No | Case-insensitive substring over the text Photos' own OCR indexed per photo (macOS 13+) — receipts, signs, screenshots. Post-filter that reads per-photo search info, so combine with narrowing filters on big libraries |
newestFirst | boolean | No | Sort by taken date, newest first, before limit is applied — so limit means "the N most recent matches" |
limit | number | No | Cap the number of results returned (default 500 when omitted, max 100000) |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
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-photoGet full metadata for a single photo by UUID.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string | Yes | Photo UUID, as returned by query (hexadecimal segments separated by dashes, max 256 chars — anything else is rejected before the library is even opened) |
burstPhotos | boolean | No | true = also return burstPhotos: the other frames of this photo's burst set (UUID, filename, date each; empty when the photo isn't a burst member) |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
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-photosGet 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.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string[] | Yes | 1–50 photo UUIDs, as returned by query (same hex-with-dashes format as get-photo) |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
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-photosGet 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:
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-thumbnailReturn 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.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string | Yes | Photo UUID, as returned by query |
minSize | number | No | Smallest acceptable long-edge size in pixels (default 360, max 8192). The smallest qualifying derivative is served — raise it (e.g. 1024) when you need detail like small text |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
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-duplicatesGroup exact duplicates using Photos' own fingerprint-based detection — the same data behind Photos' Duplicates album, no export or hashing required.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
limit | number | No | Max duplicate groups to return (default 100, max 10000; groupCount reports the total) |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
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.
list-albumsList all albums in the library.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
Returns: Each album's title, folder path, photo count, shared status, and UUID. iCloud Shared Albums are included and flagged isShared: true.
list-foldersList all folders in the library.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
Returns: Each folder's title, parent folder, album count, and subfolder count.
list-keywordsList keywords sorted by usage count.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
limit | number | No | Cap to top-N keywords (max 100000) |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
Returns: Keywords with their photo counts, sorted descending.
list-personsList people detected by Photos face recognition, sorted by photo count.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
limit | number | No | Cap to top-N persons (max 100000) |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
Returns: Persons with their photo counts, sorted descending. Unidentified faces appear as _UNKNOWN_.
exportExport one or more photos by UUID to a destination directory.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string[] | Yes | Photo UUID(s) to export (1–1000 entries, each ≤ 256 chars) |
dest | string | Yes | Destination directory (created if missing). Must resolve — after expanding ~ and following symlinks — to a path under your home directory, /tmp, /private/tmp, or /Volumes; anything else is rejected |
edited | boolean | No | Export the edited version instead of the original |
live | boolean | No | Also export the live-photo video |
raw | boolean | No | Also export the raw image |
overwrite | boolean | No | Overwrite existing files at the destination. Without it, a photo whose file already exists is skipped (reported per-UUID) — never duplicated |
library | string | No | Path to a non-default .photoslibrary |
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.)
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-albumCreate an album — or return the existing one of that name (created: false), so re-running a filing workflow never piles up duplicates.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
name | string | Yes | Album name (≤ 255 chars) |
folder | string | No | Folder path to nest the album under, /-separated for nesting (e.g. "Trips/2026"); folders are created as needed. (Folder names containing a literal / are not addressable.) |
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-albumAdd photos (by UUID) to an album (by name or UUID). Idempotent — Photos albums are sets.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
album | string | Yes | Album name or UUID (UUID-looking values try the id lookup first, then fall back to a name match) |
uuid | string[] | Yes | Photo UUID(s) to add (1–100) |
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-albumRemove photos from an album — never from the library (they remain in All Photos and every other album).
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
album | string | Yes | Album name or UUID |
uuid | string[] | Yes | Photo UUID(s) to remove from the album (1–100) |
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-metadataSet a photo's title, description, and/or favorite flag. Only the fields you pass are touched.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string | Yes | Photo UUID |
title | string | No | New title (≤ 255 chars; empty string clears it) |
description | string | No | New description (≤ 2048 chars; empty string clears it) |
favorite | boolean | No | Set or clear the favorite flag |
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-keywordsAdd 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.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string | Yes | Photo UUID |
add | string[] | No | Keywords to add (≤ 100 entries, each ≤ 255 chars; created in Photos if new) |
remove | string[] | No | Keywords to remove from this photo (≤ 100 entries, each ≤ 255 chars; exact match) |
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-dateFix 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.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
uuid | string | Yes | Photo UUID |
date | string | * | Absolute new date-time, ISO 8601 (e.g. "2026-05-14T06:32:00"), interpreted in the Mac's local timezone unless a UTC offset is included |
shiftSeconds | number | * | Shift the current date by this many seconds (negative = earlier; -86400 = one day back) |
dryRun | boolean | No | Default true — preview the before/after dates without writing. Pass false to apply |
* 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-photosImport 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).
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
paths | string[] | Yes | 1–50 absolute (or ~-prefixed) file paths. Each must exist, under your home directory, /tmp, /private/tmp, or /Volumes |
album | string | No | Existing album (name or UUID) to file the imports into — create it with create-album first; a missing album is an error, not auto-created |
skipDuplicateCheck | boolean | No | Default false: Photos checks for duplicates, and a found duplicate raises a blocking dialog in Photos.app that a human must answer. true skips the check — duplicates WILL be re-imported silently |
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.
Getting query filters right (date forms, AND/OR semantics, exact-match rules, ordering, paging) is covered in the Query Guide.
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..."
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."
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..."
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."
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."
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)."
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).
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."
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)..."
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..."
npm install -g apple-photos-mcp
osxphotos installs automatically on the first tool call — no separate pip3 install needed.
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.
.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:
pnpm run build — compile the TypeScript to build/index.js.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.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
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}?CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOTis set only for marketplace plugin installs, never for a project-scope clone, so it can't drive the clone workflow. Conversely, a plugin install can't useCLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR(in a plugin, that points at the user's project, not the plugin's own directory). Claude Code does not support nested defaults like${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.jsonis dedicated to the clone workflow (using${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}). Becauseplugin.jsondeclares its ownmcpServers, 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 anapple-photosentry 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.jsonis 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.
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.
/Applications/Claude.app/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Applications/iTerm.appRun 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.
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.
All configuration is optional — the server works out of the box.
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES | unset (read-only) | Set to 1 to enable the write tools (create-album, add-to-album, remove-from-album, set-photo-metadata, set-keywords, set-photo-date, import-photos). Until then every write tool returns a clear opt-in error and the server cannot modify the library. Restart the server after changing it. |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_MAX_BUFFER | 104857600 (100 MB) | Max bytes captured from the Python sidecar's stdout. Raise it if a very large library/query is truncated; lower it to cap memory. |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_TIMEOUT | 60000 (60 s) | Default per-command timeout, in milliseconds, for the Python sidecar. The first (cold) call parses the whole Photos database, and on very large libraries (100k+ photos) that load alone can exceed 60 s — raise this if tools report "Operation timed out". It sets only the DEFAULT budget — it applies to query, get-photo, get-photos, get-thumbnail, library-info, list-albums, list-folders, list-keywords, list-persons and health-check, and is ignored by every tool that carries a fixed budget: get-selected-photos 2 min; find-duplicates, create-album, add-to-album, set-photo-metadata, set-keywords and set-photo-date 5 min; remove-from-album and import-photos 10 min; export 30 min. Those budgets are not configurable — a timeout on one of them says so instead of pointing here. |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_STALE_WHILE_REVALIDATE | unset (off) | Set to 1 to serve the previously parsed library immediately when Photos.sqlite has changed, and re-parse on a background thread instead of blocking the request. The persistent sidecar re-validates its parsed PhotosDB against Photos.sqlite's mtime on every call, so any write to the library — a phone sync, an edit, Photos.app housekeeping — makes the next request pay a full re-parse; on a 15 GB library that is minutes. With this set, that request answers from the last good parse and the refresh lands behind it. The trade is freshness: a result may predate an import by one refresh cycle, and responses carry dbStale: true while that is the case. Peak memory roughly doubles during a refresh, since both parses are briefly resident. Worth setting only on libraries big enough for the parse to dominate. |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_PERSISTENT_SIDECAR | unset (persistent mode on) | Set to 0 (or false) to disable the long-lived serve-mode sidecar and spawn a fresh Python process per call (pre-1.4.0 behavior). Every call then re-pays the full library parse — only useful for debugging. |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_SIDECAR_IDLE_MS | 300000 (5 min) | How long the persistent sidecar may sit idle before it's killed to free memory (a resident parsed library holds hundreds of MB for large libraries). The next call transparently respawns it, re-paying the one-time parse. 0 = never kill on idle. |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_NO_AUTO_SETUP | unset (auto-setup on) | Set to 1 (or any truthy value) to disable the automatic first-use venv bootstrap. With it on, you must run pnpm run setup (or pip3 install osxphotos) yourself. |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_SETUP_TIMEOUT | 300000 (5 min) | Max time, in milliseconds, the automatic venv bootstrap may run before it's aborted. Raise it on slow networks where the osxphotos install needs longer. Also bounds how long a second server instance waits on the cross-process setup lock for a concurrent bootstrap to finish (simultaneous first calls can't corrupt the venv). |
APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_CONFIG_FILE | ~/Library/Application Support/apple-photos-mcp/config.json | Path to the JSON config file (see below). |
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.
This package is a TypeScript MCP server with a Python sidecar:
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).src/utils/photos_reader.py) uses osxphotos to read the Photos library and returns JSON.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.doctor's sidecar_mode check reports which mode is active.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.
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).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.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.
| Limitation | Reason |
|---|---|
| macOS only | Apple Photos and osxphotos are macOS-specific |
| Read-only by default | osxphotos reads the Photos library directly; the write tools are opt-in (APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_ENABLE_WRITES=1) and limited to albums, metadata (incl. dates), and add-only imports |
| No photo deletion | Deliberate: no tool deletes photos, albums, or folders — quarantine into an album and delete in Photos.app |
remove-from-album rebuilds the album | Photos' AppleScript has no remove verb — the album's UUID changes and manual sort order is lost |
| Writes target the open library | AppleScript talks to whatever library Photos.app has open — the library parameter applies to read tools only |
| Writes need Automation permission | Driving Photos.app via AppleScript triggers a one-time macOS Automation prompt for the host app |
| Full Disk Access required | The Photos library SQLite database is in a protected directory |
| iCloud-only export is slower | Originals that aren't on disk are downloaded on demand via Photos.app/AppleScript. The export still succeeds, but takes longer than a local copy and requires Photos.app to be installed and signed in to iCloud |
| Photos.app may lock the library | If Photos.app is mid-write, opening the library can fail; close Photos.app and retry |
| Person filter requires named faces | osxphotos cannot filter by unnamed/unrecognized faces |
./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.APPLE_PHOTOS_MCP_SETUP_TIMEOUT (milliseconds; default 5 min).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.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).doctor tool for a per-check diagnosis of what's missing../venv/ in the project directory.~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary.query to get current UUIDs.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.edited=true was requested but the photo has no edited version. Retry without that flag.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).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).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).-1743; run the first write from a normal GUI session once to grant it.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.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.apple-photos server fails to connect when run from a cloneclaude 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.pnpm run build first — the entrypoint ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/build/index.js won't exist until you compile../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.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.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
Rob Sweet - President, Superior Technologies Research
A software consulting, contracting, and development company.
MIT License - see LICENSE for details. This project is not affiliated with Apple Inc. or the osxphotos project.
Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or PR at github.com/sweetrb/apple-photos-mcp.
Part of a family of macOS MCP servers:
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.
FAQs
MCP server for Apple Photos - query, search, export, and inspect the macOS Photos library via Claude and other AI assistants, plus opt-in album/metadata write tools (read-only by default)
The npm package apple-photos-mcp receives a total of 154 weekly downloads. As such, apple-photos-mcp popularity was classified as not popular.
We found that apple-photos-mcp demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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