imessage-mcp

Search and read your Messages history from Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, and any other MCP client.

Read-only. Runs on your Mac. No accounts, no cloud service, nothing to compile.

• Finds messages by words, exact text, or phrase across iMessage, SMS, MMS, and RCS
• Reads whole conversations with edits, unsent messages, reactions, replies, and read receipts
• Shows photos people sent you, with location data removed
• Keeps up with new messages through a change feed, and answers counts and response-time questions

Install

Requirements: macOS 14 or newer. Node.js 24.16 or newer for npx installs (Claude Desktop brings its own). Use Node 24 LTS for encrypted cache support. Runtimes without SQLite checkpoint APIs, including Node 25, search in memory and rebuild after a restart; doctor reports this.

Standard config, for any client that reads mcpServers JSON:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "imessage": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "imessage-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Then give the app that runs it Full Disk Access: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access, turn on the app (Claude, your terminal, Cursor, VS Code, …), then quit it fully and reopen it. Not sure which app? Run npx -y imessage-mcp@latest doctor from that app’s terminal and it tells you. Until access is granted, every tool answers with these same steps.