Apple Reminders for Claude

Fast, native Apple Reminders access for Claude — works in Claude Desktop, Claude Cowork, and Claude Code (CLI). One signed Swift/EventKit binary, three distribution packages.

No AppleScript, no unstable positional IDs, no 30-second MCP timeouts. Sub-second latency on databases with hundreds of reminders. Full UTF-8 support for German umlauts, accents, CJK characters, and emoji.

Published by high5 ventures GmbH — signed with Developer ID Application: high5 ventures GmbH and notarized by Apple.

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Description

Apple Reminders for Claude gives Claude full CRUD access to your macOS Reminders app. It wraps Apple's native EventKit framework in a signed Swift binary that returns stable UUIDs and structured JSON, and ships three ways:

Target	Artifact	Distribution
Claude Desktop / Cowork	.mcpb bundle	Anthropic Desktop Extensions Directory
Claude Code (CLI)	Plugin with skill	Claude Code Plugin Directory
Any MCP client	npm package	MCP Registry (io.github.high5-ventures/apple-reminders)

All three paths share the same Swift binary and the same MCP protocol surface, so behavior is identical everywhere.

Features

• 13 MCP tools covering the full reminder lifecycle: list lists, list reminders (open/completed/all), full-text search, today/overdue/scheduled smart queries, CRUD on individual reminders.
• Native EventKit — not AppleScript, not reverse-engineered SQLite scraping.
• Stable UUIDs — reminder IDs survive across sessions, unlike AppleScript URIs or CLI positional indexes.
• Tool safety annotations — every tool declares readOnlyHint / destructiveHint so Claude clients can auto-run queries but prompt for mutations.
• Language-neutral — the skill matches on intent, not keywords. Works identically in German, French, Spanish, Japanese, etc.
• Sub-second latency — full CRUD smoke-test completes in under 1 s on a database with 300+ reminders across 10 lists.
• Signed + notarized — no Gatekeeper warnings, MDM-deployable, enterprise-ready.
• 100% local — no network I/O. See PRIVACY.md.

Installation

Option 1 — Claude Desktop / Cowork (recommended for most users)

Install from the Anthropic Desktop Extensions Directory (in-app search) or download the latest signed .mcpb from Releases and double-click it. Claude Desktop shows an install dialog; click Install, then on the first tool call, grant Reminders access in the macOS privacy prompt.

Option 2 — Claude Code CLI

/plugin install apple-reminders@claude-plugins-official

…or add the high5 ventures marketplace directly from GitHub:

/plugin marketplace add high5-ventures/apple-reminders-for-claude
/plugin install apple-reminders@high5-apple-reminders-for-claude

Option 3 — Any MCP-compatible client (Cursor, Zed, etc.)

npm install -g @high5ventures/apple-reminders-mcp

Then point your client at @high5ventures/apple-reminders-mcp as a stdio MCP server. See your client's documentation for configuration specifics.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/high5-ventures/apple-reminders-for-claude.git
cd apple-reminders-for-claude
./build.sh

Produces dist/reminders-eventkit (binary), dist/skill/ (Claude Code skill), and dist/apple-reminders.mcpb (Claude Desktop bundle). Builds are unsigned; see CONTRIBUTING.md for the signed release workflow.

Requirements: macOS 11+, Xcode Command Line Tools, Node.js 18+.

Configuration

No configuration is required for normal use. The extension runs with these defaults:

Setting	Default	Notes
Reminders permission	prompted on first use	Revocable in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Reminders
Binary timeout (Node wrapper)	30 s	Hardcoded ceiling; well under any MCP client timeout
Response payload cap	16 MB	Plenty for databases with thousands of reminders

If you use the npm-distributed server with a non-standard MCP client, set REMINDERS_BINARY to the absolute path of the reminders-eventkit binary:

export REMINDERS_BINARY=/absolute/path/to/reminders-eventkit

The .mcpb and Plugin Directory installations set this variable automatically.

Usage examples

The skill loads automatically in Claude Code when you mention reminders. In Claude Desktop / Cowork, the tools appear under Apple Reminders. You talk to Claude naturally — these examples show what Claude does behind the scenes.

Example 1 — "What's on my plate today?"

You: Was habe ich heute zu tun?

Claude (invokes get_today):

{ "status": "ok", "data": { "reminders": [
  { "id": "A1B2…", "name": "Zahnarzt-Termin bestätigen", "list": "Persönlich", "due_date": "2026-04-14T10:00:00" },
  { "id": "C3D4…", "name": "Rechnung #2026-0412 prüfen", "list": "Arbeit", "due_date": "2026-04-14T14:00:00" }
] } }

Claude: Du hast heute zwei offene Erinnerungen: den Zahnarzt-Termin um 10:00 (Persönlich) und die Rechnungs-Prüfung um 14:00 (Arbeit).

Example 2 — "Add a reminder to the groceries list"

You: Remind me to buy oat milk tomorrow at 6pm.

Claude (invokes create_reminder):

{ "list": "Groceries", "title": "Buy oat milk", "dueDate": "2026-04-15T18:00:00" }

Response:

{ "status": "ok", "data": { "reminder": { "id": "E5F6…", "name": "Buy oat milk", "due_date": "2026-04-15T18:00:00" } } }

Claude: Done — added "Buy oat milk" to Groceries for tomorrow at 18:00.

Example 3 — "Clean up what's overdue"

You: Show me everything that's overdue, then mark the Slack-DM one as done.

Claude (invokes get_overdue):

{ "status": "ok", "data": { "reminders": [
  { "id": "G7H8…", "name": "Reply to Alex in Slack DM", "list": "Arbeit", "due_date": "2026-04-12T17:00:00" },
  { "id": "I9J0…", "name": "Review PR #482", "list": "Arbeit", "due_date": "2026-04-13T12:00:00" }
] } }

Claude (invokes complete_reminder with id: "G7H8…"):

{ "status": "ok", "data": { "reminder": { "id": "G7H8…", "completed": true, "completion_date": "2026-04-14T18:22:01" } } }

Claude: Two overdue items: Slack reply (now marked done) and PR #482 review (still open).

MCP tools

All 13 tools return a stable JSON envelope — { "status": "ok", "data": ... } on success, { "status": "error", "code": "...", "message": "..." } on failure.

Tool	Annotation	Purpose
get_lists	read-only	List all reminder lists with open/completed counts
get_list_info	read-only	Metadata for one list by name
list_reminders	read-only	List reminders in a list (open/completed/all)
search_reminders	read-only	Full-text search across all lists
get_today	read-only	Reminders due today
get_overdue	read-only	Overdue open reminders
get_scheduled	read-only	All open reminders with a due date
get_reminder	read-only	Fetch one reminder by ID
create_reminder	additive	Create a new reminder
update_reminder	destructive, idempotent	Update an existing reminder
complete_reminder	destructive, idempotent	Mark as completed
uncomplete_reminder	destructive, idempotent	Unmark completed
delete_reminder	destructive, idempotent	Permanently delete

"Destructive" here follows the MCP specification: it means the operation mutates existing state irreversibly from the user's point of view. Claude clients use these hints to decide when to prompt for confirmation.

Privacy policy

This extension is 100% local at runtime — no data leaves your Mac via this extension. high5 ventures GmbH operates no server and collects no telemetry. The only network activity is the one-time download of the signed Swift binary from GitHub Releases during install (verified by Apple Developer ID signature, refuses to install on mismatch).

Read the full policy: PRIVACY.md.

Troubleshooting

"Reminders access denied" — open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Reminders and enable access for Claude Desktop (or your MCP client). Then retry.

Binary quarantined on first launch — our releases are signed and notarized, so this should not happen. If it does, verify the signature:

codesign --verify --verbose /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Resources/mcpb/apple-reminders/bin/reminders-eventkit
spctl --assess --type execute /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/Resources/mcpb/apple-reminders/bin/reminders-eventkit

If either fails, you may have downloaded a tampered copy — re-download from the official Releases page.

"List not found" or "Multiple lists with that name" — reminder lists are matched by exact name. Use get_lists first to see available names. For duplicates, the error response includes a candidates array with stable calendar_identifiers; re-call with id:<calendar_identifier> as the list argument.

Flagged reminders return empty — EventKit does not expose the flagged attribute. The Claude Code skill ships an AppleScript fallback (skills/apple-reminders/scripts/get_flagged.applescript) for users who need this query. The .mcpb bundle does not include this fallback because Claude Desktop does not have shell access.

Still stuck? Open an issue → Support.

Support

• Bug reports & feature requests: https://github.com/high5-ventures/apple-reminders-for-claude/issues
• Security vulnerabilities: info@h5ventures.de — see SECURITY.md
• General contact: info@h5ventures.de

Architecture

Claude Desktop / Cowork           Claude Code CLI                Any MCP client (Cursor, Zed, …)
        │                                │                                   │
        │  (stdio MCP)                   │  (Bash via plugin)                │  (stdio MCP)
        ▼                                ▼                                   ▼
    Node wrapper                 reminders-eventkit                    Node wrapper
   (server/index.js)            (Swift binary, direct)               (npm @high5ventures/…)
        │                                │                                   │
        ▼                                │                                   ▼
 reminders-eventkit                      │                          reminders-eventkit
(same Swift binary)                      │                        (downloaded on install)
        │                                │                                   │
        └────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘
                                         │
                                         ▼
                            Apple EventKit framework
                                         │
                                         ▼
                            macOS Reminders database

One Swift source → one binary → three distribution paths. See CONTRIBUTING.md for build internals.

License

Copyright © 2026 high5 ventures GmbH. Released under the MIT License — see LICENSE.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. or Anthropic PBC.

"Apple" and "Reminders" are trademarks of Apple Inc. "Claude" is a trademark of Anthropic PBC.