Screenpipe MCP Server

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7466a689-7703-4f0b-b3e1-b1cb9ed70cff

MCP server for screenpipe - search your screen recordings, audio transcriptions, and control your computer with AI.

Installation

Option 1: NPX (Recommended)

The easiest way to use screenpipe-mcp is with npx. Edit your Claude Desktop config:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %AppData%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "screenpipe": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "screenpipe-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Option 2: HTTP Server (Remote / Network Access)

The MCP server can run over HTTP using the Streamable HTTP transport, allowing remote MCP clients to connect over the network instead of stdio. This is ideal when your AI assistant (e.g., OpenClaw) runs on a different machine than screenpipe.

# loopback only (default)
npx screenpipe-mcp-http --port 3031

# expose to your LAN with bearer auth
npx screenpipe-mcp-http --listen-on-lan --api-key $(openssl rand -hex 16)

# or from source
npm run start:http -- --port 3031

The server exposes:

• MCP endpoint: http://localhost:3031/mcp — Streamable HTTP transport (POST for requests, GET for SSE stream)
• Health check: http://localhost:3031/health — always unauthenticated, for monitors

Options: | Flag | Description | Default | |------|-------------|---------| | --port | Port for the MCP HTTP server | 3031 | | --screenpipe-port | Port where screenpipe API is running | 3030 | | --listen-on-lan | Bind 0.0.0.0 so other devices on the LAN can connect. Requires --api-key. | off (binds 127.0.0.1) | | --api-key <secret> | Bearer token required for non-loopback requests (Authorization: Bearer <secret>). Loopback always allowed. | none |

Connecting a remote MCP client:

Point any MCP client that supports HTTP transport at the /mcp endpoint:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "screenpipe": {
      "url": "http://<your-ip>:3031/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <your-secret>"
      }
    }
  }
}

If your machines are on different networks, expose port 3031 via Tailscale, SSH tunnel, or similar — see the OpenClaw integration guide for detailed examples.

Note: The HTTP server currently exposes search_content only. The stdio server has the full tool set (export-video, list-meetings, activity-summary, search-elements, frame-context). We're working on bringing HTTP to full parity.

Option 3: From Source

Clone and build from source:

git clone https://github.com/screenpipe/screenpipe
cd screenpipe/packages/screenpipe-mcp
bun install
bun run build

Then configure Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "screenpipe": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/screenpipe-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Note: Restart Claude Desktop after making changes.

Testing

Test with MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx screenpipe-mcp

Transport Modes

| Mode | Command | Use Case | |------|---------|----------| | stdio (default) | npx screenpipe-mcp | Claude Desktop, local MCP clients | | HTTP | npx screenpipe-mcp-http | Remote clients, network access, OpenClaw on VPS |

Available Tools

search-content

Search through recorded content with content type filtering:

• all — OCR + Audio + Accessibility (default)
• ocr — Screen text from screenshots
• audio — Audio transcriptions
• input — User actions (clicks, keystrokes, clipboard, app switches)
• accessibility — Accessibility tree text
• Time range, app/window, and speaker filtering
• Pagination support

export-video

Export screen recordings as video files:

• Specify time range with start/end times
• Configurable FPS for output video

activity-summary

Get a lightweight compressed activity overview for a time range:

• App usage with active minutes and frame counts
• Recent accessibility texts
• Audio speaker summary

list-meetings

List detected meetings with duration, app, and attendees.

search-elements

Search structured UI elements (accessibility tree nodes and OCR text blocks):

• Filter by source, role, app, time range
• Much lighter than search-content for targeted UI lookups

frame-context

Get accessibility text, parsed tree nodes, and extracted URLs for a specific frame.

Example Queries in Claude

• "Search for any mentions of 'rust' in my screen recordings"
• "Find audio transcriptions from the last hour"
• "Show me what was on my screen in VSCode yesterday"
• "Export a video of my screen from 2-3pm today"
• "Find what John said in our meeting about the database"
• "What did I type in Slack today?" (uses content_type=input)
• "What did I copy to clipboard recently?" (uses content_type=input)
• "Show me accessibility text from Chrome" (uses content_type=accessibility)

Requirements

• screenpipe must be running on localhost:3030
• Node.js >= 18.0.0

Notes

• All timestamps are handled in UTC
• Results are formatted for readability in Claude's interface
• macOS automation features require accessibility permissions

Privacy Policy

The Screenpipe MCP server is a local-only bridge between Claude and your local Screenpipe instance. It does not collect, transmit, or store any data on its own.

What this MCP server does

When Claude invokes a tool (search-content, activity-summary, etc.) the MCP server forwards the request to http://localhost:3030 — the Screenpipe daemon running on your machine — and returns the response. That's the entire data path.

Data collection

None by this MCP server. No analytics, no telemetry, no usage tracking.

Data usage

Tool calls are passed straight through to your local Screenpipe daemon and the results stream back to Claude. The MCP server doesn't keep anything.

Data storage

Nothing is stored by the MCP server itself. Recordings, OCR text, audio transcripts, and UI events are stored by the Screenpipe app in a SQLite database under ~/.screenpipe/ on your device. Retention is whatever you configure inside the Screenpipe app — typically you control it via the storage settings panel.

Third-party sharing

None. The MCP server only talks to localhost:3030. It does not contact Anthropic, Screenpipe's servers, or any other external service. If you choose to enable optional cloud features inside the Screenpipe app itself (e.g. cloud sync, cloud AI), those are governed by the Screenpipe app's privacy policy, not this MCP server's data flow.

Retention

The MCP server has no persistent state. The data your Screenpipe app captures is retained according to your Screenpipe storage configuration and is deletable at any time (rm -rf ~/.screenpipe removes everything).

Source code

The Screenpipe MCP server is MIT-licensed and the entire source is public at https://github.com/screenpipe/screenpipe/tree/main/packages/screenpipe-mcp. Every line is auditable.

Contact

Questions or concerns: open an issue at https://github.com/screenpipe/screenpipe/issues or reach out via https://screenpi.pe.