prompt_user
Display a dialog prompt to get user input
LABSCO SUMMARY
The human-in-the-loop channel that agents running longer than your attention span are missing.
The value sits in the pair that closes a loop — the dialog makes an agent wait for a real answer instead of guessing, and the notification tells you it is waiting — while speech, screenshots and the file picker fill in the rest of the desk. All of it is local to one Mac, so this is a control channel for the machine you are sitting at, not a way to reach anybody else.
What it is
A macOS-only server built on osascript and screencapture, with five tools that give an agent notifications, speech, a blocking dialog, a file picker and screenshots.
What you get
- A macOS notification with title, subtitle, message and sound
- A dialog that waits for a person, with your own buttons, default answer and icon
- Text read aloud through macOS text-to-speech, at a chosen voice and rate
- A screenshot via screencapture, with format, output path, shadow, cursor and timestamp options
- The native file picker, filtered by file type, single or multiple selection
Requirements
A Mac: notifications, dialogs and speech go through osascript, and screenshots through screencapture.
Setup effort
One command — npm install -g apple-notifier-mcp
USE CASES
01
Getting a decision out of someone who has walked away
Post a notification, say it out loud if the screen is not being watched, then open a dialog that holds the run until a button is pressed — the agent waits for an answer instead of picking one.
02
Handing over a file only you know how to find
Open the native picker filtered to the file types that apply, and let the person navigate to it — the path comes back without anyone having to type or spell it.
03
Showing the agent what is actually on your screen
Take the capture with the cursor hidden and the window shadow suppressed when the image is going to be read rather than looked at, and write it to a path the agent can pick up.
5 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
select_file
Open native file picker dialog
send_notification
Send a notification on macOS using osascript
speak
Speak text using macOS text-to-speech
take_screenshot
Take a screenshot using macOS screencapture
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
5 tools when we connected. Tool names appear only in the example code: send_notification, prompt_user, speak, take_screenshot and select_file. All require macOS.
Requires
Node.js >= 18
Where it runs
Both documented clients run the server on your machine.
CONTEXT COST
Light Standing cost
Rated by the size of the 5 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
npm install -g apple-notifier-mcpMCP Clients
Claude Desktop, Cline
JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"apple-notifier": {
"command": "apple-notifier-mcp"
}
}
}
