mcp-omnifocus

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for interacting with OmniFocus Pro, enabling AI assistants to read and manage your OmniFocus projects and tasks through the OmniFocus automation API.

Features

• Read Operations

  • List all projects with their status and metadata
  • List tasks (all tasks or filtered by project)
  • List all tags

• Write Operations

  • Create new tasks (in inbox or specific projects)
  • Create new projects
  • Update existing tasks (name, note, status, due date, etc.)
  • Complete tasks
  • Add tags to tasks and projects

• Performance

  • Built-in caching layer to speed up repeated queries
  • Configurable cache TTL (default: 30 seconds)
  • Automatic cache invalidation on write operations

Requirements

• macOS (OmniFocus is macOS/iOS only)
• OmniFocus Pro installed and accessible
• Go 1.21 or later
• System permissions for automation (macOS will prompt on first use)

Installation

Option 1: Download Pre-built Binary (Recommended)

1. Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page
2. Extract the archive:

   tar -xzf mcp-omnifocus_*_darwin_*.tar.gz

3. Move the binary to your desired location:

   mkdir -p ~/mcp-servers/omnifocus
   mv mcp-omnifocus ~/mcp-servers/omnifocus/
   mv scripts ~/mcp-servers/omnifocus/

Option 2: Build from Source

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/conall/mcp-omnifocus.git
   cd mcp-omnifocus

2. Install dependencies:

   make deps

3. Build the server:

   make build

   This creates the binary at bin/mcp-omnifocus

Configuration

To use this MCP server with Claude Desktop or other MCP clients, add it to your configuration file:

Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop config file (usually at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

If you downloaded the pre-built binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "omnifocus": {
      "command": "/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/mcp-servers/omnifocus/mcp-omnifocus",
      "args": ["-scripts", "/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/mcp-servers/omnifocus/scripts"]
    }
  }
}

If you built from source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "omnifocus": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/mcp-omnifocus/bin/mcp-omnifocus",
      "args": ["-scripts", "/absolute/path/to/mcp-omnifocus/scripts"]
    }
  }
}

Replace the paths with the actual locations where you installed or built the binary and scripts.

Note: The -scripts argument is optional. If not provided, the server will attempt to auto-detect the scripts directory. However, explicitly specifying the path is recommended for reliability.

Configuration Options

The server supports the following command-line flags:

• -scripts <path>: Path to the JXA scripts directory (optional, auto-detected if not specified)
• -cache-ttl <seconds>: Cache TTL in seconds (default: 30, set to 0 to disable caching)

Example with custom cache TTL:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "omnifocus": {
      "command": "/path/to/mcp-omnifocus",
      "args": ["-scripts", "/path/to/scripts", "-cache-ttl", "60"]
    }
  }
}

You can also set the cache TTL via environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "omnifocus": {
      "command": "/path/to/mcp-omnifocus",
      "args": ["-scripts", "/path/to/scripts"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_OMNIFOCUS_CACHE_TTL": "60"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Read Tools

• list_projects: List all projects in OmniFocus

  • Optional filter parameter for project status (active, on-hold, completed, dropped)

• list_tasks: List tasks in OmniFocus

  • Optional project_id parameter to filter tasks by project

• list_tags: List all tags in OmniFocus

Write Tools

• create_task: Create a new task

  • Required: name
  • Optional: note, project_id, due_date, flagged, estimated_minutes, tags

• create_project: Create a new project

  • Required: name
  • Optional: note, status, tags

• update_task: Update an existing task

  • Required: id
  • Optional: name, note, completed, flagged, due_date, estimated_minutes

• complete_task: Mark a task as complete

  • Required: id

Architecture

The server is built in Go and uses:

• JXA (JavaScript for Automation) to interact with OmniFocus's automation API
• mcp-go SDK for implementing the MCP protocol
• stdio transport for communication with MCP clients
• In-memory caching with TTL to improve performance and reduce OmniFocus API calls

Caching Behavior

The caching layer improves performance by storing results from read operations:

• Cached operations: list_projects, list_tasks, list_tags
• Cache keys: Separate keys for different query types (e.g., all tasks vs. project-specific tasks)
• Default TTL: 30 seconds (configurable)
• Automatic invalidation: Write operations automatically invalidate affected caches
  • Creating a task invalidates task caches (and project caches if added to a project)
  • Creating a project invalidates project caches
  • Updating/completing a task invalidates both task and project caches
• Memory management: Expired entries are automatically cleaned up every minute
• Disable caching: Set cache TTL to 0 to disable caching entirely

Project Structure

.
├── cmd/mcp-omnifocus/     # Main server executable
├── internal/omnifocus/     # OmniFocus client library
│   ├── client.go          # Go wrapper for JXA scripts
│   └── types.go           # Data structures
├── scripts/               # JXA scripts for OmniFocus automation
│   ├── list_projects.jxa
│   ├── list_tasks.jxa
│   ├── create_task.jxa
│   └── ...
└── Makefile              # Build configuration

Development

Building

make build

Running for testing

make run

Clean build artifacts

make clean

macOS Permissions

On first use, macOS will prompt you to grant automation permissions to:

• osascript (to run the JXA scripts)
• Access to OmniFocus

These permissions are required for the server to function.

License

See LICENSE file for details.