Apple Shortcuts MCP server

The Shortcuts MCP Server is a powerful tool that provides AI assistants with access to Apple Shortcuts functionality. Through the Model Context Protocol (MCP) interface, this server enables compatible applications like Cursor and Claude Desktop to list, view, and execute your shortcuts.

Prerequisites

• macOS 14.5 or later
• Xcode 16.x or later
• mise package manager

Installation

Installing mise

If you don't have mise installed, you can install it using Homebrew:

brew install mise

For more information about mise, visit the official documentation.

Quick Installation Options

You can install the Shortcuts MCP Server using one of these quick installation options:

• Install through Cursor using the Cursor MCP Install link
• Install through VS Code using the VS Code Install link

Manual Installation

To manually install the server, update your MCP configuration with the following server details:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shortcuts-mcp-server": {
      "command": "mise",
      "args": [
        "x",
        "ubi:artemnovichkov/shortcuts-mcp-server@latest",
        "--",
        "shortcuts-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Usage

After installation, you can interact with your shortcuts through your MCP-enabled AI assistant. Simply ask the AI to:

• Run a shortcut
• Show a list of your shortcuts
• View a shortcut in the Shortcuts app

Available Tools

Run a Shortcut

Execute a specific shortcut by name:

Tool: run
Parameters:
  - name: "My Shortcut" (required)

List Shortcuts

Get a list of all available shortcuts:

Tool: list
Parameters:
  - show-identifiers: true/false (optional)

View a Shortcut

Open a specific shortcut in the Shortcuts app:

Tool: view
Parameters:
  - name: "My Shortcut" (required)

Resources

The server provides a single resource:

• list: Returns a list of all your shortcuts

Prompts

The server supports the following prompt types:

Run Prompt

Prompt: run
Parameters:
  - name: "My Shortcut" (required)

List Prompt

Prompt: list
Parameters:
  - show-identifiers: true/false (optional)

View Prompt

Prompt: view
Parameters:
  - name: "My Shortcut" (required)

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "shortcuts-mcp-server" '{"command":"mise","args":["x","ubi:artemnovichkov/shortcuts-mcp-server@latest","--","shortcuts-mcp-server"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "shortcuts-mcp-server": {
            "command": "mise",
            "args": [
                "x",
                "ubi:artemnovichkov/shortcuts-mcp-server@latest",
                "--",
                "shortcuts-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "shortcuts-mcp-server": {
            "command": "mise",
            "args": [
                "x",
                "ubi:artemnovichkov/shortcuts-mcp-server@latest",
                "--",
                "shortcuts-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect