MCP

AI apps such as Claude, Claude Code, Cursor and Codex can use Droppy through the Model Context Protocol, only with your permission.

MCP is the open standard AI apps use to reach the tools on your Mac. Droppy speaks it, so you can ask Claude to find something you copied or start a Pomodoro, and it happens in Droppy, inside the limits you set.

What AI apps can do

  • Search your clipboard history.
  • Find files on the file tray, in floating file trays, in Droppy Cloud, and among your recordings and screenshots.
  • Read your calendar, to-dos and notes, and add to them.
  • Start a timer, a Pomodoro or Stay Awake (High Alert).
  • Show an alert in the notch.
  • Play, pause and skip what is playing, and set the volume.
  • Read and change Droppy's settings.
  • Find Droplets in the Store, install them, and switch them on or off.
  • Convert and compress files with Transform.
  • Take screenshots and recognize the text in them.
  • Search and run Thunderstorm commands.

New Droppy features and the Droplets you install show up in the AI app on their own after an update. There is nothing to reconfigure.

Turn it on

Open Settings, MCP and turn on Allow AI apps to use Droppy. It is off until you do, and turning it off again disconnects every app at once.

Then pick what AI apps may do. Each permission is its own switch, and every one is off until you turn it on. An app only sees the tools that belong to the permissions you allowed.

Read clipboard historySearch what you copied, including pinned items.
Read files and screenshotsFind files on the shelf, in the basket and in your history.
Read calendar, to-dos and notesSee upcoming events, to-dos and notes.
Control timers, Pomodoro and Stay AwakeStart, pause and stop timers and focus sessions.
Show alerts in the notchShow a message in the notch.
Control media playbackPlay, pause and skip what is playing.
Change settingsRead and change Droppy's settings, never your license.
Browse and manage dropletsSearch the Store and turn droplets on or off.
Take screenshots and recognize textCapture your screen. Droppy asks every time.
Convert and compress filesConvert images, video, audio and documents.
Run Thunderstorm commandsRun launcher commands, quicklinks and snippets.
Create notes, to-dos and shelf itemsAdd notes, to-dos and files for you.
Delete and clear itemsRemove items. Droppy asks every time.

Delete and clear items never works on its own. Deleting clipboard items also needs Read clipboard history, and deleting a note also needs Read calendar, to-dos and notes.

Connect an app

The quickest way is the Connect button under Settings, MCP, Connect an app, for Claude, Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. Droppy names the file it is about to change and waits for you to confirm. It adds only its own entry, leaves your other servers alone, and keeps the old file next to it as a backup. Restart the app afterwards so it picks Droppy up.

Connect needs Droppy in your Applications folder, because the path it writes has to survive a restart. If Droppy is not running when an app needs it, the app starts it.

To set it up by hand, every app gets the same thing: the small helper inside Droppy, /Applications/Droppy.app/Contents/Helpers/droppy-mcp. If your copy of Droppy lives somewhere else, use its path instead.

Claude

Add this to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json, next to any servers already in it, then quit and reopen Claude.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "droppy": {
      "command": "/Applications/Droppy.app/Contents/Helpers/droppy-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Run this once in Terminal. --scope user makes Droppy available in every project.

claude mcp add --scope user droppy -- /Applications/Droppy.app/Contents/Helpers/droppy-mcp

Cursor

Add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then restart Cursor.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "droppy": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "/Applications/Droppy.app/Contents/Helpers/droppy-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Codex

Run this once in Terminal:

codex mcp add droppy -- /Applications/Droppy.app/Contents/Helpers/droppy-mcp

Or add the table yourself to ~/.codex/config.toml. It is what Connect writes, and its two timeouts give Codex time to start Droppy and give you time to answer Droppy's questions, so add them after codex mcp add too.

[mcp_servers.droppy]
command = "/Applications/Droppy.app/Contents/Helpers/droppy-mcp"
args = []
startup_timeout_sec = 30
tool_timeout_sec = 180

Any other app

Most MCP apps take this JSON. Copy config under Settings, MCP copies it with the path of your own copy of Droppy.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "droppy": {
      "command": "/Applications/Droppy.app/Contents/Helpers/droppy-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

You stay in control

  • You approve each app. The first time an app connects, Droppy asks whether to allow it. Until you do, all it can see is which permissions are on. If the app is a script runner such as Node or Python, Droppy says so: allowing it allows every script it runs.
  • Droppy asks before anything sensitive. Screenshots, recordings, reading a file's contents, uploads, installs, script commands and anything that deletes always ask in Droppy first, unless you choose Always allow for that app and that action. No answer within two minutes counts as no.
  • You see every call. Settings, MCP, Activity lists what each app did and how it went. It never records what was sent or what came back.
  • You can take it back. Revoke one app under Connected apps, or all of them with Revoke all. Anything you always allowed can be reset under Always allowed.

Never shared with any app: your license, your account, payment details, passwords and the Keychain, and clipboard items your password manager marked as concealed.

Nothing listens on the network. The AI app talks to Droppy through a private connection on your Mac, and Droppy recognizes the app by its code signature, not by the name it gives itself.

One thing to keep in mind: an AI app does what its model decides, and a model can be steered by a web page or a file it reads. Turn on only the permissions you use, and read Droppy's question before you press Allow.

Things to try

Ask in your own words. A few to start with:

  • “Find the tracking number I copied yesterday.”
  • “Start a 25 minute Pomodoro.”
  • “Keep my Mac awake for two hours.”
  • “What’s on my calendar tomorrow?”
  • “Convert the PNGs in my file tray to JPEG.”
  • “Search the Droplet Store for a weather droplet.”
  • “Turn off auto-hide for the floating file tray.”
  • “Tell me in the notch when the build is done.”

Troubleshooting

Turn on Allow AI apps to use Droppy under Settings, MCP, then restart the app or reconnect Droppy from its MCP settings. In Claude Code, that is /mcp.
Every tool belongs to a permission, and an app only sees the tools for the permissions you turned on. Turn the one you need on under Settings, MCP and its tools appear right away. If an app keeps showing the old list, reconnect it. Not sure what is on? Ask the app for Droppy's status.
The apps still point at the old path, and Settings says they are set up for another copy of Droppy. Press Connect again for each one under Settings, MCP, Connect an app, or change the path by hand.
You chose Don't allow when it first connected. Press Allow next to it and it can use Droppy again.
Droppy counts no answer within two minutes as no, and does not ask while your Mac is locked. Codex gives up after a minute on its own unless its config has tool_timeout_sec = 180, as shown above.

For Droplet developers

Droplets can offer tools of their own. A Droplet adopts MCPToolProviding from DroppyKit and its tools show up next to Droppy's, and every action it registers with DropletShortcutsService shows up too, with no extra work. See Tools for AI apps in the DroppyKit docs.