MCP iCal Server

Overview

Transform how you interact with your macOS calendar using natural language! The mcp-ical server leverages the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to turn your calendar management into a conversational experience.

You: "What's my schedule for next week?"
Claude: "Let me check that for you..."
[Displays a clean overview of your upcoming week]

You: "Add a lunch meeting with Sarah tomorrow at noon"
Claude: "  Created: Lunch with Sarah Tomorrow, 12:00 PM"

Features

Event Creation

Transform natural language into calendar events instantly!

"Schedule a team lunch next Thursday at 1 PM at Bistro Garden"
↓
 Created: Team Lunch
    Thursday, 1:00 PM
    Bistro Garden

Supported Features

• Custom calendar selection
• Location and notes
• Smart reminders
• Recurring events

Power User Examples

 Recurring Events:
"Set up my weekly team sync every Monday at 9 AM with a 15-minute reminder"

 Detailed Events:
"Schedule a product review meeting tomorrow from 2-4 PM in the Engineering calendar, 
add notes about reviewing Q1 metrics, and remind me 1 hour before"

 Multi-Calendar Support:
"Add a dentist appointment to my Personal calendar for next Wednesday at 3 PM"

Smart Schedule Management & Availability

Quick access to your schedule with natural queries:

"What's on my calendar for next week?"
↓
 Shows your upcoming events with smart formatting

"When am I free to schedule a 2-hour meeting next Tuesday?"
↓
 Available time slots found:
   • Tuesday 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
   • Tuesday 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Intelligent Event Updates

Modify events naturally:

Before: "Move tomorrow's team meeting to 3 PM instead"
↓
After:  Meeting rescheduled to 3:00 PM

Update Capabilities

• Time and date modifications
• Calendar transfers
• Location updates
• Note additions
• Reminder adjustments
• Recurring pattern changes

Calendar Management

• View all available calendars
• Smart calendar suggestions
• Seamless Google Calendar integration when configured with iCloud

Pro Tip: Since you can create events in custom calendars, if you have your Google Calendar synced with your iCloud Calendar, you can use this MCP server to create events in your Google Calendar too! Just specify the Google calendar when creating/updating events.

Quick Start

Note: While these instructions focus on setting up the MCP server with Claude for Desktop, this server can be used with any MCP-compatible client. For more details on using different clients, see the MCP documentation.

Prerequisites

• uv package manager
• macOS with Calendar app configured
• An MCP client - Claude for desktop is recommended

Installation

Whilst this MCP server can be used with any MCP compatible client, the instructions below are for use with Claude for desktop.

1. Clone and Setup

   # Clone the repository
   git clone https://github.com/Omar-V2/mcp-ical.git
   cd mcp-ical
   
   # Install dependencies
   uv sync
   

2. Configure Claude for Desktop

   Create or edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

   {
       "mcpServers": {
           "mcp-ical": {
               "command": "uv",
               "args": [
                   "--directory",
                   "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/mcp-ical",
                   "run",
                   "mcp-ical"
               ]
           }
       }
   }
   

3. Launch Claude for Calendar Access

   Critical: Claude must be launched from the terminal to properly request calendar permissions. Launching directly from Finder will not trigger the permissions prompt.

   Run the following command in your terminal.

   /Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS/Claude
   

   Warning: Alternatively, you can manually grant calendar access, but this involves modifying system files and should only be done if you understand the risks involved.

4. Start Using!

   Try: "What's my schedule looking like for next week?"
   

Note: When you first use a calendar-related command, macOS will prompt for calendar access. This prompt will only appear if you launched Claude from the terminal as specified above.

Testing

Warning: Tests will create temporary calendars and events. While cleanup is automatic, only run tests in development environments.

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync --dev

# Run test suite
uv run pytest tests

Known Issues

Recurring Events

• Non-standard recurring schedules may not always be set correctly
• Better results with Claude 3.5 Sonnet compared to Haiku
• Reminder timing for recurring all-day events may be off by one day

Contributing

Feedback and contributions are welcome. Here’s how you can help:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Built with Model Context Protocol
• macOS Calendar integration built with PyObjC