macOS App Launcher

A fast MCP server for opening, focusing, and quitting macOS apps — and opening links in your browser — by voice or from any MCP client.

Much faster than macos-mcp — uses open -a and osascript directly with no heavy runtime overhead.

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Demo

voiceos-open-app-demo.mov

Tools

Tool	What it does
open_app	Open an app by name or alias
focus_app	Bring a running app to the foreground
quit_app	Quit a running app gracefully
list_running_apps	List all currently open apps
set_volume	Set system volume 0–100
open_url	Open a URL in the default browser (adds https:// automatically)

Open URLs by voice

Say something like "open google.com" or "go to notion.so" and it opens in your default browser. It automatically adds https:// if you don't include it.

Built-in aliases

Say natural names — the server resolves them automatically:

You say	Opens
browser / chrome	Google Chrome
code / cursor	Cursor
messages / beeper	Beeper Desktop
vpn / protonvpn	ProtonVPN
terminal	Terminal

See APP_ALIASES in macos-app-launcher.ts for the full list.

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Requirements

• macOS
• Node.js 18+ — download from nodejs.org if needed

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Install

git clone https://github.com/gabeperez/macos-app-launcher.git
cd macos-app-launcher
npm install
chmod +x start.sh

⚠️ The chmod +x start.sh step is required. You'll get an EACCES error in VoiceOS if you skip it.

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Connect to VoiceOS

See the VoiceOS install guide for step-by-step setup, or add it manually:

Settings → Integrations → Custom Integrations → Add

Field	Value
Name	🚀 Launcher
Launch command	/absolute/path/to/macos-app-launcher/start.sh

For example: /Users/yourname/macos-app-launcher/start.sh

Then speak:

• "Open Chrome"
• "Launch Spotify"
• "Focus Slack"
• "Quit Discord"
• "Set volume to 40"
• "Open github.com"
• "Go to notion.so"
• "What apps are open?"

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Connect to Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "macos-app-launcher": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/macos-app-launcher/start.sh"
    }
  }
}

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Why faster than macos-mcp?

macos-mcp runs via bun with a full JS runtime init on every invocation. This server uses open -a (~50ms, native macOS) and osascript directly — no heavy dependencies, no startup delay.

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License

MIT