macOS Defaults
Provides programmatic access to macOS system preferences and settings through the defaults command line interface.
Enables interaction with macOS system preferences via the 'defaults' command for querying and modifying configurations.
What it does
- Read macOS system preferences and app settings
- Modify macOS configuration values
- List all available preference domains
- Search for specific settings by keyword
Best for
About macOS Defaults
macOS Defaults is a community-built MCP server published by g0t4 that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Interact with macOS system preferences using the macOS Defaults server to easily query and modify configurations via the It is categorized under developer tools. This server exposes 4 tools that AI clients can invoke during conversations and coding sessions.
How to install
You can install macOS Defaults in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.
License
macOS Defaults is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.
Tools (4)
List all available macOS domains, same as `defaults domains`
Find entries container given word
use the `defaults read <domain> <key>` command
use the `defaults write <domain> <key> <value>` command
mcp-server-macos-defaults MCP server
MCP server for reading/writing macOS defaults (settings)
Components
Tools
list-domains:- equivalent to running
defaults domains
- equivalent to running
find:- equivalent to running
defaults find <word>
- equivalent to running
defaults-read:- equivalent to running
defaults read <domain> <key> - if
keyis not provided, the entire domain is read
- equivalent to running
defaults-write:- equivalent to running
defaults write <domain> <key> <value>
- equivalent to running
Quickstart
Install
Claude Desktop
On MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Development/Unpublished Servers Configuration
``` "mcpServers": { "mcp-server-macos-defaults": { "command": "uv", "args": [ "--directory", "/path/to/mcp-server-macos-defaults", "run", "mcp-server-macos-defaults" ] } } ```Published Servers Configuration
``` "mcpServers": { "mcp-server-macos-defaults": { "command": "uvx", "args": [ "mcp-server-macos-defaults" ] } } ```Development
Building and Publishing
To prepare the package for distribution:
- Sync dependencies and update lockfile:
uv sync
- Build package distributions:
uv build
This will create source and wheel distributions in the dist/ directory.
- Publish to PyPI:
uv publish
Note: You'll need to set PyPI credentials via environment variables or command flags:
- Token:
--tokenorUV_PUBLISH_TOKEN - Or username/password:
--username/UV_PUBLISH_USERNAMEand--password/UV_PUBLISH_PASSWORD
Debugging
Since MCP servers run over stdio, debugging can be challenging. For the best debugging experience, we strongly recommend using the MCP Inspector.
You can launch the MCP Inspector via npm with this command:
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /path/to/mcp-server-macos-defaults run mcp-server-macos-defaults
Upon launching, the Inspector will display a URL that you can access in your browser to begin debugging.
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